The Customer Connection: How to Get It

The primary purpose of a joint venture is to build your customer base by exposing your company to a wider range of targeted potential customers. However, the bulk of a company’s profits come from repeat business, which means connecting with your customers in a way that keeps them coming back for more. We have a few ideas on how to make and keep a customer connection that keeps on giving to your bottom line.

Communication is Key

If you truly want to connect with your current customers, the first step is to talk to them regularly. Greet them by name when they walk into your business and ask how they are doing. Learn the names of their children, pets or favorite sports teams. Ask what they think about your business and what they would change if they could. These regular exchanges don’t have to take a lot of time and effort, but they can make the world of difference in how often a customer chooses your company for his business.

Listen to Them

Customers will provide plenty of feedback about the quality of your business, and all you have to do is listen to what they have to say. However, active listening is a skill that is cultivated through use and practice. Active listening involves tuning into your customer’s words and repeating their meaning back to ensure there are no misunderstandings.

During the active listening process, you should be able to identify any potential needs your customer might have and provide effective solutions to those needs to enhance your customer’s satisfaction with your business.

Provide Incentives

Everyone likes to be appreciated, and your customers are no exception. Show them what their business means to you by scheduling periodic customer appreciation events. It might be coffee and donuts or a complete meal. You might also do a frequent customer mailing that includes special discounts only available to current clients or provide a special sale open only to those special people. If your cash is limited, get creative in your appreciation offerings, such as a special express line for current customers or a customer card that offers a discount after so many visits to your establishment.

Solicit Feedback

Some companies use customer surveys, while others take a less formal approach and simply ask customers what they like and don’t like about your business. You can have staff do follow-up calls after working with customers or send a mailing asking for customer feedback. To ensure you get a good response from your request, provide a small incentive with the survey, such as a discount on the next visit after the survey is returned. You might be surprised at how much you can learn about your company by simply asking the people who patronize it most.

Customer connections are the most effective way to build a loyal customer base and a healthy bottom line. By taking the time to forge professional relationships with the people who patronize your business most, you are more likely to keep those customers satisfied and coming back for more.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Beginning a Joint Venture with Limited Capital

A business needs exposure to grow, particularly if it is a small business just starting out in the industry. However, these small companies also tend to have limited advertising budgets, making it challenging to get their names out to the general public. Many business owners have turned to joint ventures to stretch their advertising dollars, but you may be unsure of how this approach can help, given your tight budget and recent foray into the field. We have tips to help you begin a successful joint venture, no matter how limiting your current financial situation might be.

Building a Business Brand

The first step in a successful marketing campaign is to build a familiar business branding that customers can easily identify. Joint ventures make this process much simpler by allowing newer businesses to piggyback on the names and reputations of more established companies. If customers are loyal to one brand, they will be more likely to purchase a brand associated with the original business.

You don’t need much initial capital to partner with bigger businesses; simply research the needs of the business you are interested in and find out what your company could bring to the table to make the joint venture partnership complete.

Pooling Resources

The best feature of online marketing is that it doesn’t cost a small fortune to use many of the effective tools at your disposable. The cost of Internet marketing can also be cut exponentially by pooling resources with other companies involved in your joint venture.

While one partner can effectively split the cost of marketing with your business, those with truly limited advertising dollars can sign on with more than one JV partner to reduce marketing costs even further. This approach offers the biggest bang for your advertising dollar by granting you maximum exposure to potential customers with little up-front costs involved.

Finding Cheap Tools

Online marketing offers a virtual plethora of advertising options, which range in cost from very pricey consultants to free tools you can easily learn to use on your own. Social marketing outlets like Facebook and LinkedIn are excellent options for expanding your company exposure with little or no cost to your business. Creating a blog also doesn’t cost much money, but can be a good way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and market your company to potential customers.

You might also find that your JV partners have experience with particular advertising tools and are prepared to share their knowledge with you, especially if you can return the favor with expertise of your own in a different area.

Joint ventures are an effective marketing method, whether you have a little or a lot of capital to bring to the table. Research potential partners before you approach them to find out how your knowledge or resources could complement their own business offerings. Learn to use online marketing tools cheaply and effectively to enhance your public exposure. With a few handpicked JV partners at your side, your online marketing efforts are sure to bring a good value for your initial advertising investment.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Low-Cost, High-Impact Joint Venture Marketing

You may have heard the term “joint ventures” before, since this marketing method has quickly gained steam among larger companies and small business owners alike. However, you may not be sure what joint ventures are or how they would benefit your business. This article will take a look at the low-cost, high-impact nature of joint venture marketing that makes it an effective option for nearly any business today.

Expense, Exposure and Profits

Many small business owners make the mistake of thinking that the more often they can get their business name into the public eye, the more sales they will make. They spare no expense to provide their business with exposure, although high advertising costs can often put a business into financial trouble.

While exposure is an important component of marketing, it is not the only tool available. The right kind of exposure will ensure your profits increase, and this means encouraging customer confidence at the same time you are familiarizing them with your name. Joint venture marketing is tailored to building customer confidence at the same time it increases exposure by linking your business to another company the customer already knows and likes.

Multiple Marketing Channels

Customers gather their information from many different venues today, so the more venues you can use effectively, the better results your advertising efforts will reap. However, advertising in a variety of venues can be a costly endeavor – often more costly than many small businesses can afford.

The best solution is to partner with another business to share the cost of advertising so you can reach more customers in a variety of venues for less money overall. You can work together to produce website content, share back links and invest in tools like autoresponders to produce the best results for the least amount of money. Joint ventures allow you to stretch your advertising dollars so you get the biggest bang for your marketing buck.

Targeting Your Advertising

Your newspaper advertisement or website links might be seen by hundreds of individuals a day, but only a small fraction of those people might be legitimate potential customers. Advertising agencies understand that it’s not just about maximum exposure; it is more about getting your business name out to the people who are most likely to buy from you.

Joint ventures are perfect for this effort because related businesses with a similar client base usually work together for maximum impact. This means that the customers that head to your JV partner will be more likely to buy from you as well. You get targeted advertising without spending the big bucks for professional market research.

Joint ventures offer low-cost marketing options that reap high-impact results. By partnering with related businesses to share advertising costs, you attract a targeted market base for a lot less money. The ability to build customer confidence quickly through your JV partner means bigger sales and healthier profits with minimum advertising investment involved. It is no wonder that so many businesses of all sizes are turning to joint ventures to boost their bottom lines today.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free report on Joint Venture Marketing.

Are You Giving An Inspired Performance in Your Joint Venture?

We all want to perform better. Our jobs, our personal life, our marriages – all this and more require our full attention and focus in order to be successful.

With so many areas of our life pulling at our focus, how can we maintain a consistent and outstanding effort with a joint venture? Doesn’t your JV require your full effort as well? However, sometimes we lose sight and forget why we formed a JV in the first place: to make money and be more successful in business.

Evaluate Your Feelings

You can improve your JV efforts. If you have felt any of the following in regard to your JV, then you are not realizing your full potential, or are unaware of the full potential you can give to making your JV a success:

• Over stressed

• Health challenges

• Feeling of futility

• Imbalanced

• Isolated

Here are three simple things you can do to leveraging your highest effort and give an inspired performance in your JV.

Create a Compelling Vision

What was the reason you formed your joint venture? To make more money? To gain additional business contacts? To tap into an underdeveloped market segment? You need to go back and look at your JV documents and business plan. What is the purpose? If you just review your vision, you can get back to the place that made it exciting.

Don’t have a vision written down? Now’s the time to do so or improve on what you already have. A vision needs to be compelling. “Make more money” is not a compelling vision. “Earn six figures in the next fiscal year with a global marketing effort” is more like it. Make sure your JV vision is compelling enough that it gets you excited every day.

Tackle Challenging Situations

One thing that can really get you down is dealing with tough situations. However, haven’t you felt great and gained a sense of accomplishment when you last tackled and overcame a challenge?

Don’t let tough situations get the best of you. You can feel inspired when you succeed. Approach challenging situations with a goal to tackle one small thing at a time. Break it down into smaller steps. Then check off one step at a time and soon you realize the overwhelming situation is manageable. And always remember to give yourself a pat on the back with a small reward when you complete a challenge.

Tap into Your Creative Abilities

Nothing gives a more inspired performance than when you are creative and productive.  Practice brainstorming more often. Lay out multiple scenarios and solutions to a problem. Give yourself permission to come up with seemingly crazy ideas. That is where you find yourself thinking outside the proverbial box – when you allow yourself to think of innovative and creative solutions outside the norm.

Sometimes you just need to breathe life back into your JV performance. Don’t let yourself get a stale attitude toward your joint venture. Remember what you’re working for. Get that sense of accomplishment. And allow yourself to be creative. You and your JV partner will be thankful for it.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

Give Your Joint Venture Customers A Reason To Buy

Have you formed a joint venture and experienced less-than-stellar sales compared to your expectations? Usually two or more entrepreneurs or business owners partner up to form a JV with the full intention of making more profit. However, the problem may be in the marketing of your JV product or service. Simply putting a product on the market doesn’t necessarily convince a potential buyer to make a purchase. That’s why you need to use marketing psychology to give your potential customers a reason to choose your product.

Triggering Psychology for Sales

Picture this situation: I recently was at the grocery store standing before an aisle full of different brands of green beans. There must have been 10 or more options, all with different price and packaging. As I stood there scratching my head trying to determine which can would have the best tasting green beans, I found one brand with a simple marketing line: “Picked fresh from local farmers and canned the same day for freshness”.  I remember picking greens beans fresh from my grandma’s garden when I was a kid and enjoying a tasty meal that same evening. I chose that brand because I wanted the same kind of freshness, despite the fact it cost 20% more than the basic generic brand.

This example illustrates why your JV product must differentiate itself from the competition. Consumers are indecisive. Help guide their choice by giving them a reason to buy your JV product. It doesn’t even have to be a proverbial grocery list of reasons. But simply highlighting a few simple benefits can help solidify a consumer’s decision.

Reasons Your Customers Buy

Here is a small list that is by no means complete regarding why your customers buy.

• Price – Some people will always base a decision on price. However, that doesn’t mean your product has to be the cheapest. You could promote that your product costs less than the leading competitor. Or you could charge a premium, but give a good reason why your JV product is worth it.

• Quality – Consumers like quality. Be sure that your product is manufactured or produced using quality and durable materials. Or if you offer a service, make it the best quality service and be sure to explain why it’s better than the other company.

• Innovation – Something new always attracts customers. Highlight how your JV product is innovative and can solve their problems better than standard products seen on the market today.

• Warranty/Guaranty – People also like to know that you will stand behind what you sell. Offering a warranty on a product or guarantying satisfaction can provide them with the impetus needed to buy your product.

Make sure your JV product or service stands out from the crowd. If you want to see your profits expand, then take the time to provide the reasons why customers should buy your product.

Christian Fea is CEO of Synertegic, Inc. A Joint Venture Marketing firm. He exemplifies how to profit from Joint Venture relationships by creating profit centers with minimal risk and maximum profitability.

To discover more Joint Venture Marketing Strategies join his free Joint Venture Marketing Wealth Report.

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