subject: Joint Ventures And 3 Mistakes You Must Avoid In Buidling Deals [print this page] Joint Venturing (the Real Deal, for the Real World)
What follows is an excerpt from the 45-page e-book I compiled on successfully building joint venture deals. You can grab a copy of the complete book at: maverick joint ventures dotcom (all run together, as a web address).
Over the past few years we've seen a lot of hype about joint ventures. The gurus selling courses on the subject have been telling us how easy they are to put together, and implying that it's just a matter of walking in with a good idea, and the money will pour into your bank account.
That's not really accurate, though, is it?
Fact is, too often the advice we're given falls short. They tell us, in effect, "Go forth and joint venture!" but neglect to really explain how to do that ... with real people ... in the real world.
And too often the ideas they suggest we pitch are more appropriate to consultative marketing (or venture marketing) ... where you're offering to orchestrate and roll out new marketing approaches for them in return for a piece of the profits you help create -- which is all fine and everything (and potentially a good gig, certainly when you're starting out), but what they leave out is how to choose the right situations to go in with the consultative marketing angle, and which situations are going to only end up costing you a whole lot of time and grief, with no reward in sight.
In a nutshell (let's just get to the nitty-gritty here), what you really want to do is target the RIGHT deals, identify the RIGHT opportunities, talk to the RIGHT prospects ... and orchestrate it all so that things actually move forward -- ideally without your constant involvement -- and you get PAID.
And while you can do this through consultative/venture-marketing (and I'll talk more about this below), your goal really needs to be something grander than that. Ultimately, you don't want to be a hired-gun marketing guy. That's too much work. What you want to be is the guy who puts the deal together that makes massive profits possible in a very short period of time, and gets you paid for months and years to come.
You want to engineer that deal.
You want to put something in place that leverages the assets and efforts of the companies you're bringing together, that ensures they'll take action on making it happen, and promises you a substantial ongoing commission check for having been the one to make it all happen.
That's a real joint venture.
And that's what we're going to be talking about here.
Too often what people are talking about when they say they're talking about joint-venturing really comes down to something else entirely. I've heard so-called JV "gurus" talk about joint ventures ... when they were really just talking about affiliate marketing. I've heard them talk about joint ventures ... when they were really talking about creating your own information products and trying to market them online. I've heard them talk about joint ventures ... when they were really talking about helping someone start up a new website, or launch some new marketing scheme, or try to get someone's product added to a catalog.
The way I see it, none of that qualifies as a TRUE JOINT VENTURE. True joint ventures constitute match-making between Company A and Company B, with a creative spin in there to make it especially attractive to the market.
Those are the three components necessary for the kind of deals I'm talking about putting together.
* Company A -- with a product (and maybe a market),
* Company B -- with the market (and maybe a product),
* The Creative Twist.
But in learning to put deals like that together, you need to go into it aware of the common mistakes and pitfalls you're going to need to avoid. If you can side-step these, early on, your path toward building successful joint ventures will be radically accelerated.
So let's talk about ...
The 4 Most Common Mistakes When Beginning to Build Joint Ventures:
1.) Dwelling too much on theory. The key is simply this: DOING IT. Learn the ropes working actual deals.
2.) Allowing yourself to be intimidated, allowing self-doubt, uncertainty, or fear of failure or embarrassment to hold you back.
3.) Going after deals that are too big too soon. You have to start small, learn the ropes, develop your self-concept. You have to learn this stuff through practicing it. Start small and work your way up to larger and more sophisticated deals. You do it again and again "until you become subconsciously proficient," until making things happen is simply second nature. It's not enough to understand intellectually; you must develop a sense of how it all works transactionally. You have to achieve proficiency.
4.) Mistaking consultative marketing (or venture marketing) opportunities for joint ventures. They're entirely different. In consultative marketing, you are bringing some new marketing idea to the table, with the hope that, if it works, you'll earn some money from it. But in reality, that's just a job. And you don't want a job. Instead, you want to be building actual joint ventures, orchestrating deals between two or more companies, giving it a CREATIVE TWIST of some kind, and setting up something that will work without you being there, generating residual income for years to come. That's a real joint venture. And that's what you should be learning to put together.
Those are the main ones to get your head around. But here are some others to be sure to think through and arm yourself against ...
Other Common Mistakes When Learning to Put Together Joint Ventures:
1.) Arranging joint ventures with the wrong people. These might be people who are simply too close to offering the same sort of product or who have a market, but maybe it's not the right market. They might be people with insufficient margin or scaleability for it to create suitable profits. They might just be jerks, or crooks, or losers.
2.) Quitting. You have to PERSIST even when your early deals fall apart or go wrong. You just have to keep doing it. You just have to believe that in time you will learn this and become proficient at it.
3.) Failing to dissect your "failures" and learn from them. You need to go at each deal forensically, really pick it apart and see what worked and what didn't and what could have been better leveraged or approached in a better way. And dissect your wins too! What were the key elements? Where could they be improved?
4.) Giving up too quickly when trying to put a deal together. Most serious sales take 9 to 11 progressive communications to land. You can't take "No" for "No." A joint venture is an intangible high-ticket sale, and you have to expect it to take more than one conversation, phone call, or letter. Always remember: it's a process, not a one-shot deal. Work the process and refine your approach as you gain proficiency.
5.) Neglecting to look for Naturally Existing Economic Relationships you can tap into with the greatest likelihood of success.
6.) Not knowing how to communicate. You can't put this together while hiding behind the internet or emails. Either you need to get in there and sell it, or you need to joint venture with someone who can sell it for you.
7.) Not knowing how to make it all work. Again, this comes from practice and acquired proficiency. You need to learn how everything actually works. How to execute. And it could also be that you simply need to find others you can joint venture with who are interested in (and skillful at) managing the deals you are setting up.
8.) Not taking the time in advance to overcome their possible objections and resistances. Most prospects have the same general fears or concerns. You need to address these and remove their obstacles to doing business with you.
And finally, let's grab another short excerpt from my e - book, and look at ...
Five Key Factors in Successfully Getting Started in Building Joint Ventures:
1. Start with easy (no-brainer) deals and smaller companies. And remember: you're not promising anything.
2. Set a goal to start putting together a deal a day or one or two a week.
3. Target about $500 to $1000 per month per deal. (Meaning, on a 25% split, you want to be able to create new profits to the tune of two to four grand a month for the companies you are working with. Normally you will come in on one side or the other, but it's not impossible to get a piece from each side.)
4. Avoid putting your own money in if you can, and avoid tying yourself to the actual running of it long-term. Ideally, bring in someone else to actually do the work, either for a fee or for a piece of your cut.
5. Come up with some simple controls so as to put the prospect at ease and show that they're taking no risk, that what you're bringing to the table is found money.
If you would like to grab a complete copy of my 45-page book on building real-world joint ventures, you can grab a copy of the complete book at: maverick joint ventures dotcom (all run together, as a web address).
Get out there and build some deals and make things happen!
