Lessons from History

What a Seventeenth Century Frenchman Can Teach Us About Business

Hello again

Isn't it odd how one thing leads to another? Or, how something totally unrelated can give you insight into a problem that was already on your mind - producing a solution from a direction you never expected?

While it's great to find a solution in an unlikely place, it's also good to have something confirmed by an unlikely source. Even from seventeenth century France.

One of the best ways to quickly build a business is through arranging joint ventures with people who have the ingredient you currently lack. That might be a product that you can sell to your list or to a market you have access to, or it can be the market for a product you already have.

But why should anyone help you?

Well, by and large, successful people are incredibly generous if you ask for help. But there is a limit, not least to their time, so they can't possibly help everyone who asks. And they are in business, and the first thing a business person asks, when they have their business hat on, is 'What's in it for me?' In fact, that's the first thing your customers ask, as well, so selling a joint venture proposition to a potential partner is very similar to selling a product to a customer.

That Frenchman, Jean de La Bruyere (1645-1696) had this to say:

'The shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yours.'

Promoting their interests, in our case, means helping to build their business and their fortune. (For the general public, their interests may be something other than business or finance, like relieving their pain, for example.) But now your 'market' is much smaller, so you need your success rate to be much higher. Which means you have to be very clear exactly what's in it for them and make sure it's something very good!

For most new businesses, finding customers is the major issue. For an online marketer, those customers are probably already in someone's list. Your job, then, is to persuade the list owner that it's in their interests to promote your product.

Not just that it's a great product.

Not just that you're a great person.

Not just that you need the money!

But, that it's in their interests. More than that, they'll want to see some evidence that the product sells well and easily, has few returns and will enhance their reputation if they promote it. They may not have time to evaluate the product for themselves, or to create the sales copy.

So, if you have a product you'd like to promote through one or more joint ventures, you need to be able to show them results from your marketing efforts.

You'll need a sales page that converts visitors into customers - before you approach potential partners. Test this by driving traffic to it using Adsense, MSN Live or similar, as well as free methods like blogs, forums and social networking sites. Then your list owner knows they'll get decent sales when they send their customers there. Two percent conversion is quite reasonable for untargeted traffic, ten times that is desirable for pre-qualified visitors.

Be able to show few if any returns, and most of all, show them they'll make good money! You'll usually have to offer at least 50% commission to a jv partner, more to a top marketer.

Your product must be a good 'fit' with their list, and it must offer something new or unique or offer it in a new and better way.

Put those things in place, though, and you've a much better chance of convincing someone your product is worth promoting.

Getting the attention of your potential partner is another matter. I'll cover that next time!

Roy Everitt, Writing For Results