Do You Do Business With Your Competitors?

Attracting new clients is one of the toughest challenges to most small business owners.  You can spend thousands on advertising without hearing your phone ring once. 

And you can spend hours and hours going to networking events only to find yourself on everyone else's mailing lists and yours remain small and unresponsive.

That's hard work, demoralising and does nothing to help with the cashflow, does it?

I am sure you know there has to be easier ways of creating leads and enquiries.

But did you know that one of the quickest ways of attracting new clients to your business is to use other business' databases?

And that even includes using your direct competitors.

Now I am not suggesting in the slightest that you are to break in to their offices overnight and steal their client information! But what I am suggesting is that you collaborate and look at what joint ventures you can create.

Joint ventures are when two [or more] businesses join forces to create a more powerful force in the marketplace.  Think of as two heads are better than one.

Or more importantly, two databases are better than one!

Let me give you an example.

Jenny is a fitness trainer.  She works primarily with her clients on a 1-2-1 basis but is finding it hard going fitting enough sessions in to her day whilst still generating the income that she is aiming for.

She has decided to start offering group sessions and fitness training programmes as a way of working with more clients, increasing her cash flow yet reducing the number of hours she works.  But the big problem is her database.  It's just not big enough to market her programmes to.

So rather than spend hundreds on advertising in the local newspaper or even more on buying a database, she decides to seek out other business' who have the clients she is looking for.

She approaches her local gym.  Some may think this is a crazy idea as her local gym is a direct competitor of her business, but the manager of the gym is interested in talking. 

You see, although they have a strong membership at present, very few people are coming in and using the gym.  And they know when this happens, they start getting lots of cancellations.  By offering the gym members a discount on Jenny's fitness programme, this gives the gym a great benefit to add to their membership subscription without it costing them a thing.  It should also encourage the members to train more in the gym in between Jenny's sessions, thus reducing the chance of cancellations.

OK, so this story is hypothetical and there are probably many more gym managers who just wouldn't entertain this idea and turn Jenny down flat.

But we are in a very interesting economy at the moment.  Many businesses are experiencing huge slow downs and one of the positive things about a recession is that slow downs cause problems.  If you can solve the right problems, it's good for your business. And, of course, good for other businesses as you solve their problems, too.

More and more businesses are looking at joint ventures and building collaborative partnerships - even with direct competitors!  And if you are struggling to attract the right clients to your business, joint ventures could be the quickest [and cheapest] way of moving your business forward right now.

Who could you start talking to and create a win-win situation for you both?

You could have a business opportunity right there, in front of you!

Oh and before you click away ... would you want to know how to use joint ventures to promote your teleseminar events?

A couple of weeks ago, I ran the "Get Started With TeleSeminars" masterclass, a two hour live event where everything you need to know about running your own teleseminars was covered.  From what conference call systems to use and kit that you need through to marketing strategies and how to write effective email promotions.

But there was a lot of information to cover!  And the topic of using joint ventures to promote teleseminars was of particular interest.

So, by popular demand, you can access a special teleseminar session on this very topic: "How to Promote Your Teleseminars Using Joint Ventures".

This session is free to everyone who has already invested in the "Get Started with TeleSeminars" programme but as I know there are many of you already using teleseminars and would like to access this information, you can book a place for this session, too.

The live event is happening on Tuesday, 10th March and, as always, will be recorded.

So if you can't dial in live on the day, you will automatically receive the audio recording AND a workbook to accompany the session.

But hurry, it's less than 2 weeks away.  Click here for more information and to register for your place.

Comments

[website seo services]

Thank you for this information,This will help me a lot to improve my knowledge on how to make a business with my competitors.

-faith-

[Victoria Player]

What a great topic Karen and particularly pertinent in light of the current economic climate.

I recently came across a great quote which highlights the importance of joint ventures: "Coming together is a beginning; staying together is progress; working together is success."

A great post and thanks for sharing your pearls of wisdom. I look forward to reading more.