Sales are the lifeblood of every company. Without them, your business can’t exist for any sustainable period. Then obviously the most important task of every business day is to bring in more revenues and discover ways to even further accelerate that growth. Even in good times, securing sales can be a strenuous task. But in today’s economic turmoil the job can be even more difficult.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a way to sprinkle magical pixie dust on the process to create explosive growth? Well the answer is not dust and it’s certainly not magical, but yes there definitely is a proven method to turbo charge your revenues to substantially higher levels. It’s called co-marketing partnerships – or joint ventures.
Think about it, the concept is actually quite simple. Could you sell more products and services if you had only one salesperson or if you had an army containing dozens of them? You’re not dumb. Sure you’d like to have a massive sales army but how can that happen, especially if your working capital is limited and you can’t support additional staff?
The answer is to get another company with a large sales staff to sell your products along side theirs. You can piggyback on the large and successful sales team of a company that is already calling upon the same potential customers that you have targeted. There are probably several of them already in your industry, regardless of whether your products are sold by humans or internet sites.
But why would another company want to add your products to their sales process? There are probably several reasons that they would. First, your product combined with theirs may create a much better, more attractive offering that their customers would want. Here’s a simple, let’s assume that you make vases. Wouldn’t a customer rather buy flowers already contained in a vase than to have to shop for the vase in a separate store? Sure they would. Therefore, a great co-marketing venture partner for your vase business could be a flower shop. A second compelling reason why another company wants to co-sell your products is the extra revenues and profits they get from the higher priced sales ticket. The average revenue per transaction just went up.
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Here’s a personal example. Many years ago my friends and I invested in a conveyor equipment company, which had one direct sales person and a few indirect distributors. We sold a million dollars worth of products each year, but knew that the market size was much higher. So we got the bright idea of approaching the equipment manufacturing companies whose process equipment our conveyor systems linked together. We showed each of them the benefits of integrating our conveyor systems to their marketing programs so that they could provide their customers with a ‘turnkey solution’ one-stop shopping experience. They tried it – and wow did it work. Almost immediately, three of those equipment companies included our sales literature into their marketing materials and sales presentations. Within 12 months our revenues grew to $5 million from our previous annual rate of $1 million.
So how can you make this clever concept work for you? Start by making a list of all of the products that compliment yours – things that go well together. Next, identify the companies who sell those complimentary products. Prepare a brief PowerPoint presentation explaining the benefits of forming a co-marketing alliance and show some mocked-up versions of what the combined product offering would look like. Before the meeting, determine how much commission you would be willing to pay them to sell your product with theirs.
You may have to make a few presentations before finding the one or two companies that can visualize the benefits of the joint venture partnership, but you will certainly find some. Then, sit back and listen for the sales bell ring. You’ll now have a lot more restful nights knowing that you have an ‘army’ of sales folks driving new business to you every day.
About The Author
Professor Jim Solomon
Entrepreneur, MBA Professor, Certified Public Accountant
Jim Solomon is an accomplished entrepreneur, MBA Professor and Certified Public Accountant who has helped dozens of large corporations and small businesses achieve phenomenal growth and value. His unparalleled ability to secure funding, boost revenues and create exit opportunities comes from hands-on experience and an enormous rolodex.
To learn more about Professor Jim Solomon please visit www.professorjimsolomon.com and be sure to secure your free copy of his powerful new eBook, “Six Secrets To Starting Your Own Business”.
