By Mike Enlow
[January 12th, 2000]

See Also   Email Marketing Primer   How to Increase Your Online Sales   Take Advantage of Google's AdWords   Using Foreign Search Engines to Boost Your Sales   Getting Sure Profits Through Google, Goto.com and DirectHit   Ten Places You Must Submit Your Site   Clever Profit Growth Software   The Power Of Personalized Email   How To Go Long With Your Web Marketing   How NOT to Promote Your E-business   Winning the Search Engine Wars   Latest Tips on Search Engine Marketing   Are You Wasting Your Money Online?   Should I Hire Another Salesperson or Invest in an Affiliate Program?   The Death of Positioning?   Links: Why You Need Them and How to Get Them   Your #1 Overlooked Business Asset

During my many travels and business dealings, I have found one most commonly overlooked asset which few understand how to make proper use of. The asset I'm speaking of is the relationships that business owners have worked long and hard to build by treating their customers right. The remainder of this article will not only focus on teaching you how to make good use of this asset, but we'll also share some real life examples of what can happen when a business deal is properly structured where everybody wins.

Sometimes I feel like I have the only pair of "macroscopic glasses" (to see the big picture) when examining businesses and the many opportunities for creating additional cash flow.

What I will be sharing with you is one of the most simple of these concepts I call "Joint Venture Alliances" or Co-Ventures. I will assume you have no prior knowledge of marketing for the benefit of those of you who are less familiar with my marketing techniques.

Let's begin.

I've discovered many working marketing concepts and systems. All of them are centered around one thing. LEVERAGE! They are centered around HOW to leverage to get greater profits and greater satisfaction out of every dollar spent and every effort expended.

Over the years, I've learned, every business has one need in common – the need to create more cash flow than they spend on overhead. Tens of thousands of businesses do this very successfully. Unfortunately, they overlook many opportunities to gain greater leverage and reap greater rewards from what they do. However, this article is going to address one of the fastest and easiest ways you can teach almost any business owner to increase his or her profits by as much as 300% and do so with nobility.

One of the most ridiculous mistakes and oversights in marketing is the failure to recognize the true value of the relationship a business owner has with his or her customers, vendors and others they deal with on a daily basis. Properly utilizing this overlooked asset can mean thousands and often tens of thousands of dollars in increased revenue and the status of nobility as well.

I'll explain.

When someone makes a purchase they prefer buying from someone they trust and who has treated them fairly in the past. If I were to rent a "cold list" (a list of names of people who know nothing about me, my company, product, service or offer) I may, with a well crafted sales letter or presentation, get a 1 to 3 percent response on the offer. However, if you go to the owner of that same list and structure a deal where the owner writes or presents the very same offer, you will see a response that is so much greater it boggles the mind. I've seen responses to this type of offer (we'll call this an "endorsed offer") that skyrocket to as high as 33%! This is an increase in response of between 1100 - 3300 percent!

Accordingly, you can literally earn a fortune by showing others how to use this principle by creating win/win deals. A good example of using this concept happened this past Christmas with a client of mine who is in the pharmacy business. My client had approximately 10,000 customers on file, all of which loved and trusted my client for the excellent service they had received over the years. However, I discovered my client had never ever used this asset of trust to do a noble win/win deal to properly utilize this incredible asset.

Unfortunately too many business people are myopic (nearsighted – cannot see the big picture) in their observation of their business. They fail to realize that although they sell pharmaceutical products and supplies, all their customers still purchase other products and services like dry cleaning, groceries, cars, insurance, accounting services, etc. The relationship with their customers provides a business owner with the incredible opportunity to use the "endorsed offer". By doing a Joint Venture, wherein they recommend or refer their customers to another professional and noble company, they could take a percentage of the profits from the newfound business they create for the company they endorse.

In this particular situation I learned they were friends with a jeweler in town and Christmas was rapidly approaching. I saw an instant jackpot. By the way, these deals can be created without a prior relationship with the vendor you will endorse.

Here's a brief overview of what can happen with Joint Ventures or "Endorsed Offers".

I immediately contacted the jeweler and interviewed him to get the "golden nuggets" to create a letter for my pharmacy clients to share with their customers. I learned he regularly flew to New York to purchase diamonds, emeralds, rubies and other precious stones but, more importantly, he purchased in quantity by teaming up with a fellow jeweler in New Orleans where he literally saved a fortune by buying in bulk. We drafted a letter something like what follows:

More: the letter that Mike drafted...