A client of mine who owned a chain of restaurants radically improved his business when we tested his employees for the personality styles and re-organized the business. We all have characteristics of all the four major personality styles, however one is normally dominant. In business, it’s important to acknowledge our strengths and leverage them, and to find others to supplement our weaknesses. There’s no right or wrong character type. Here’s a quick overview.

The High D - Dominant style

Dominant style (minority of people, hardest to find) is bottom-line andresults oriented, impatient, sometimes tactless, driven and extroverted, with weaknesses in details. Major fear: being taken advantage of / ripped off. Good closers, great pioneers. Need the numbers and systems guys.

The High I - Influencing style

Influencing style is an extrovert, “party animal”, great at meeting people and starting relationships, popular, good opener, weakness is details and time management. Major fear: being embarrassed in public. Needs closers and numbers guys.

The High C - Cautious style

Cautious style is introverted, loves details, numbers and systems more than people, excellent numbers guys and accountants, computer experts, analyzers. Weakness is over analysis; fear is criticism of their work. Needs the extravert’s and the drivers.

The High S - Steady style

Steady style (majority of people) is an introvert, loyal, team player, family type, great systems and support person, needs security and long term relationships, fears risk, conflict and change. Needs others to make things happen and to create change and to take unpopular action when necessary.

Optimizing the Strengths of the Styles

This is a simplistic approach, but understanding our strengths and weaknesses and allowing people to do what they’re good at, while avoiding tasks that they’re weak at, is simply smart business sense. For technical sales we use High C’s and S’s. Ideal salespeople are normally High D’s with secondary I’s. One wouldn’t an accountant who is a High D, or a High S to launch a new business. You don’t want a High C to be the host at a cocktail party and we don’t want two High I’s behind a reception desk because they’ll talk all day!

Using personality style analysis has helped many of my clients to be better entrepreneurs and hire the appropriate people. Self knowledge is essential to success. I use the DISC style analysis – there are many others available, including the excellent Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Sales Tip

When selling to:

• High D’s - Talk results and ROI and close early and hard.
• High I’s - Build relationship, have fun and close early.
• High C’s - Provide copious details and proof and take time to close.
• High S’s - Prove that the support and relationships will be in place long after the sale is made and close slowly.

Management Tip

When Managing:

• High D’s - Give them lots of control and clear objectives and do what you say you will do.
  High I’s - Reward them publicly, make them look good and watch their time allocation.
• High C’s - Be specific, don’t rush them, and compliment their work (catch them doing something right), set time goals.
• High S’s - Make changes slowly, provide lots of security, share long-term plans.

When you have a service or a product that is bought many times over, it makes sense to pay to get a new customer. For example:

• I showed a hair salon owner client of mine how to invite high-end potential clients for a hair free cut and blow wave. His cost was negligible; however 82% of them were so impressed with the quality of his work that they became regular customers.
• A Tree Surgeon may offer a free service in order to obtain long-term customers.
• An accountant or lawyer may offer a free initial consultation.

Try These Excellent Money Making JVs

Combine the above with a Joint Venture and you can create the opportunity to access a large base of potential customers, especially if you have a consumable product.

• If your research and experience shows that most people who try your product go on to consume it on a regular basis over a period of time, why not ask JV partners to advertise your product and keep 100% of the first sale income for their trouble?
• Or they might want to give it away to their clients as a gesture of thanks for loyal patronage.

The clients who like it can be directed to make all future purchases from you.

A Little Upfront Profits You Greatly in the Long Run

Smart coffee shop owners can target business people who work in the area with an offer of three free cups of coffee. The prospects will get used to coming in to the shop and probably buy muffins or sandwiches anyway, and if the food and service is really good they could very well become regulars. Three cups of coffee costs about 60 cents. What is your profit on a sandwich?

The Law of Reciprocity works.

When most people get something for nothing, accompanied by excellent packaging, friendly service and a good product, they feel obliged to reciprocate. What is the marginal net worth or lifetime value of a customer to you? Being generous and allowing them to taste and experience your products and services at no cost is a smart marketing strategy. People whom you would never have met will have a reason to try your products and services.

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”
- Anthony Robbins

There are only two types of questions: Those that get negative or negligible results, and those that get great results. What questions are you asking yourself and your associates, employees and customers that can result in a better bottom line? What questions will reduce customer attrition, improve loyalty and profits and motivate the people you work with?

Design the Right Questions

• The answers to the questions we ask should result in answers that inspire, motivate and initiate innovation and positive action.
• They should encourage, cheer, challenge, energize and drive.
• The more specific the question, the more specific the answers… And the more specific the answers, the better. Specific is terrific.

By designing the right questions to ask those involved in our business, we direct the business to greater success and focus everyone on the goals and objectives for which we have taken responsibility. When you ask the right question, you create an answer that begets a success strategy.

Try Asking These for a Self Check:

1. “Which three things can we do to increase the amount of people coming into the store by 5% without any cost or risk to us?”
2. “How can I pay for results instead of promises when it comes to advertising?”
3. “Who do we need to work with in a Joint Venture to double the amount of prospects we are currently exposed to?”
4. “How can we create three new streams of increasing, passive income?”
5. “How can we benefit from someone else’s advertising and marketing activities?”
6. “What can we do to double the value we offer our clients, without increasing our cost of sales?”
7. “How can we get customers to increase the amount of times they visit our business by 30%?”
8. “How can we reactivate 40% of our inactive customers?”
9. “How can we create back end sales without increasing our overhead or the time it takes to sell the back end?”

Sales Tip

Learn to ask questions that result in a buy. “O.K., Bill, I’m going to charge you card now for the basic Widget. Now shall I add the Blue Squink for $100 as well as the Rutten for another $800, or shall I just add the Blue Squink?” The answer should be, “Sure, add both”, or, at worst, he says, “Oh, just the Blue Squink for now.” Either way, you have upsold him.

Management Tip

Management questions can help or hurt. Ask, “What could I have done to help you achieve even more sales?” “You’re really at the rock face, Candy. What do you suggest we do to improve customer service even more?” “Bobby, I want to pay you a higher commission. What can we do to ensure a higher transaction amount per sale?”

Joint Venture Success Depends on Analysis!

We need to know what’s going on in our businesses if we intend to follow Michael Gerber’s famous advice and “work ON our businesses, instead of IN our businesses”. The biggest enemy of objective analysis is EGO. We want to be right, we don’t want to admit to our fears, mistakes and failures, and we want to look good. Successful entrepreneurs:

• Forget about popularity, being politically correct or their own egos.
• Are self confident & strong.
• Are objective and measure the bottom line.
• Are proactive and fast moving.

Top 10 for Making the Most of Your Efforts

Joint Ventures are the most effective business tool available. They allow us to build massive profits, overnight, with no money or risk and very little time, by leveraging existing resources. After 21 years of Joint Venture experience, I have come up with a few questions we should ask ourselves and standards by which we should measure whether or not to accept or institute or continue with a Joint Venture.

1. Is this the best use of my time and resources, or do I have a better alternative? (If another alternative is better, cut bait.)
2. Am I spending my own time, money and resources, or am I using other peoples’ time, money and resources? (We should use other peoples’ resources.
3. Am I acting as a salesperson / hired gun? (If so, walk away immediately.)
4. Is this deal as good as I thought it would be? Is the other party doing what he or she said they would? Am I still comfortable with this, or should I drop it?
5. Is this win/win and does every party benefit, or is someone being taken advantage of?
6. Are my partners ethical, honest and professional?
7. How can I add a back end, further leverage this situation, increase profits and/or distribution, or sell the deal?
8. Where can I learn more about Joint Ventures?
9. How can I meet better JV partners and find better deals? (My NetWORK determines my NetWORTH).
10. Are my resources being optimized? Do I have underutilized resources?

Joint Venture experts know that there are a few guiding principles when setting up lucrative deals that provide ongoing, multiple streams of passive income and large, once-off windfalls. Research is essential before partnering up or even suggesting a Joint Venture to someone. Research is the foundation of successful Joint Ventures.  There are four aspects to Joint Venture research:

1. The Industry or Industries You’re Targeting

Be sure you are comfortable dealing with that industry, that it fits your public profile and values system, that it is aligned with your Mission Statement and identity, branding and business relationships. For example, you probably wouldn’t want to get involved in the sex industry. You might want to avoid contentious or controversial areas like politics, religion or tax shelters. Also, have enough information or access to information about that industry before diving in.

2. The Deal

If you’re good at Joint Ventures you can remove all the cost and risk. Don’t think a contract is going to protect you, by the way - it’s only as good as the people behind it.

• Triangulating deals (setting up a deal between two other parties and taking a piece of the profits) usually removes risk and cost if correctly set up.
• Make sure tracking and monitoring is in place and use the expertise of trusted others.
• Create a Memorandum of Understanding that clearly defines the terms and options in the deal.

Click Here to download the FREE Memorandum of Understanding Template PDF

3. The People

This is the most important part of any Joint Venture. Check them out - do your due diligence and research. Get references, do police and credit checks, even use a private detective if necessary. All that glitters is not gold and people claim some amazing things that are simply not true.

• Get specific information.
• Avoid being bowled over by their charisma and sales abilities. Confidence tricksters use greed and ego to hoodwink their victims.
• Check them out. If they don’t have any money, be careful; desperate people tend to do desperate things.
• Don’t buy their stories. Look for a track record.
• If they’re over eager and urgent, step back.
• Consider applying for Membership in the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum - our elite members are carefully screened.

4. Education

The more you learn, the more you can earn. We use Joint Venture Bootcamps and seminars, TeleClasses and JV Audits to educate and update people on Joint Ventures.

• Again, be careful who you’re learning from. Unless the person teaching you has a personal success track record, they don’t have the right to teach.
• Look for support and practicality.
• Watch out for the “up sell” lurking in the shadows.

Ongoing education in today’s changing world will complete your research cycle.

Wow! That’s some claim. Perhaps you would like to change the way you think about making money - fast. See, we don’t have money problems - we have thinking problems.

Become Aware & Choose Something Else

We have been conditioned to believe that it takes a long time, a lot of money and a lot of work to make money. We’re warned about the “Quick Buck” or “Fast Buck” mentality. Our conditioning usually comes from people who don’t have a lot of money, and who are seriously jealous of those ho do. They accuse successful business people of being “sleazy” and dishonest, because they don’t understand that one can legitimately make serious money in a short period of time without being dishonest, if you know how.

Do This and Make Money

Joint Ventures is the ultimate leverage - no risk, no cost, unlimited potential, FAST. If you know how. Let’s take a very simple example: You find someone who will pay you $300 per buying referral. That might be selling a seminar, a course, a product, whatever. It doesn’t matter. The larger the percentage of the public that can use or benefit from it, the better, obviously. Now you go out and find people who have access to large databases of people who know and trust them, usually authors, businesses and professionals. Offer them $100 per sale and get them to advertise the product or service to their people via e mail, newsletters, flyers, notices, phone calls, whatever.

Know It’s a Numbers Game

If you approach enough people with any well presented, well packaged, well priced product or service, a certain percentage will buy. It’s a numbers game. Factors the come into play:

• The more proficient you are, the great the ratios.
• If the owner of the database has a good relationship with his people, customers, etc., more will buy.
• If the product / service is well presented and packaged and perceived to be very valuable, more will buy.
• You can add massive bonuses and premiums at no cost to you, as well, if you know how.

By approaching enough people, 25 will buy, earning you $200 each, = $5,000. I know this works because this is how I Joint Venture with others for sales of our DollarMakers Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp. This is a lot simpler than it seems and can be set up quickly and efficiently, if you know how. And the process can be duplicated and leveraged and it’s ultimately scalable. Anyone can do this.

“I Owe Everything I Have to Joint Ventures,” Geoff said.  And he meant it.  Geoff had been watching his business slide down into a never-ending cash flow crisis for months.  We’ve all heard the old, “Feast or Famine, Chicken or Feathers” saying.  Well, Geoff had been eating feathers for so long he’d nearly laid an egg.  The future looked dismal and he felt terrible.

Then he learnt about Joint Ventures.

The scales fell from his eyes.  He stopped thinking about selling and started thinking about what other people wanted.  He started looking at the big picture and forgot about the old desperation tactics.  All of a sudden, he relaxed and saw potential under every tree and gold in the streets. He started asking,

• “What will it take?”,
• “How can I help you?” and
• “What do YOU want?”

The attitudes of other people changed.  Now they wanted to talk with him and started returning his calls!
Two simple win/win deals in which Geoff worked with strong Joint Venture partners doubled his business in a week. He could hardly believe it.  And he never looked back.

Goodbye Elevator Speech

He started carrying business cards with just his name and contact information on them and he stopped delivering his little “Elevator Speech” sales pitch.  He became a confidante, a helper, a friend, instead of a salesman. People started to seek him out - after all, he provided solutions to their problems - why wouldn’t they look for him?

Many people think Joint Venture’s are “Networking” or “Paying a commission for leads” or “Referrals”.  Joint Ventures are much more.  They can be triangulated, include barter, you name it.  Simple.  Quick.  Safe.  Easy.  Fast.  No money or risk.  Huge Return On Investment.

When I was approached by the frantic owner of a failing business in 1995, we stood back and rationally analyzed the situation. By leveraging the Hidden Assets in the business, getting rid of unproductive staff and refocusing, we turned the corner and the business is still flourishing today.

Leveraging Hidden Assets

You know that, when a business is in trouble, logic often flies out of the nearest cracked window and emotional choices rule the day. Yet this is could be an opportunity for you and the owners to benefit. Instead of simply closing the doors and selling off the inventory and equipment on a fire sale, look for the Hidden Assets in the business:

• A sales team
• Intellectual property
• Customer database
• Unfulfilled orders
• Access to residual sales of consumable products and services
• Relationships
• Inventory
• Equipment
• Distribution
• Goodwill

These could be converted, with little or no upfront costs, to windfall profits and ongoing income for both you and the owners of the distressed business. You could possibly establish a lucrative, win/win Joint Venture that leverages these Hidden Assets by adding your own distribution, inventory piggy-back or other resources.

Who to Work With

• The key is finding an open-minded business owner who realizes that he needs help and is mature enough to get his ego under control.
• Make sure you have adequate contractual protection.
• Be prepared to negotiate. After all, you’re in a position of strength and you can often turn a seemingly bad situation around.

Smart business owners know that it’s wise to talk with objective experts when they’re panicking about cash flow. I know I have had occasion to regain my perspective and regroup when I did so in the past. Together, we can do amazing things.