When Gwen sets up her seminars of 150 people, how much would you have to pay to have her introduce you to all of them from the front of the room? How about $20?

How can I get radio time for pennies on the dollar, with ten times more credibility than a high-priced advertisement? It’s easy if you give stuff away.

How can you make money by giving away $100 to each of a thousand people? I’ll tell you…

People Want Something for Nothing

People don’t want to get sold stuff. They want stuff for nothing. And they want to be able to choose to buy – they don’t like being manipulated by a slavering salesperson. That’s why you love the cake samples in Safeway and often end up buying something fattening. When you stand in Starbucks munching on a tiny piece of chocolate brownie, which is generously offered as a sample on a paper plate, did you know that many people end up buying brownies because of that tantalizing taste?

The Old Vacuum Cleaner Salesman Trick… That Works.

Remember the vacuum cleaner salesman who showed up at your door with a five dollar set of steak knives and a three-dollar flashlight? He told that you his manager insisted he give away one of these precious and highly coveted gifts to some lucky homeowner who agreed to watch a riveting, sensational, thirty minute vacuum demonstration as he sucked minute bugs from a mattress, and which one of these two priceless offerings which you like? You chose the steak knives and two hours later you gratefully bought an overpriced vacuum cleaner.

Here’s How You Make Money Giving Stuff Away

• You offer Gwen two of your books and a complimentary consultation worth $100 as door prizes and you get exposed to 150 people in the room.
• You give away your CD’s or a gift certificate to clean the carpets in a house as a radio give-away. And if you’re not into carpet cleaning, could you set it up for a carpet cleaner, have him do the work and take 20% of all the resulting business? Of course, you could.
• You could have Jimbo distribute 1,000 gift certificates to his indebted clients, entitling them all to a complimentary Yoga class with Yippee Yoga. The certificates are printed and paid for by Yippee herself, Jim and his clients are ecstatic and when Yippee gets business out of this joint venture transaction, you obediently collect 20% of all the resulting income.
• Or you could kindly introduce Bob’s money to Sally[‘s project and make $25,000 for the effort as I did very recently.

A Great Idea You Can Use Too!

I spoke to a group of Newcomers in Toronto who were enjoying a Government-sponsored job finding program. The government spends many thousands advertising this course. The lecturer realized that he could save the civil servants tens of thousands of dollars by simply offering two movie tickets to any student who introduced a new student. It’s doubtful, though, that the government will accept his wise suggestion. Seriously, Joint Ventures opens our minds to many new opportunities, and the power of giving away stuff is only one of many simple yet powerful concepts.

A man’s daughter told him there were ripe apples on the tree in their yard. He went out with an axe and a bucket, picked the five apples that were ripe, put them in the bucket, and then chopped down the tree, laden with green apples. He wouldn’t wait for them to ripen, and so he missed out on much good fruit.

The Moral to the Story

We need to continually brand ourselves so that when prospective customers “ripen”, you’re their natural choice – top of mind. We want to position ourselves in their mind by creating a category and then owning it.

Getting the Most from Marketing and Advertising

We know that advertising works very much better when you’re well branded. You get a much better ROI for marketing and advertising when people recognize you. How do you know how well you’re branded? I look at my site on Alexa.com, I Google Robin J. Elliott and DollarMakers and I see how many times the phone rings. But the best test is your bottom line, right?

Using Joint Ventures to Brand Easily & Effectively

Branding is essential for business success. But isn’t it very expensive? And with the cost of advertising and the mass of information out there, isn’t it difficult to stand out and be recognized? It is difficult if you use conventional methods. They’re risky and expensive. Hit and miss. That’s why we use Joint Ventures to build our brand effectively.

In order to brand Robin J. Elliott and JVWisdom.com I use the following:

• Blog my website a JV with another website
• Seminars and teleclasses
• Articles in other peoples’ e-zines
• Public speaking
• Keynote speeches
• E-books and audio books

… and on and on – all Joint Ventures.

I also use:

• Contingency Advertising
• Host Beneficiary Relationships
• Bundling

… all Joint Ventures as well. No cost or risk and very little time, with maximum effect and reach. I could go on all day. Bottom line, it works for my bottom line! And my JV Partners benefit just as much. Win/win.

Take a Multifaceted Approach

We discovered a long time ago that branding is a multifaceted thing. Many different baits on many different hooks. Get the public’s attention continually, on many different levels. Reinforce their awareness of you and your business. Donald Trump said that there is no such thing as overexposure. I agree with him.

The Value of Branding Your Business

Branding creates massive equity for you, as long as it translates into business. Branding on its own is ego. We need to convert that branding into after tax profit. Again, multidimensional approaches and income streams can be developed fast and with little cost or time and no risk, using Joint Ventures. When our income is not restricted to our own products and services, we’re doing real business and making real money, real fast.

The fact is, times change. If we don’t continually seek ways to add value, initiate new directions, woo our clients and update our technology, we will be left choking in our competitors’ collective dust.

Our customers and prospects are inundated with offers, bribes and shiny choices. They face a daily barrage of exciting options. Our competitors are constantly finding new ways to lure, entice and tempt our clients away. They become more sophisticated by the day. They spend tons of money to attract our patrons.

“If you don’t look after your wife, somebody else will!”

The same applies to your clientele. Watch television. See how many times the screen changes? People get bored really fast, these days. Watch an old movie and see how fast you lose interest. We’re used to constant stimulation, and we demand more and more for less and less. We become more and more sophisticated. We expect more. We want to be wooed and romanced by our vendors, don’t we? We take so much for granted these days, and here’s a wake-up call: “Customer loyalty” is a thing of the past.

Better Bang for Your Buck

Word of mouth advertising and viral marketing are based on massive, unprecedented value. Instead of wasting your precious marketing budget on advertising that doesn’t work, why not spend it on adding value to your existing customers and paying them for bringing you more business? Innovate. Initiate.

Don’t Get Lazy

You snooze, you lose! Don’t fall asleep at the wheel. The shepherd who falls asleep will awake to find that the wolf has eaten his sheep. Don’t underestimate your competition. He is spending money, attending seminars, reading books and finding ways to grab market share from you. He will steal your ideas. You have to constantly be five steps ahead of him.

Watch A Winner

Look at the most successful companies today: they are constantly initiating new value and inventing new benefits. Look at Google. Follow the winners. Reinvest into your business and your education. Align yourself with the top entrepreneurs. And you will lead the field.

Have You Been Behaving Like a Baboon?

Most businesses are like African baboons – these furry fellows race through the cornfields, picking corn and stuffing it under their arm. As fast as they stuff the corn under their arm, it falls out the back, but they keep on picking and stuffing! By the time they get to the edge of the cornfield, they are carrying one corncob and they’ve left a trail of corn on the ground. This is how many entrepreneurs handle customers. They’re so busy getting new ones that they neglect and lose their existing customers out the back door. Attrition spirals out of control and yet they continue to spend more money on finding new customers.

Invest in Your People

We know it’s far more affordable to resell existing customers than to get new ones. We know that it’s better to retain our customers and to encourage referrals through added value service than to spend a lot of money finding new customers. So why don’t we act accordingly?

Why don’t we spend 80% of our marketing budget on our EXISTING customers?

Invest in your people and they will bring you a lot of new ones. Building strong relationships with the customers you have will:

• increase loyalty
• reduce attrition
• increase transaction values
• lengthen customer lifespan.

Why not put a program together to REACTIVATE inactive customers?

It’s much easier than trying to buy new ones.

A happy customer is good – an elated customer is better.

By redirecting our marketing dollars to our loyal clients and creating unprecedented added and unexpected value, we can engender massive reciprocity in the form of referrals and goodwill. But only strategists will understand this. Tacticians, those “instant gratification” types, will never understand this. A satisfied customer might stay with you, but an inspired and enthusiastic customer will bring her friends, family and associates. You can buy a lot more new customers than advertising with:

• A surprise party
• An unexpected gift
• A personal phone call
• A complimentary dinner

Use Joint Ventures to add value at no cost to you. Partner with other businesses to increase the value to offer and to differentiate yourself from the competition. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and take the time to find ways to make their lives easier and more comfortable. Look after what you have and they will look after you.

Sales Tip

Act in your customer’s best interest. Reward referrals generously. Don’t skimp on packaging. Create referral systems that make the customer happy. Protect your customers; they’re hard enough to get and they can be worth their weight in gold.

Management Tip

Teach your team to listen and to go the extra mile. When I go into Safeway and ask where the bathroom is, the employee will walk me to the bathroom. When I go to the competition, the employee points in the direction on the bathroom. Big difference. A nice bag with a pretty bow and a big smile, a follow-up telephone call and even a thank you note can generate a massive return on investment. Get creative and set the example.