Day 23 (Tuesday) - Follow Up on JV Approach Letter

Lesson Objective:

Today you will follow up your initial contact with these potential Joint Venture Partners.

Skills Needed:
· Basic email
· Dialing and talking on the phone



Today’s Lesson:

Part 1 – Follow up with Joint Venture Partners

Today’s assignment is quite simple and I don’t want you spending a lot of time here
looking at this book!

You need to follow up with the Joint Venture letters you sent out yesterday with a phone
call.


“A phone call?!” you ask?


That’s right… a phone call!

The vast majority of people worth doing a joint venture with are very busy. They get
bombarded with email all day from people offering them get-rich-quick schemes and new
products they claim will “make us all rich”.

Your potential joint venture partners may very well have thrown your letter in the trash…
along with a dozen or more others that came in yesterday.


The best way to follow up on a Joint Venture proposal is to get on the phone, call them
up, and make your offer “live and in-person”.


This allows them to ask you questions and also shows you are a real person, not just
somebody out there trying to scam them and their customers.


Just because it is the Internet doesn’t mean the “old rules” of human interaction don’t
apply.

FACT! People do business with people they feel like they know and trust.


The fastest way to get your JV partners to trust you is to call them up, introduce yourself
and your proposal. Keep it brief, get to the point and ask them if they are interested.

Here is a script I have used with great success – you should modify it to fit your
personality and your offer.


Get their phone number from their website or do a “whois” lookup at
www.betterwhois.com or http://www-whois.internic.net/cgi/whois and get the registrant
or administrative contact phone number from the record.





Dial the phone!


If someone answers say this…


(Note: it helps if you write out your script on a piece of paper ahead of time and practice
it. You don’t want to sound like a telemarketer… but you also don’t want to trip over
your tongue because you’re nervous.)


You: Hello may I please speak to ___________?

Them: May I ask who’s calling? -- or -- What is this in reference to?


You: Yes this is your name with “your site”. I was calling about a possible joint
venture.

Them: How can I help you? -- or -- What do you have in mind?


You: Their name I was calling because I have a product / service called “name of
product/service” that I’ve written / created / discovered that state your
unique selling proposition.


(Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what sets you totally apart from the
competition. What makes you special and why should people buy your product as
opposed to anyone else’s?)


Example: The ebook I co-authored with Joe Vitale, entitled “How to Write and Publish
your own eBook in as little as 7 Days”, has a really cool USP…

USP - “How to write and publish your own ebook in as little as 7 days… even if you
can’t write, can’t type, and failed high school English class!”


You: I thought my product / service would create an excellent additional source
of revenue for you while providing a valuable service to your customers
because give reason why it makes sense for them to offer it to their people.

What do you think?

Them: “Well …”
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -


At this point you will either engage them in conversation or they will get off the phone.


- If your sales conversion numbers are really good tell them.


- If you have endorsements from famous people tell them.


Your objective is to engage them in a “normal” conversation, get them to take a look at
your product or agree to do a joint venture right there on the spot!

NOTE: Be persistent – but don’t get rude or pushy.


Once a JV partner agrees to work with you, get them to commit to a date for sending the
mailing!

Also, be fast to respond to their requests and get them any additional information they ask
for!


Always send a follow up email, whether they agree to work with you or not, thanking
them for their time and wishing them great success.


If they do agree to work with you, make sure your email includes a summary of what you
talked about and agreed so nobody gets confused later.

Part 2A
What if they don’t answer the phone or you can’t get them on the phone?

If it’s an answering machine or voice mail leave this message:

Hi ________ This is your name with your domain name. I was calling to follow up
on the letter/email/fax I sent you yesterday about a potential joint venture. I believe
My product / service would create an excellent additional source of revenue for you
while providing a valuable service to your customers because give reason why it
makes sense for them to offer.


I’d like to speak to you at your earliest convenience about how we could help each
other.


Please call me back at your earliest convenience at your phone number.





Part 2B
Also send a follow up email to go with your phone message.

Just like you followed up your conversation with people you actually spoke with, you
also want to follow up your phone message with an email that says something like:


Subject: Follow up phone call


Hi ________


I just left a message on your machine / with your secretary to follow up on my
letter/fax/email yesterday about a possible joint venture.


You probably get emails all the time with offers and “opportunities” so I wanted to
follow up to let you know I’m a real person! ;-)

The reason for my call is that I really believe my product / service would create an
excellent additional source of revenue for you while providing a valuable service to your
customers because give reason why it makes sense for them to offer.

Is there a time I could call you back to speak to you for a few minutes about how we
could help each other?


You may also call me back if that is more convenient. My phone number is your phone
number.

Thanks for your time… I look forward to speaking with you.

Your name






Part 3 – Don’t Stop…Don’t Surrender!

If you’re truly committed to making this process work – do not stop until you have found
2 people to do a JV with you to their list!


If you call everyone you sent emails to yesterday and you don’t have 2 JV partners lined
up, then start the process of mailing and calling all over again.

· Find 20 more potential JV partners.

· Send out 20 more letters.

· Follow up with 20 more phone calls.


NOTE: You can even make the phone calls without sending the letter first!


Call these prospects on the phone and just talk to them like a normal person.

Remember – they are people just like you and they want to make money too!




Summary of today’s assignments:

1. Follow up your letters to potential JV’s with a phone call.


2. Follow up all conversations with an email thank you – whether they agree to work
with you or not.

3. Follow up all phone messages with an email letting them know you called.


4. Repeat the process until you have 2 people solidly committed to doing a mailing
with you.

Day 22 (Monday) - Send your JV Approach letter, check ezine performance, run a “stand alone” ezine ad

Lesson Objective:

To send out your JV approach letter using your mail or fax automation program and take
the top 2 performing ezine ads you ran and run a “stand alone” ad in at least one of them.

Skills Needed:
· Basic Surfing
· Basic Email



Today’s Lesson:



Part 1 – Send out your JV approach letters

My calendar says Day 22 – if you’re on the right page then today we’re going to focus on
contacting joint venture partners and reinvesting our profits (hopefully) from our first
round of ezine ads.


Okay, first things first, you should take your joint venture approach letter and send it out
to all the potential joint venture partners you found.


The same way we did an email merge to ezine editors is the same way you can use your
email program Group-Mail) or you can just individually send out emails (the free way).


If you choose to go the fax or snail mail approach then you would send your letters out
that way.

STOP! Before you send out the letter – check and double-check it one last time for typos
or anything strange.

Part 2 – Run a “stand alone” ezine ad

Next, we’re going to evaluate how our ezine ads did from last week (Day 15).

By now, those ezine ads should have run and you should have some conversion numbers.


It’s important to track these ads all the way through to the sale if you can.


So let’s do some quick calculations on the ads.

· Which ezines made money?
· Which ezines got the most response – the least?

For the 2 ezines that made the most money we’re going to expand our advertising effort
and reinvest our profits (don’t go spending your money on pizzas just yet) ;-)


That means if you ran a classified ad before – move up to a sponsorship ad or even a
stand alone “solo ad” if they offer it. A “solo” ad means you are the only advertiser in the
entire ezine!


Also, you should be looking for 3-4 more ezines you can advertise in.


Just reinvest your profits into more and bigger advertising. Simple enough?

Once again you should turn to your ezine advertising resources we discussed last week.
The best ones in my book are Top Ezine Ads and Directory of Ezines.

Also, be sure to use new tracking codes on each of the new ads because you will notice
responses still trickling in on the others. Don’t mix your results… always use a fresh
tracking code for each ad.

It’s important to note here that if your ads didn’t end up making you a profit, you should
try another variation and start small with a classified ezine ad again.


Then you start the process all over again of:


1. Run a small ad
2. Find an ad that produces
3. Find an ezine with a responsive audience
4. Reinvest your profits in buying bigger and better ezine advertising based on the
positive results you’ve produced so far!

Today’s Assignment:

1. Send out your joint venture proposal letter to your list of potential JV prospects.

2. Take the 2 top performing ezines you’ve found and invest in a bigger ad.

3. Take your profits from your ezine ads on Day 15 and look for 2-3 additional
places to advertise, starting small again.

Note: if you didn’t make a profit from any ezine ad – you should change your ad
and start from the beginning with small ads again.

Day 21 (Sunday) - Surf to find more potential JV partners

Lesson Objective:

To look around and find at least 20 more potential sources to do a JV with you.

Skills Needed:
· Basic Surfing



Today’s Lesson:

Welcome to week 4 – the home stretch!!


Today is a fairly light day – I simply want you to do your best to locate at least 20
potential JV partners for your list.

Once you have 20 then you can take the rest of the day off (or if you’re an over achiever
go for 30 total).


Remember, what we talked about for searching out potential JV partners:

· Start checking out the different search engines. See who is ranked highest for your
best keywords. (I bet they get lots of targeted traffic!)

· Ezine editors make excellent JV partners -- and they come with a ready-made list!

· See who is buying (and paying lots of money) for those keywords on
Overture.com or on Google.com

· Use Alexa.com to search out related sites more easily.

· A good spot to find people interested in working with others is at ClickBank -
just look in their “marketplace” section and you find potential joint venture
partners who are selling information products.


Also, another little-known way is to ask a question on one or several of the discussion
boards you’ve located.

Ask about the best resources, people, sites, etc. dealing with your topic. This will show
you who has the most pull and, of course, you want them to endorse your offering.

Today’s Assignment:


1. Get your potential Joint Venture list up to 20-30 prospects. Be sure you have their
full contact name, address, fax, phone, email, site name etc.



Today’s Resources:

ClickBank’s Marketplace – contains a whole group of people who are looking for other
people to work with selling each other’s products.

Day 20 (Saturday) - Write your JV approach letter

Lesson Objective:

To write up your approach letter to potential Joint Venture (JV) partners and have at least
2 friends or colleagues take a look at it.

Skills Needed:
· Imagination
· Basic Email
· Basic Word Processing



Today’s Lesson:



Part 1 - Let’s get ready to work some “win-win” JV deals!

In addition to finding top positioned sites you should contact lucrative Joint Venture
partners in your market (your affiliate software makes setting up these Joint Ventures a
piece of cake).

If you’re familiar with your market – you’ll typically know who the top players are.


Before you approach them make sure your numbers look good.


Also, instead of just contacting them via email, you might want to contact them by fax,
mail or phone.


Typically, the more a person is involved with the Internet the less likely they may be to
answer your email… or they’ll have their emails filtered and never see your email.


There are lots of ‘nuts’ who contact these top marketers every week for “deals”, so you
want to make sure you stand out as a legitimate business owner.


Regardless of whether you send out your letter via snail-mail / fax / email, be sure to
focus on them, their needs and their goals.

Here are some tips:
· Let the potential JV partner know how you found them (Are you a customer? Did
you read an article by them? Surfed to their site?).

· Let them know who you are and a little bit on your background / business etc.

· Is your product/service a proven winner? If so, you should tell them and give
specific figures to back you up (if it’s not proven, why are you contacting them?).

· What % can you offer them – extrapolate that into exact dollar figures.

Example: For each ebook they sell they make $15.00. With the size of their list
they ought to be able to sell 500 and that means $7,500 in their pocket.

· Who else is endorsing your product? Mention them by name, especially if it is
someone famous or known in their circles.

· How will the sales be monitored (3rd party affiliate software, in-house, real-time
access for them)?

· Can you give them a free trial, preview, password of what you are selling?
It is *highly recommended* that you give them a sample of what you sell. It
makes them much more likely to work with you.

· How can they contact you to discuss further?


Write your letter in a short concise way that will get attention without appearing too
pushy.




Part 2 – Find 2 or 3 more discussion forums

Find at least two more discussion forums where you can post responses to people’s
questions.

Today’s Assignment:

1. Write the first draft of your joint venture introduction letter. Have 2 colleagues
look over it and get their reaction and feedback.

2. Check-up on your web site’s “critical numbers” again. How do they look? Is your
conversion rate weak or good?

3. Try to find 2-3 more forums that you can bookmark. If you have time, answer 1 or
2 questions inside the forums you’ve already located.

Today’s Resources:

Instant Sales Letters - sample joint venture letters inside this package that will
absolutely knock your socks off!

Instant JV Letters – here’s a resource filled with nothing but JV letters. Nice help when
you can’t come up with the right approach.