by Stu McLaren
Building relationships with joint venture partners/mentors is very important if you want to learn from high, world-class mentors. Within this article I will discuss how you can develop these relationships very inexpensively – actually at zero cost.
Number one, write this down, circle it, underline it, and highlight it. Participate. Write that word down. Participate when given an opportunity.
When I first started, nobody knew me from a fly on the wall. The first time that I went to the John Childers’ Million Dollar Speaker training, he taught me a very important lesson in business. He said, “It’s not what you know or who you know. It’s who knows you.”
What I’m trying to get through to you is to get known. Your mentors will give you opportunities to ‘participate’ so make sure you take advantage of it and they may turn into future joint venture partners.
Here is a few ways you can participate. Give feedback on anything they are asking about. Whether it be feedback on a new project, or answering a question they asked to their email list, give it. Ask them questions. Participate in everything you can. It’s logic – the more you participate, the more they are going to get to know you and, which is very crucial.
Here’s another strategy, provide testimonials. A lot of people underestimate this tip, but it can make a big difference. When I say give testimonials, I don’t mean “normal” testimonials either. What I mean is give the best testimonials you have given and send a picture of yourself that they can use.
Even if they don’t ask for one, give it. So many times I’ve done this and it ended up on their website, even though they never asked me for one! Alex Mandossian taught me this strategy.
When I was just starting out in this business I noticed that almost every website I visited had a testimonial from Alex Mandossian. Can you guess how effective that strategy was for him?
Later I found out that he was getting all kinds of leads sent to his website and to his business through the use of putting up testimonials on other people’s websites. You’ve got to learn to give really good testimonials. Even give them when they are not asked for.
You have to give testimonials that are specific and relevant to the material you are talking about.
Recently I had an awesome testimonial left as part of a testimonial contest for a teleseminar of mine. This gentlemen stated his name, where he was calling from and gave one specific benefit he received from listening to the call.
This is a very easy way to get your testimonials onto other people’s websites. When you send a picture along with it there is a good chance they will post a link to your website as well, which is only going to help you generate traffic, giving you all sorts of benefits.
Not only is it benefitting your website in the long run, it is also another way to develop relationships with your mentors/future joint venture partners.
Another strategy is to participate in forums. A lot of people have their own forum or there is all different kinds of forums online on just about every topic.
Whether you’re in that market or whether you’re not, I want you to seek out forums that you can participate in and give lots of content, tips, resources, anything in these forums. Get yourself known.
The other thing I want you to do is read people’s newsletters and scour those newsletters for important and personal insights and details.
Here’s some things you should constantly look for. Any birthdays, whether it be the specific person who writes the newsletter or their wife, husband or even their kids. Look for birth dates and then send them cards or a happy birthday E-mail, or perhaps even an audio postcards.
Use these important dates to build up your relationship with them. Any dates from their anniversary to product launch dates are all things you should be looking for and making a note of.
Always look to offer help to your mentors or future joint venture partners. You wouldn’t believe the response that you will get when you ask somebody if there’s anything that you can do to help them in their business.
Or, let’s say for example, that you know that there’s something coming up in their business, like a product launch or a seminar or anything of that nature, and you ask to help with something specific, they’re going to know that you’ve been paying attention to their business, and they’ll be surprised, number one. Number two, you’re going to stand out in their minds later on down the road.
I’ve sent information that I believe would be of value to my mentors as well. My goal is always to build good relationships with them. These strategies are not rocket science and are so easy to do, just no one does them.
Whatever you find that makes you think they could use, send it to them. I’ve sent articles that I thought they could use, newspaper clippings. Off-line and on-line tools is another thing I look for. Any web links that would help their buisness. All I do once I find something is shoot them an email saying, “Hey, I think this might be of value to you.”
One thing to keep in mind though is NEVER send links that include affilate links or something like that. Only send information that would be of value to them and their business.
Your focus is on building a relationship and providing value – not making a quick buck. They’ll see right through that and you’ll ruin any chance of a long-term relationship.
The strategies I have listed in this article are all ones I have used and have been able to leverage those efforts into building great relationships with my mentors, and future joint venture partners. From that all different kinds of projects have sprung up with these people. If you just focus on building a foundation with your mentors it is amazing what can come of it.
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