How to Get The Attention Of Joint Venture Partners and Mentors
Within this article I want to discuss strategies on how to build relationships with your mentors and possibly future joint venture partners. If you want to be able to eventually work with and learn from these world-class mentors, building a relationship with them is key. What I am going to discuss with you are very easy and cheap – they will cost you nothing – ways to build those relationships with your mentors.
Firstly, this is the clincher. Make sure you write it down in capital letters in bright red marker. Participate. That is the word you have to write down. When given the opportunity, participate.
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.”
Get yourself known, that is what I’m trying to point out. You really have to take advantage of all the opportunities to ‘participate’ that your mentors and possible future joint venture partners will give you.
This is what I’m talking about. If there are questions in their emails, or they ask for feedback on their projects, give it to them. Give the feedback, ask questions, participate as much as you can. If you participate on a regular basis, the more likely it is that they will get to know you. That is the end result we are looking for.
A lot of people underestimate this next tip. Provide testimonials. Not just ‘normal’ testimonials, but the best one you have ever given. Make sure you send a picture to go a long with it as well that they can use.
Take it a step farther and send them testimonials when they don’t even ask for it. Alex Mandossian taught me this strategy and I’ve had a lot of my testimonials put up on websites even when they weren’t asking for them.
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.
An example of a good testimonial is one that is specific and relevant to a measurable benefit.
A quick example of a good testimonial could be heard from a gentleman who was one of the winners of a testimonials contest for a recent teleseminar of mine. What was so good about it was that he made sure he included his name, where he was calling from and gave a specific benefit that he received from the teleseminar.
When you give good testimonials it will get posted on people’s websites and when you send a picture along with it, it is likely they will also include your website link. By having your information on other people’s websites it will help you generate traffic, which will only benefit your business.
Secondly, this will only help to develop your relationship with your mentors and hopefully future joint venture partners.
Here’s the next tip: Forums – participate in them as well. There are forums on just about every kinda of industry, in fact, many people have their own forum.
Whatever market you’re in, find forums that you can participate in and provide as much content, tips and resources as you can. The point is to 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.
Some things you want to keep your eye out for is any birthdays. It doesn’t matter if it is the person who writes the newsletter or their husband, wife, even their kids. If you can find out their birthdays, send them a car or happy birthday E-mail, or even an audio postcard.
Anniversary dates is another thing you could look for, or when they are doing big product launches. Find out anything you can by reading their newsletters then use that information to build a relationship with them.
Offering your help to your mentors or future joint venture partners will also show them how interested you are and get your name out there. You will be surprised too the response you will get just from offering someone help with 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.
What I’ve done in the past is I’ve sent information to my mentors that I thought would be of value to them. It is just another way to develop good relationships with these people. The tips and strategies I’m talking about are not difficult to do, but people rarely do them.
Anything I come across and think it would be of value to them, I send it their way. Articles that they could extract from, website links, resources online. Even off-line tools and newspaper clippings work. All I do is shoot them an e-mail saying, “Hey, I think this might be of value to you.”
One thing you want to make sure you don’t do is include affiliate links or anything like that. Focus on only sending them information that will be of value to them.
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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