The Joint Venture Analogy

Imagine my doctor sending out an e mail to all his patients, offering them a discount on hip replacements for November. Or the Network Marketing lady who walked into my seminar in a hotel in Abbotsford and announced that, after looking at the palm of my hand, I was deadly ill and needed her supplements. She added that this would also make me financially secure, implying that I was not financially secure. She had never met me and was not even a part of my seminar audience!

This is not all that uncommon – attend most “Business Networking Events” and you will find a bunch of self-employed salespeople thrusting their business cards at each other and proudly broadcasting their “Elevator pitches” to all and sundry, whether they want to hear it or not. They might as well go from door to door selling brushes to people who don’t need them or want them.

Joint Venture experts have an entirely different approach; they are like my doctor. He sits quietly and asks questions and listens to me. He examines me. He does not tell me about how smart he is or how many babies he delivered last week. He does not regale me with the benefits of dealing with his practice. He LISTENS. He finds out where it hurts and reads my file. And then, like the good South African doctor he is, he prescribes the solution to my specific problem. He doesn’t have to sell me or convince me or persuade me. And I gratefully take his advice.

Joint Venture experts build bridges, create solutions and solve problems. And they get well paid for it. They don’t work for nothing. They are Capitalists and they understand business. They know that we get paid in direct proportion to the value we create. They don’t sell time, either – they simply link us up with the solution we seek and need. If the MLM lady above had taken the time to ask me many questions and show a genuine interest in me, she might have found that I was in search of a solution for some physical qualm, in which case I might have asked her to sell me the solution in the form of her product. But her desperation, arrogance and ignorance denied her any chance of ever doing business with me. Fortunately, not all Network Marketing people are like her!

Let us understand the power behind Joint Ventures by taking the time to become sincerely interested in the other person and forget about what we want. Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want out of life, IF you’re prepared to help enough other people to get what they want.”

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com