Courtesy Flickr cc lic The Punch Pizza

This is an idea that most of your competitors will never try.  That’s because it requires some REAL forethought.  And some face-to-face time with other business owners.  And that usually takes us out of our comfort zone.

Show Me Yours, I’ll Show You Mine ( or how to share customer lists)

It’s called joint-venturing or ad swaps ( or one hundred other possible names.)  But it works like this:

• You go to Big Looey’s Pizza Shop and offer to give all your customers one of his coupons with your next round of invoices.
• Big Looey agrees to put one of your sales pieces on each box of pizza he sends out the door to his customers.
• You both get (almost) free exposure to a new set of customers in a highly localized area.

Talk about win/win!

Important Steps To Make This Work

1. Have your sales material already planned in advance. Your material should have one singular purpose – to get a potential customer to call you.

2. Be willing to negotiate a fair trade. If you only have 20 customers and Big Looey has 50 customers a day, you may need to send his offer out to your customers several more times than he sends yours out.

3. You each should supply your own materials (coupons, offers, whatever) for the other to use.

4. As always, consistency is key! You both have to be willing to stick it out on this for at least enough time to gauge results.  A couple months at a minimum, but a whole season would be nice.

5. Communicate. Talk to your new “partner” often to see if they are getting similar results to you.  Remember, you are both in this together – help each other.

6. Don’t be a pest. Closely tied to the last step, don’t overdo the communication.  After all, Big Looey has a business to run too.

Pick A Partner (or two)

Who can you do this sort of marketing with?  Any one who has customers that you want to serve also.  Some one who isn’t in direct competition.  This could be the guy who does the driveway sealing, or the car dealer who specializes high end models.

This is the part that requires some creativity.  But the effort will be worth it.

Now, go make something happen.