Easy Marketing Creates an Easy Sales Funnel 

Partnering with a business that provides a complimentary product or service can reap huge benefits.  It is said that the headache is in the front-end and the money is in the back-end.  This means that the work you put in to acquiring new customers and clients will be a lot and may cost you or your business a lot, but keeping your existing customer base happy and coming back with repeat business is easy.  The amount of money you spend to get new customers and clients into your sales funnel can be pretty high, but you can save a ton of money in partnerships.

Two years ago, I would have never partnered with anyone due to fear of losing my clients.  Now, I support partnering and accept partnering in a heart beat because it's an easy way to marketing my business, make more money, and increase my client base.  By partnering with a complimentary business such as a print shop, I can have the owner of the print shop give his/her customers my business card (with a 10% discount special).  The customer will call me, get a 10% discount on their website project, and the partner will get 10% of the project as payment.  I do this in return for my partner and will get 10% of whatever my clients purchase at the print shop (i.e. business cards, stationary, etc).

What about losing the client/customer?  Don't worry about that.  What did you have before that client??? NOTHING!  Accept the new client and refer your customers and clients to your partners as easy marketing.  Think about it; the money you spend to acquire a new customer is probably the 20% or higher than what you provide the customer and partner.  Your partner is marketing for you, basically for free, and you are getting new clients.  Keeping those clients afterward is pretty easy if you're offering additional services.  In my case, I offer online marketing services, seasonal redesigns, maintenance, etc.

Think about your business and what you offer, then think about what your client or customer would benefit from such as additional products or services, or another business' service.

Read this article on MerchantCircle.