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Joint venture marketing is a lucrative way of leveraging the assets of two or more businesses. It is the fastest way for businesses to achieve certain business goals and benefit their clients at the same time.

For the joint venture partners, this usually translates into more visibility, more clients and more profits than they could create on their own. For the clients, the benefits include saving time, saving money and getting added value from the businesses. These are the reasons behind the popularity of joint ventures.

For any joint venture project to be successful, the partners must possess certain skills that are required to choose the right deal, the right partners, and to promote the project effectively. Ive outlined a basic skill set consisting of the five most important attributes below:

1. The ability to nurture client relationships

People buy only from those that they know, like and trust. You must therefore keep in touch with your clients on a regular basis in order to nurture your relationship with them and turn them into loyal clients. Apart from earning their trust, this will also enable you to determine what offers theyll respond to and when to offer a certain product or service. Without a loyal client base, the response rate will be very low when you endorse a product or service.

2. Creativity, and the ability to think outside the box

Every new joint venture project that you initiate will be different, and therefore deserves a different approach. The ability to apply fresh new ideas is very important in making sure you present the joint venture in the best possible light. Creativity comes in handy when creating irresistible offers and proposals, when deciding the compensation plan, and during the negotiation phase.

3. Resilience

Many small business owners dont really understand the benefits of joint ventures and may be skeptical at first. You need the endurance to educate them about the many benefits a joint venture brings, and to put their minds at ease concerning any issues they may have. You will also need resilience and patience after launching your campaign, as results may not be immediately forthcoming.

4. The ability to visualize synergy

Even if you choose the partner with the largest client list in the marketplace, if theres no real synergy, the partnership will not jell. It is critical to make sure that the combination of products and/or services fit together, and are not the proverbial round peg in a square hole.

5. Effective negotiation skills

From the minute the door is opened to the possibility of a joint venture, serious negotiations begin. Negotiating skills are necessary in making sure that both parties reach a win-win agreement, and also so that you achieve the goals you have set in the planning stages of your project. The ability to present all the benefits of the joint venture to your prospective partner in the early phase of the negotiations is critical to their acceptance of your proposal.

Joint venture marketing is rising in popularity everyday, and is an excellent way for small businesses to springboard their efforts to new success levels. These skills are all acquirable skills, and many resources are available to the small business owner wanting to reach out in these directions.

Copyright 2005 by Habiba Abubakar and Emprez. All rights reserved.

Note: You are welcome to republish this article as long as the resource box at the end is included fully and unaltered.

Habiba Abubakar

Habiba Abubakar, a.k.a. The Profit Diva, is President and CEO of Emprez ? a marketing consultancy and information publishing company that helps small businesses grow and excel in profits.

It didn?t take long for Habiba?s entrepreneurial spirit to surface. In one way or another, she has been involved with small businesses since the 1990s. Her earliest business experience was at age 12, when she persuaded her Grandma to let her sell some Arabian veils to her school friends. Since then, Habiba continuously dabbled into several business opportunities - even during her university education, and when she had a day job - until she found her forte.

After graduating with a Law Degree (LL.B Honors), Habiba made her debut into the corporate world as a sales representative with Marcus Evans Conferences. She soon realized that marketing is her real passion. Habiba switched careers and consequently held marketing positions at Bloomberg L.P, Macfarlanes, HLB Lists, Salans, Buzzacott Chartered Accountants and other blue-chip organizations.

With years of experience in marketing, Habiba founded Emprez to help small businesses cure what she calls the "mediocre profits syndrome." Under Emprez, Habiba set up two subsidiaries to serve separate niche markets.

Through restaurantmarketingstrategy.com, she works with restaurant owners that are struggling to attract more customers and trying to build undying customer loyalty.

Through Profit Diva, Habiba specializes in helping small business owners attract more clients and increase profits by developing, implementing and managing joint venture projects as part of their marketing mix and overall business strategy.

As a speaker, author, consultant and entrepreneur, Habiba is no stranger to the ups and downs of running a business.

As an alumna of Middlesex University Law School, Habiba is often invited back for speaking engagements. She also participates in the university?s annual Alumni Mentoring Scheme by taking on penultimate year marketing students.

Known for her "more clients and greater profits in 180 days" promise, Habiba has been featured in Benefits Marketing Online Magazine, Restaurant Business Magazine, Pizza, Pasta & Italian Food Magazine, Masala Magazine, and commpiled.com, to name a few.

Habiba?s philosophy is simple: "In this world there?s no CAN?T, only WON?T and more often than not, that?s the difference between success and failure."