One of the brightest moments in my business career were when I was visiting with my joint venture partner and talking about our future relationship together. I remember asking Bill over and we instantly made friends. Simply by chatting about events we both enjoyed doing for our business.

One of the most effective ways to start out a business relationship, is by asking your future JV partner over to meet with you at your office or home. Why? Because you have an incredibly powerful offer to make to them, and if they aren't sharp enough or interested enough, to come and see you, then they are not going to work with you!

Even though you both may see things for mutual gain, you must stay in control. You're the fuel making this marketing networking machine run hard and fast. If they are too complacent to not wish to come into your domain at the first meeting, then they are not the winner here.

The thing to realize is not to get hung up on one person or another. Just politely brush them away and move on to the next. In fact, you only need one or two good relationships in each field to complete the circle and take care of your customers. The real beauty of all this, besides them giving you recommendations and paying for some, or all of your advertising, is much deeper than that. The real beauty is that your customers will be well taken care of!

It would be highly unusual for a customer to have a team of dedicated professionals taking care of you in this manner. One of the side benefits for you is that you will have this team to work on your own situation, usually at little or no cost. Often, you can set up an arrangement where these people will do work for free or at a discount for you. Of course, you should offer them help when they have personal needs, as well.

Another important fact to look at is your Unique Selling Proposition you bring to the table when you are able to tell a new prospect, how your team works together to maximize the efficiency of managing their purchase of your products or services. Do you think your USP is a little better than what your former competitors say? I would say so, because you have to have a totally different attitude to make this work. You have to be from a place of service with a customer-centered psychology.

For example, when you're meeting with a customer of an associate, and after listening to them, you know that they are really not ready to consider your product or service right now. Maybe later, but not now. In your heart, you know that you have to tell this person that he/she should really think about the future carefully before they pour all their money into whatever your offering.

If this were you, would you lead your customer over the hump? Would you "lead" him/her to the conclusion that doing what you say is the right decision...instead of telling your customer to consider whether doing anything right now is wise? You see, if you ask the right kinds of questions, and listen to what people really tell you, you'll always know in your heart what's right. And if you always do what your heart tells you is right, you'll get more business than you'll know what to do with, because of the positive energy you create when you do the right things.

Can you imagine the amount of trust you can build with an associate when you tell his customer and him, that this person (or business) isn't in the right position to buy just yet, and you advise waiting until uncertainties are resolved? The trust will be a bridge into the heart of not just the customer, but the professional, as well.

Appealing to a professional's need for more customers will get the relationship started. They'll see you as a person who can help them solve their own marketing problems. After you're in the door, developing this trust and showing the compassion I'm describing will help secure you into other professional's lives and the lives of their customers.