Integration Marketing in B2B Community

[nlvari]

First off. I believe in and have experienced for myself the power of integration marketing.

That said. When offering new revenue streams to businesses in the brick and morter world owners and managers seem to be a bit more guarded.

A lot of folks seem to think it might be a sin to form a partnership or recommend another business for a percentage of revenue.

Now I'm not about to give up. I will find some folks with common sense...

However... Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone have some suggestions about my approach, etc? Specifically targeting B2B sales and to narrow it down further... commercial real estate businesses and property management companies.

[add2it]

If they have an issue about recommending for a piece of the revenue... you can always just recommend customers to each other without a commission.

E.g. a Dentist can have a box with business cards of a General Practitioner on his table saying: If you ever feel sick, Dr. X is the doctor of our choice!

And Dr. X then can have a box with business cards of that Dentist on his table saying: Toothache? Dr. Y is the dentist of our choice!

[lcurtis7]

I too have run into this stumbling block. My own employer (insurance) refuses to make recommendations to our own client database for fear of adverse affects. He feels that if they receive bad service it would ultimately be a bad reflection on his own business.

I approached him with what I thought was a great idea to get referrals for our own business...collect business cards & info from current client database and prepare a "guide" to pass out to our clients to connect them to each other within our community to help boost their businesses as well as promote ours. We have lots of business owner's and times are tough for all.

We could also email the guide to our email list. I would think that people would love to sign up for such a guide as it would be free to them. Just a thought, maybe someone else shares my enthusiasm.

[add2it]

Obviously you should only recommend what you have at least tried or checked out before... not something out of the blue. :)

But I can imagine how frustrating it must be to have a good idea and then being left out in the rain with it.

I was in that same situation many years ago when I worked in retail (Computer hardware sales) in a big electronics store in northern Germany. I saw a cool method of showcasing printers while I was on vacation in the US.

Once I returned I (tried to) share that idea with my supervisor. He just yelled at me to stop thinking about nonsense and get back to the sales floor and "do my job". :eek: Man... did I enjoy it when I quiet my job there a few month later. :cool:

One more job after that and on the 30th of November 2001 was my "freedom day"! The very last day in a full-time job. Yeah!!! :D