Dipping for Diamonds – interview with Glenn Kirkwood

Many people have asked me how I selected the contributors for my new book Ignite Your Business Mojo in which Glenn Kirkwood has written a chapter 8 on network and referral marketing. My answer is always the same – I looked for people who were truly experts in their field AND walked their talk, I hope your enjoy my series of interviews with Glenn and the other contributors,  you may well like to read a great example below about how successful a join venture can really be!

In one of my first conversations with Glenn he told me about a joint venture strategy between a  book store and a jeweler – that was called Dipping for Diamonds. It involved a glass vase full of cubic zirconias and one diamond (the jewelers contribution). Every customer that came in to the book store and  made a purchase over $40 got to dip for the diamond and when they ask if their  treasure was the valuable diamond the book store owner had to admit that he didn’t know and suggested they pop down to the jeweler to have it checked out. The desired outcome of course was to increase business overall for both business owners.

In short the outcome was that the book store increased it’s turnover by $380,000 that year and the jeweller had over 250 of the cubic zirconia recipients have their stone turned into a piece of jewellery with many buying a second stone to create a pair of earrings. The person who won the actual diamond, spent another $2500 with the jeweler having it made into a beautiful brooch.

This arrangement was truly a win-win-win with both business owners increasing their profits beyond the expense of the promotion and the recipents of the stones getting a fabulous value add for their part in the promotion – remember  and they had to do was spend over $40 at a book store.

So, what could you be doing in your business around networking with other businesses and joint ventures or referral programs. Glenn is not called That Referral Guy for nothing he certainly is a man with many business tips to share.

In this video Glenn mentions his BNI Team site where you can grab some great resources http://www.BNIteam.com.au .

If you’d like to grab a copy of Ignite Your Business Mojo and read Glenn’s Chapter along with all the other fabulous chapters form business experts across the area just pop over to http://www.IgniteYourBusinessMojo.com