How The Small Businesses Can Market Like Goliath
In this article, I’m going to introduce a concept to you that will accelerate your sales, without you having to invest a dime in customer acquisition.
Especially if you’re an online business.
But even if you run a brick-and-mortar, there is an opportunity here. I will give you a few examples of how you can implement this powerful strategy either way.
And I saw this marketing strategy hanging out in plain sight when I was watching a Youtube video about the early days of Microsoft.
When I saw it, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard about this concept before. It was pure genius, something that could change the future of any business.
So now in an attempt to understand it better myself, I’m going to share with you what I observed, how I’m applying this to my business, and how you can apply it to yours.
Let’s begin.
The Partnership That Birthed A Billionaire
Regardless of your thoughts on the guy, there’s something worth studying.
His keen eye for opportunity, and was that trait that led him to stumble upon an opportunity that he ceased at the right time, and it was this move that made Bill Gates one of the richest men alive.
In the early 1980s, the personal computer market was still in its infancy, and IBM was looking to enter the market.
They had developed a prototype of a personal computer, but they needed an operating system to run it.
At the same time, Microsoft, which had been founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, had developed a basic operating system called MS-DOS.
Although MS-DOS was not yet widely used, Gates recognized the potential of the personal computer market and saw an opportunity to develop software for it.
He saw his opportunity to capture market share.
But in order to do that, he had to make a deal with IBM.
IBM was a giant in the computer industry, and they were looking to enter the personal computer market.
However, they didn't have the software expertise to create an operating system for their new computer.
After showing the software to IBM, they offered to buy it outright for a measly $430,000 with favorable shares on upgrades.
But Gates had realized this operating system was something that every computer would need.
In other words, he saw the potential for MS-DOS to be used on other personal computers, not just IBM's, and he was determined to hold onto the rights. IBM and Microsoft ultimately agreed to a licensing deal for MS-DOS that included an initial payment of $80,000 and a royalty fee of $10-15 per copy of MS-DOS sold with IBM's personal computers.
This deal allowed Microsoft to retain the rights to the software and sell it to other computer manufacturers, which turned out to be a major factor in the success of MS-DOS and helped to establish Microsoft as THE major player in the personal computer industry.
The partnership between IBM and Microsoft was a game-changer for Microsoft.
The IBM PC became the standard for personal computers, and MS-DOS became the dominant operating system.
Again, this is the move that would make Gates a billionaire by age 31.
When I saw this my mind ran a million miles with the possibilities.
“Can this be applied to any business?” I thought.
Turns out, yes it can.
This is something called Integration Selling: A process in which you integrate your products and services into the sale of other products and services.
Some people call it integration marketing, which in my opinion, slightly differs as it’s a marketing strategy and not a direct sales strategy.
However, I will cover both in this article due to the relevancy of them.
Integration Selling: How It Works
Now that you know the power of this strategy, let’s dive into how you can execute this for your business, whether it be online or brick-and-mortar.
First, you have to understand how this works.
What you’re doing is integrating your product and service into other products and services that serve your target market, but your service must enhance the other.
For example, let’s say you have a course that shows coaches and consultants how to build an email list using FB ads and sell it for $497.
What I would do to apply this is first make a list of people who run high-ticket masterminds from the price range of $3k-$10k+.
The reason I choose this price point is that these prices typically leave room for lots of margin for coaches, meaning they could add my course into their offer without making a drastic change to price.
Either they add the $497 to their price, or they just add it without changing the price due to the margins.
You’d be surprised how many business owners are open to things like this.
The reason is that your product/service enhances the value that the client receives.
When you know who your customer is and the products they are buying, you can begin making a list of the ones that you can integrate your products with.
Do you see how this works? Let me give you two more examples (aside from the IBM and Microsoft one) of integration selling that you can learn from.
Example 1
One of my friends is running a power washing business. His target market is, of course, homeowners.
However, that is not who he markets to. Instead, he markets to people and organizations that work with homeowners.
For example, a few months ago some guy called him looking to get a driveway pressure washed. He was a contractor that was helping this person remodel a property to sell.
One of the things he wanted to do was make the driveway, sidewalks, and patio look brand new.
Hearing about this from my friend, I told him to work out a deal.
Since this man charges in the tens of thousands, he could increase his price by a few hundred without it causing any changes in conversions,
So I told my friend to make a proposal. Bundle in a pressure washing service into the sale of his remodeling contracts.
His customers are likely going to want their driveway to look brand new, so they’ll hire someone anyways. The benefit for the contractor would be the ability to add more value to his clients. If they are interested in a cut of the revenue of your piece, even more value to them.
And that’s just what he did. So now, he gets brand new deals fed to him through this contractor. Whenever he lands a deal, my friend does too.
Example 2
I have a course that shows people how to get booked on podcasts so that they can build their credibility and personal brand.
One of the target customers is authors because authors benefit a lot from interviews that have their ideal audience.
So what I did was found a list of publishing companies, which had services that were on the high-end, $5000+
Again, more room for margin (assuming the biz owner isn’t running a high overhead).
Since my course is only $697, I can bundle it into the sale of their service, since my course will enable their authors the ability to sell more of their books by getting booked on podcasts.
I made a lot of pitches to these companies, a few turned out to turn into something. One, in particular, sells a self-publishing coaching program where they basically help you from start to finish in writing a book.
They charge $8000. So I offered to bundle the course at $497 into their service. I explained how it would differentiate their services too, and help them stand out with it positioned as a “Free” bonus to their program.
Now with every sale she makes - I get a PayPal payment of $397 (I gave her $100 per sale, not necessary always but it sweetens the deal sometimes).
You getting the point of this by now?
Again, just plug in your product and service into the sale of another.
Integration Marketing: How It Works
Now that you got your head around what integration selling is, let me explain what integration marketing is, and how it differs (but not really).
I say not really because it’s the same concept, but the only difference is that you aren’t making a sale when another customer makes a sale.
Instead, integration marketing enables you to improve your marketing efforts and get a much higher return through leveraging traffic streams of highly qualified buyers.
You see, the word “advertising” comes from the Latin root word advertere, which means “To turn one attention to (something)” or to be made aware of something.
So integration marketing allows you to make people of other companies and brands aware of your product/service, people that are already inside of the buyer's journey.
For example, when somebody buys my course that shows them how to get booked on podcasts, on the upsell page they see a course on how to write high-converting email sequences to the leads they get from podcasting.
It’s not mine though, it’s my buddy Adil Amarsi’s course, and we split the sales made from it
What he does it take advantage of the stream of qualified buyers (since they are in the act of buying and have just made a purchase) and position his product right there.
This is how integration marketing works.
You integrate yourself into points of qualified traffic, specifically, traffic that is in the “buying” window.
Let me break down some real-world examples so you can really wrap your head around this.
Example 1
If you’ve set up your LLC. using LegalZoom than you are well aware of what I’m about to share with you.
So, whenever you successfully have made a purchase, after you have given them money to set up your entity, what happens is you are directed immediately to all of these upsells.
You are pitched products like:
- Business attorneys
- Business Insurance
- Business credit cards + bank accounts
- Trademark attorneys
And other things that most new businesses need.
Although I’ve never opted in, I know a lot of people do due to the way they position it.
For example, here is how they position their upsells:
See how easy it is to add these to your order?
These separate entities are not making a direct sale from the sell of LegalZoom services, but they do get the opportunity to make a pitch to a customer that is very likely to convert. Genius.
Example 2
I’m not sure when this was, but some time ago I purchased something from Clickfunnels, and one of their partners, whom they own now was Doodly.
A video creation tool that helps you make doodle-style marketing videos.
Right after I paid for whatever the product was (I’ve bought a lot of stuff from CF) I was sent to a page that pitched me a 30-day free trial to Doodly.
Again, I didn’t opt in, but do you see how this works?
I’m going to give you one more example, another one that I’m implementing in my business.
Example 3
Again, since my course shows people how to get booked on podcasts, there are many softwares that help find shows.
Two of which are Podmatch and JV Directory.
Podmatch is like a matching platform for podcasters looking for guests and shows to be on. JV Directory is a database of companies that are interested in joint venturing, and there happens to be a list of 600+ podcasts to pitch on there.
So what I did was make a training inside of my course on how to use both of these softwares to find shows to pitch.
This is marketing for Podmatch and JV Directory. I leave an affiliate link inside of the course for my students to grab.
Podmatch offers them a discounted price, and JV Directory offers a 60-day free pass for my customers.
Each one converts at a very high number due to the way it’s positioned and who it’s positioned to.
Again, these are buyers that are being marketed to, not just “leads.”
Buyers are buyers are buyers.
How To Apply These Strategies To Your Business
Locking in these kinds of deals is fairly simple and straightforward.
First, you need to make a list of products and services that your clients buy before, during, and after your product.
I explain this a bit more in-depth inside this article on that shows you how to find joint ventures.
For example, if someone opens an LLC, they’ll likely open a business bank account after.
Just think about your customer's journey and you’ll easily spot these products and services.
What products and services do they need before they hire you?
What products and services do they need while they are working with your product/service?
What products and services do they need after they are working with your product/service?
These questions will help you get clear on where to begin doing your research.
Next, you make a list of companies that sell these products and services.
This is the “Database” that you will use to begin pitching and making these deals.
What I recommend doing is looking up the name of the company on LinkedIn and then look at the employees of the company.
And then look for the “Manager/Director Of Strategic Partnerships” person.
You can also find the “Affiliate Manager.”
This is likely the one who sets deals like this up, so begin building a relationship so you can make the proposal.
Sometimes companies won’t have that position, so what you can do is just find the founder's direct contact info by using LinkedIn and tools like Hunter.io to find their email.
Just type in a domain and it’ll show the emails associated with it (I blocked out the info for this post, however)
Then with that email, I wrote an entire article that shows you how to pitch these companies via email, so if you want to check that out then go here.
But that is really how you do this. It’s simple.
Then collaborate with whoever the decision maker is on different win/win ideas, which again I cover in this article.
In Conclusion
Integration Marketing and Integration Selling are some of the most profitable marketing angles that can lead to exponential growth.
We’re talking 300x sometimes, and yes, even more. The sky is the limit here.
Every business can benefit from these strategies, and by using these examples you can begin to create your own Integration Marketing and Integration Selling campaigns.
Again, if you want to know how to craft the email pitches to land these deals, then read this article here where I share some examples of emails that will help you craft your very own.
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