In fact, I've had far more success with brief, to-the-point proposals than I ever have with a stereotypical ten-page document packed full of corporate jargon. The truth of the matter is that regardless of whom your potential partner may be - whether they're an e-zine publisher, a competing business owner or even if they're the CEO of a Fortune 500 company they're all going to be asking themselves the same question when they receive your proposal:

"What's in this for me?"

More specifically, they'll be wondering exactly how you might be able to benefit them and their company.

Therefore, the most crucial component of your proposal is obviously going to be explaining "what's in it for them". Now, before I get into more details about this, it is important to note that you must have something of great value to offer your potential partner.

It is absolutely crucial that your offer is laser-targeted, relevant and highly beneficial to their clients as well as very lucrative for your potential partner. It's also very important to research your potential partner (and their company) in order to see what they would most likely be looking for and it's not always more money, believe it or not.

With this in mind, let's take a look at how to write your proposal so that it pushes your partner's "buttons" to the point where they'd have to be insane to turn down your offer...

What is your potential partner looking for specifically? Find this out by talking to them, reading their mission statement and researching them as well as how they make decisions. This will reveal the "button" that you'll need to press as you describe the benefits of the partnership Make an offer they can't refuse. Again, this will also take some research, but within reason, you should bend over backwards to accommodate your potential partner and make it as profitable for them as possible. Remember that the clients you acquire from a joint venture will purchase from you again and again and it's usually the "backend profits" after the JV where the real money gets made...

Make it as easy as possible for them to say "yes". People in general are obnoxiously lazy. Many of my proposals have been rejected simply because it either seemed too complicated or it sounded like too much work to them, regardless of how lucrative it was. Simplify your proposal, and if necessary, take on the majority of the workload remember that you're sitting on a goldmine!

Show them the money. Don't be vague when it comes to potential earnings. Logically explain to your prospect how much they could reasonably earn from the partnership. It is very important that you do not simply make an "educated guess" base your predictions entirely on your current marketing stats, sales conversion rates and other real data. This is likely the most overlooked yet crucial part of any given JV proposal.