Providing support to your subscribers is an important way to insure your, and your subscribers', success. It will enable you to earn commissions from Support Accounts, of course. But more importantly, it will lead your users to view you as a valued resource and partner in their Marketing and Sales program, earning you referrals and even more new subscribers, so you will have a rich and ever-increasing source of growth.

Providing support to your subscribers is the easiest way to leverage the Lead Generator and make money. And it involves 3 simple steps:

1. Assist your users in subscribing to the Lead Generator, and posting their initial entries. This includes:
   • Helping them Register themselves and their company (3 minutes)
   • Helping them post their Company Description (3 minutes, copying it from their Web site with the help of the user's marketing or sales department)
   • Helping them post their company's Products & Services (15 minutes, copying it from their line card with the help of the user's marketing or sales department)
   • Helping them identify and post their company's Needs (15 minutes, copying it from their Accounts Payable ledger with the help of the user's purchasing department)
   • Helping them upload their Contacts from LinkedIn and other sources (10 minutes)
   • Helping them post their company's Advertisements, and helping them upload their brochures and Sales Aids
   • Helping them post any Leads that they have
   • Helping them post their Organizational Chart, and registering any other users in the company who might be appropriate.
2. Assist your customers in using the system (i.e. doing searches, and updating their data) to generate qualified sales leads (about 5 minutes per week, for 1-2 weeks)
   • Use the MatchMaker tools on the Sales Portal to help them find sales leads (as you have time).
3. Assist your customers in searching for vendors who will meet their needs, and compete for their business on the basis of price, service and quality (about 5 minutes per week, for 1-2 weeks)
   • Using the MatchMaker tools to help them find qualified vendors and other resources.

By providing this modest level of support, you can further earn your customers' trust and enthusiasm. In this way they will be more inclined to maintain their subscription as you grow your territory. And, most importantly, they will be more likely to provide you with referrals to their friends and other contacts whom they feel would benefit from membership. You may even find that you can pull through other marketing and sales consulting services, either supplied by JV/M (paying a commission) or supplied by you.

Learning how to provide this "CSR-level" of support is easy and worthwhile. To learn, you basically just need to register as a user, and become proficient at using the Lead Generator yourself. You can then easily show other people how to use it.

There are several tools, Getting Started Guides, and videos available (including this recent one) that can walk you through the process. To be sure, you may find it to be difficult to coach people on how to use the Lead Generator if you haven't used the system yourself; so learn how to use it!

As you coach your users (assuming they need help) try to get them to the point where they can do searches by themselves. That is, walk them through the process of registering and posting their company's initial entries. Make sure they post enough data (including their Company Description, their Products & Services, their Needs, a Lead or two, their Organization Chart, and an Ad,) to allow them to gain access to the full database. Remember, if they don't post a specific type of item (e.g. their Needs) they won't be able to search for that type of data, and they may miss a lot of the value of the system.

Once you've shown them how to post their company's initial entries (which should only take a half hour or so, assuming you really have to hold their hand) show them how to do a search using "Basic Search." Run a search for a lead for one of their products or services, and show them the results. Be sure to show them how the results from each table occupy a separate section of the page. Show them how to look at the Details of a "hit." And show them how to contact the prospect (on-line or off-line). After a few examples, even the most technically unsophisticated computer user will be able to search successfully.

You can then show them the "Quick Check" results, either from the Quick Check link or from the "My Company Data" page. Again, after one time through, most users "get it."

Finally, you can then point them to the "Advanced Search" page. Most people won't need you to show them how to use it, as it is very self explanatory. But you may want to show them how they can constrain their searches to certain tables, or to a geographic area. And again, you can show them how to contact a lead whenever you run a search (assuming you get a hit.)

One very effective way to provide coaching like this with very little cost, time or inconvenience is to use a screen-sharing program like Skype, GoToMeeting, iChat or join.me. Using screen sharing, you easily demonstrate how to use the system, and even help them post their data remotely. The best way to do it is for you to look at their screen as they access the system, since it gets them used to interacting with the system, rather than observing yo do it.

Coaching is a very effective way to get good users - even if they are Support Accounts and you do all the work. Good users become advocates for the system, which will help you grow your subscriber base, and your revenues.