Barter success requires having some common-sense and using your ability to look at a situation from a slightly different perspective.

Now let’s look at WHY you should not only be actively trading, but spending more time on your bartering strategy and efforts. It all begins by ascertaining the true value of your trade exchange membership. A heightened awareness will be stimulating!

Today, as all markets become more saturated with goods and services, new customer acquisition, especially in the cash marketplace, becomes increasingly difficult. That’s why the new mantra in marketing and sales is lifetime value.


What Is The Lifetime Value Of Your Trade Exchange Membership?

First, let’s define this value. Lifetime value is a function of frequency of sales (annual) multiplied by the gross margin (your barter cost) multiplied by the years of duration (your active participation in the exchange).

In other words, if, as a member you’re making ten barter sales a month and your gross margin is $50 per sale ($500/month or $6,000/year) and you’re a member of the exchange for twenty years, the value of your trade exchange membership is $120,000.

Imposing as this aggregate figure is, it’s just the “tip of the iceberg,” because these satisfied customers you’re successfully and happily serving will become a conduit for more business through word-of-mouth advertising. Bringing you additional trade and cash customers.

If only one brings you another happy colleague the value of your trade exchange membership increases to $132,000.* (Actually the value of the membership will be even more because we’re not considering any continual referrals by the happy colleagues.)

Bottomline: The value of your trade exchange membership is really what you choose to make it.

But given the enormous advantages of doing business in this manner, and looking at it in this new context, you’ve probably realized that your membership could well be one of your company’s most valuable assets. because it’s an “appreciating asset.”

* Your figures may be considerably higher if you do more than $6,000 a year in gross margin barter sales, or trade for more years than in our example, and/or get more referrals than suggested.


For a trade exchange (barter company) near you go to right-hand column, scroll down to “Top Resources.” And be sure o check out our “Site Sponsors” at the top of the page.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 11:42 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs & Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.