January 24

Phone sales and loyalty

4  comments

Counting SALES LOYALTY and YOUR Bottomline Numbers

Phone sales are an interesting thing.

I’ll cut right to the chase…

If you’re doing affiliate marketing you should pay your affiliates for sales that call in.

Now, I’m aware there are a LOT of companies who are reading this and praying that you all stop reading now.

I urge you to read on as the companies you promote for SHOULD be loyal to you. If you’re driving traffic to the company and their products, shouldn’t you be credited no matter how the sale occurs…no matter what the extra cost to the company?

Absolutely, positiviely YES – No if’s, No but’s, No equivocation.

Gravy! takes on a whole new meaning!

Both my clients (Todd Mitchell and John Carter) go above and beyond to ensure ALL sales are tagged to affiliates FIRST.

During Todd’s last launch all phone sales were kept in a separate file that we went back through specifically to doublecheck to FIND affiliate tags…that effort netted affiliates another 21K in commissions! (and over 120k over all last year in ‘found’ affiliate payouts)

John just recently launched his “2013 Options Trading Advantage” Class. Yesterday he skyped me and told me “Brad…you cost me 30+K!!” I asked him what he was talking about… See, there were just over a dozen affiliates that participated, but on the night of the webinar EVERYONE made sales. John encouraged people to call in, and boy did they!

On Tuesday, he and his entire support staff spent the ENTIRE day combing through each and every phone order for the 2013 class launch. This effort, on behalf of the affiliates, netted an ADDITIONAL 30,000.00 in AFFILIATE COMMISSIONS!

Hey I’d be pissed too if I had to pay out an additional 30k…but he and Todd are the good ones. They KNOW that affiliates are part of their bigger business plans and not paying affiliates for phone sales is a sure way to alienate people.

An OUTSTANDING show of loyalty by two very good businesspeople. Do you agree?

Do you think it’s stupid and John should have kept that 30k?

Should Todd not have told his affiliates about the extra cash?

If you agree let me know…if you disagree prepare to defend yourself 😉

Cheers,
Brad

P.S. If you’re not an affiliate partner of John and Todd…correct that. These guys are the ONLY place you’re going to make good affiliate money, keep your affiliate money…and have loyalty shown to YOU!

Todd’s Affiliate Program (February 12th will be huge)

John’s Affiliate Program (March will be HUGE for futures affiliates)


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  • A great and GUTSY post Brad, and it’s exactly the kind of conversation that puts you a step above in this industry. There is no doubt in my mind [hell, we are talking about it] that publishers are shying away from affiliate content producers that make their phone sales the focus, and then don’t back it up with this conversation. Especially on 2nd tier stuff, I know I can message you and say “hey, this is my guy/gal” and you take care of it. Always have.

    Trust but verify of course. ;-]

    • Ray I think people think WAYYYY to short term on phone sales. Yes they have internal costs to pay that phone person, but marketing is what drives sales…and you (as a company) either get some money, or none when that affiliate finds out you’re not paying for phone sales.

  • Nice post, Brad!

    At the end of the day, it all boils down to transparency.

    If your affiliate agreement states that the affiliate will be paid for all sales resulting from their leads (period). Then all commissions must be paid REGARDLESS of the situation.

    Here’s the caveat.

    There are some cases where commissioned sales people are involved in closing phone sales – and we’ve run into situations where there just isn’t enough money for a commissioned sales person AND the affiliate to get paid.

    So how to you address this?

    Answer: TRANSPARENCY!

    Clearly state in your affiliate agreement who, what and how affiliate payments are generated so there is no confusion or misconception.

    (and there’s always a win/win workaround – such as affiliates and commissioned sales people can split the commission – especially if they need one another to close the deal).

    Just my 2 cents.

    With gratitude,
    Charlie

    • 100% correct. What’s worse is when affiliates find out that you’re NOT paying them for phone sales! I’ve seen it time and time again where phone sales are never even brought up, affiliates assume the company they’re driving traffic to will show loyalty to their hard work, and affiliates leave in DROVES when they find out they’re not getting all the credit due to them…or at least the decency to say ‘we’re not paying for phone sales’. Transparency and honesty is the key to long term affiliate AND company loyalty.

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