Help! I Think This Could Work But How?

[leaseman]

My commercial truck financing business can produce about $800 in fees to a prospective affiliate. The problem is how to implement the program. Here are the stages of a transaction, where it takes place, and the payout to an affiliate as I see it:

Stage One:
Completed Application
Takes place - online
Payout - $8.00

Stage Two:
Proposal
Takes place - offline
Payout: $80.00

Stage Three:
Funded/Closed Deal
Takes place - offline
Payout: $800.00

So the question I have is what stage to I offer the payout to the affiliate? The completed application is good because it's done online so it's trackable. Problem is it's a low payout. Conversely a closed deal pays out well at $800 but it's done offline (involves numerous conversations, paperwork, etc.). This is not trackable by the affiliate. Based on our experience with Adwords we fund a deal for every 1000 clicks (I don't know if this is considered attractive or not). But I see that an affiliate can earn $800 for every 1000 visitors he/she sends to our site.

Can this been done? Is what I have here considered attractive to a potential affiliate? Please help!

[claybutler]

For some people $8 is a lot. I would continue to offer that stage of a payout. The larger payouts are harder because it's really an honor system. Their is no way for the affiliate to track their conversions.

I think the smaller instant payout will attract a different type of affiliate than the larger honor system payout. That can be a good thing. One type of affiliate will focus on application generation and go for the quick little payouts while others will probably be more concerned with landing a customer that is more likely to complete the process. One will foucus on numbers, the other on quality.

That's my guess anyway. I do think you need the $8 instant payout though. That way everyone knows they at least get something (trackable) for their trouble.

[chrisJumbo]

We did the honor system payout. Tested with one affiliate. We gave them data, etc. But, honestly only had one pay out. So in our case, it really wasn't profitable for the affiliate. But, give it a try. The instant payout is a great idea and as Clay mentioned, you'll probably have more people work on that.

With the instant payout of course you have to figure out if paying $8 per lead is profitable.

cd :O)

[deepsand]

Originally Posted by leaseman

Based on our experience with Adwords we fund a deal for every 1000 clicks

What percentage of clicks result in a completed application?

And, what do those 1000 clicks cost you?

[Dinghus]

You could reprogram your website to track customers with affiliates. This would take some work and be an outlay, but it is doable. Your sales people would have to enter the information in the system. Of course this is a good idea for the company anyway. Why rely on paperwork when you can have it all on a network?
Basically each step of the way, the sales/customer rep makes entries regarding whatever stage. That could be trackable by the affiliate too. Affiliate could see things like "Follow up phone call on (date)" that kind of thing.
The whole process should be automated to give you a better business. You actually could track it all the way through to completion of payments.
Another idea is to pay the affiliate if the customer finances a truck later maybe to replace the one they bought earlier.