3 Challenges of Managing Referrals

How are payment agreements managed?

How do you track affiliate payment?

What if the affiliate doesn’t do anything?

How Do You Manage Them All?

Alright. So you’re convinced that you need partners and affiliates. But managing those relationships can be daunting on its own. The last chapter reviewed the pains of financial overhead. Now we are going to address the complexity of trying to manage affiliates, vendors, and partners.

affiliate referral system

First, how is payment determined? The value of each of your affiliates or partners is going to vary. Partnering with a slightly larger vendor down the street is beneficial. However, that partnership is not as likely to bring in the large quantity of buyers that a guru in your industry can produce. That being the case, the guru deserves more from you because they are offering you significantly more business.
Secondly, how do you know if the affiliate is truly increasing your business? At Infusionsoft, we grapple with this issue on occasion. Someone partners with us, anticipating the affiliate check they will be receiving for their referrals. However,

several months may pass by where their “partnership” appears to have failed. If I have offered
them a free copy of the software, expecting them to spread the word, their lack of production is
actually hurting my business. But, if you have no way of tracking that information, it might be
some time before you are made any wiser.

Finally, how do you track the payment of your affiliates? As I mentioned a time or two before,
manual systems don’t work! Faulty financial management can cause unpleasant situations to
arise. The partnerships you build can be easily destroyed if you are unprepared for the management of such partnerships.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

 "keywords" content=" marketing capabilities,building blocks,partnership,payment agreements managed,affiliate payment,affiliate,partners "

why there aren't any No Growth in your own business?

I want to move away from the referral program issue and discuss the lack of growth that companies without partners tend to experience. Once you have reached out to your entire customer base and all your leads, where do you go from there? In the networking game, you’re stuck.

So your next option is to rely heavily on your marketing capabilities. Marketing is an unbelievably powerful tool--if you’ve adopted the other building blocks. Nevertheless, this book is designed to help you double, if not triple your sales, so we need to squeeze as much value out of every business venture that we can. Therefore, small businesses need to extend their reach as quickly, easily, and inexpensively as possible.

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Another reason growing on your own is difficult, is the time it takes. As much as you might like
to, you don’t have the luxury of simply promoting your product and watching the cash come
rolling in. You’ve got other things to manage…like your company.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

 "keywords" content=" marketing capabilities,building blocks,product ,referral programthe networking game,stuck"

Fight to get your Referrals sooner

The fastest and easiest way to grow your business is from your customers spreading the word
about you.

However, standard referral programs just don’t work. You see, customers just aren’t thinking about you. Most people are egocentric and are usually thinking about themselves and their families.

This is not a bad thing. If we didn’t care for our own needs, we’d all be in a constant daze. But we are wrapped up in our own lives, and it doesn’t occur to most folks that the small business owner, who dedicated so much time to helping them, would really like a referral.

 MOST REFERRAL PROGRAMS DON’T WORK!

Furthermore, the concerted efforts to create a referral program are often more of a headache than they are worth. I have seen several “referral programs” in action that really have no hope of succeeding. In fact, most don’t. So, rather than create programs, many people rely on the good old request. “Please, send me referrals.” But, unless you are asking on a regular basis, your customer’s going to forget again.

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

 "keywords" content=" REFERRAL PROGRAM, Referrals, get Referrals"

What Do They Add?

You can’t be the perfect entrepreneur. You can try, and maybe get close, but at some point in
time everybody needs additional skills, markets, and time they don’t possess.

One of my favorite learning moments was when someone taught me about synergy. The example they used was two horses pulling a cart. Each horse can pull approximately 500 lbs (I’m making that up, because I don’t remember the actual numbers). A basic understanding of math would logically determine that strapping the two horses together, they could pull 1,000 lbs. In reality, two horses working together can pull three times the amount they could on their own-- not double.

These are the same advantages partnerships provide. Partners are skilled individuals using their
time and skills to not only assist you, but help you do more than either of you can do on your
own. The benefits become absolutely magical.

keywords:-advantages partnerships provide,killed individuals,The benefits

 © 2008 By Clate Mask

ways to Grow your business Through Partners

 Use PARTNERS to help grow your business

One of the great traits of entrepreneurs is that they feel like they can do it all.

Obviously you have to have some degree of that feeling, otherwise no one would take on the challenge of having their own business. So, although it’s admirable to want to work and (in the case of most small business owners) devote your life to your business, sometimes you need a little extra help.

Let’s face it. You are just one person. And, no matter how great you are, there are not enough hours in the day to get through everything you need to accomplish. Nevertheless, that mentality doesn’t stop many people from trying. Rather than hire more employees or find alternative

means of growing their business, small business owners allow their companies to hit a peak and maintain that peak forever.

 

This chapter encompasses the use of partners to help grow your business. When I say “Grow

Through Partners” I am talking about giving your business additional reach. You don’t want to have partners just for the sake of having partners. The purpose needs to be clear. They need to be individuals that will significantly add to the success your small business is already experiencing.

keywordsPARTNERS ,business, entrepreneurs

 © 2008 By Clate Mask