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Charging for lead generation

by Secksi
1 replies
I'm looking to start a referral website in a particular niche. I'm not sure how to charge the niche businesses for the listing.

Easiest way is to charge the niche business money to list on my website. Another possibility is to let them buy customer information for a particular orders they can fulfil. However, this doesn't guarantee them a order, and they lose money. Instead I want to charge them based on commission of their sales. I get more money, they get a guaranteed sales, win win.

Problem is, this particular niche doesn't have much on-line ordering and is usually finalized over phone, or possibly email. I need/want to provide their phone number, email, website, etc to make the site more user-friendly for visitors. I don't want the niche business to get leads from me, and use my site services only to cut me out.

One solution is allowing on-line ordering, however this still will not capture sales of those customers calling the business directly and then ordering. While they may pay me for the lead, chances are they will most likely offer a discount to the customer, and cut me out.While the business is going to start of referring locals businesses, I want to have the service available nationwide, so accepting money for leads this way becomes unsustainable.

So is there a way to charge commission on final sales, or should I just offer a flat fee for information buyouts?
#charging #generation #lead
  • Profile picture of the author randomsoftwaregroup
    Working on commission is just asking to get screwed. Aside from purposely being screwed, if they are getting leads from multiple avenues they may just mess up their own tracking and not pay you on a lead that closes.

    Just charge "x" for a lead, and "y" for a phone call lasting "z" minutes. Calls are worth more than leads, so adjust accordingly. We normally charge for calls lasting 1+ minutes, but something 3 minutes is ok. You can easily use Kall8 to track the calls, and the times.

    In the beginning you will probably have to let the company post pay, but as soon as they are happy and realize you generate quality, go to a prepay method. Why? Just like commissions, using the post pay method opens you up to get the NO pay method. There are so many lead generation companies out there that some business actually go to one, promise to pay after they get leads, never pay, and go on to the next one. They figure who will really take them to court for a few hundred bucks?

    So always CYOA - Cover Your Own A$$ :-)
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