This is the story of Affiliate Network
As an entrepreneur, you are always looking for the next avenue to grow your business. During the pandemic, I found myself and my business partner sitting alone in our office because no one else was allowed to come in. It was during this time that my thoughts began to focus on what we could be doing better with Commercial Brokers International, our CRE brokerage firm.
I was looking for something that would allow us more reach, as well as more revenue for our agents and our company. It hit me that we needed to expand outside of our marketplace, as our marketing was pulling in leads from out of the area, and many of our clients wanted to further expand outside of our core market. If we had a system in place to accommodate the leads and our clients, it would give us the ability to expand our reach and allow our agents to receive referral fees on deals referred to other experienced brokerages.
I immediately went to work researching affiliate networks that might fit our needs. Once I had a good list, I began my due diligence-checking their websites, reading reviews, researching who was running the companies, making sure they would be a good compliment to our services, and then making calls. I seldom spoke to a person, but I left messages with around six affiliate companies. Only three called back, which surprised me; I couldn't understand why a company would not bother to return a call. Of the three I spoke with, they explained their fee structures, and I was surprised at how high the fees were for each member with their current networking/affiliate program.
I gathered all the information and sat down with my business partner to go through the numbers. We just couldn’t find a way to make their numbers work, as there were annual fees as well as percentages on each deal. We would have needed to do a lot more business to make this worthwhile.
I also emailed several brokers I know across the country and asked for their thoughts. After a couple of weeks strategizing with all this information, I came to the conclusion that it would be easier to create and build an affiliate network myself, that addressed all of our and our affiliates’ needs. I immediately worked on a name, which ended up being quite simple: we just said what we are-CRE Affiliate Network. We decided our fee structure was going to be ideal for every boutique commercial real estate brokerage firm: a straight20% referral fee due to the referring company when there is a closed transaction that is 100% referred to the receiving company; however, the fee is also still negotiable between the two firms, depending on their involvement in each transaction.
We created a website, drafted all the agreements, and I began researching independent CRE brokerage firms around the U.S. I started emailing, then following up with calls. I was diligent in explaining how being a member would allow their company and agents to expand their offerings and, in the end, create more revenue for everyone.
The rejections started rolling in. No one wanted to be the second new member, with our company being the first. It was difficult to get anyone to listen to my pitch about our unique fee structure and the fact that we would only take one firm in each market. After weeks of calling, we finally landed our first member. I was so excited when the contract came back-we were on our way, very slowly, but on our way nonetheless. I stayed on the phones, and as we added members, it eventually became a little easier.
There are now 26 affiliates around the U.S., Canada (Toronto), South Africa (Cape Town), Bangladesh and London. We continue to add new members in cities where we currently do not have coverage. We have deals being passed between members on a regular basis, and they are able to communicate between their offices about the state of the market in their city, as well as swap market data. In the end, it was worth the effort, as our company alone has landed multiple national clients since we gained the capability to work in all these new markets.
Finding new revenue streams for your company and expanding your offerings is how you will grow your business and create wealth.
