Will affiliate programs work for B2B?

[fer2008]

Hi everybody,
I've been checking this forums for quite some time and I found lots of interesting topics, I would like to spend all my working time just reading them and learning... but my boss doesnt agree :P

I am in charge of the Affiliate Program in a B2B company and in the first months the results are quite frustrating. Our company is a wholesale marketplace offering international small buyers to purchase directly from China.

In my opinion, maybe the main problems are: its very difficult to find publishers with qualified traffic; the message we need to communicate in our ads is different from the B2C; we are using Cj platform but they won't do anything to promote us...

I just wanted to share a little bit from my experience, I would be grateful to see some comments from others in the same situation or some suggestions...

Thanks for reading!

Fer

[markwelch]

Wow, this sounds like a challenge.

(1) Many affiliates are reluctant to work with merchants in foreign countries.

(2) Many B2B transactions occur after a series of "offline" communications (telephone calls, in-person meetings), and the final order may be placed using a faxed or mailed purchase order. Affiliates fear that this will make it very difficult to track and pay commissions.

(3) Many B2B transactions like this take many weeks or months to be completed, and even after the order is placed, there may be adjustments or disputes, and even non-payment by the buyer.

(4) The main focus of the big affiliate networks, including CJ, is "business-to-consumer."

(5) However, even for these companies, success does not come from "the network," but from the merchant's active recruitment of appropriate web sites. Let me say that again: very few of your successful affiliates will "find you" through an affiliate network, but instead you will "find them" by identifying the web site as an appropriate place for affiliate marketing, and soliciting them appropriately (not spamming, but a focused email followed in many cases by a personal phone call).

[Webwork]

Why would someone use your program instead of going through a company like Alibaba or GlobalSources?

Aren't you simply a wholesale distributor of products manufacturered in China?

How does the lead provider track the sales lead? I doubt a click-through system would work.

Looking at things as they now stand I can't see anyone investing time in generating leads. As the prior poster stated there are simply too many leaks and holes. One can see the possibility of many leads being generated with little income finding its way back to the source.

How would you fix that?