Originally Posted by TopBucksTrixxxia

Reps are there to help you. If you ask for the help, you should be getting it. If you want them to follow your sales they should be doing it - just be aware that you're not alone - some of us have thousands of affiliates assigned to us.
There are hundreds upon hundreds of affiliates who've asked for help and then not followed through with the suggestions, didn't make the changes, didn't use the tools and just jump ship and rather complain that it doesn't convert.

The ones that want help will get it. Some newer guys to the program have proposterous requests - others keep it real or know the limitations of what can be done 'now' and what will come with time. The ones that keep it real, test, tweak and grow - test, tweak and grow. Most times, the problems arise when there's a slowdown in sales - is it the sponsor, is it scrubbing, is it places that you trade with that lost a valuable source of traffic and are filling it with a less 'good' source, is it the place you submit to that has replaced some of their traffic sources, is it consumers changing & methods no longer working? There are thousands of reasons that can affect 'why' sales are down - switching your methods too quick can cause a few 'slow' months rather than just a one or two week period.

One of my biggest mistakes was to stop submissions - at the time I thought it would be best 'not' to compete with my affiliates & to be available 18-20 hours a day for them. Today, I can no longer relate to the new TGP submission/free site/AVS hurdles firsthand - however, I have a higher level of knowledge, secondhand yes but from multiple affiliates/traffic sources/marketing methods from my relationship with my affiliates. I have more concrete information on our program (and sometimes other programs too in terms of basing trends) than you could possibly get otherwise. Will I tell you how some guys do 300-3000 sales a month - no. I can tell you what you're doing that I see a pattern on it not working from all the rest though. If you want the golden route, I'm afraid that there are too many intricate factors that can make your situation different from the rest so there's no guarantee, but with what you know about your traffic and we know from the heaps of info we get, can prove to be less time consuming and better performing for you.

As a rep, I try my best to help - I don't 'need' to be hot, I want people who are focused on sales, marketing, growth & this industry as a business with as much dedication as my own - for this, I have been blessed.

I see a trend growing, my affiliates are changing somewhat, most want me to be reactive rather than proactive. Their stuff is tweaked enough to continue to perform - when sales go down, we search for the culprit. Most times, the only thing that solves it is time. After a few days, conversions are back to normal - now, is it the sponsor, scrubbing, trades, server issues (and on what end - affiliates servers or sponsors?) - there's no way to say, beyond a shadow of a doubt, what was the cause but switching what worked in the past, most times, won't solve it in the short-term either.

Regarding the technical part - I'm far from technical but in our case we have a large team and there's an 'on call' schedule to make sure there's always someone available to fix things should something go wrong. Although I have everyone's number - when something isn't right for more than 5 minutes on any of our systems I call the VP or text message her. Any problem for you, means a problem for me and a problem for the company.

Saying we are not needed, is exaggerated. If you have no need for them, great & all the better for you. There are alot that think otherwise. Your willingness to work with your rep is what will open your doors and perhaps a give you a new perspective on your business as a whole. They can't help you if you don't ask and doing one week of research for each affiliate who 'may' take the advice is not feasible either.

**Also, I'm not perfect and I've probably dropped the ball more times than I would have liked, but I do have a huge affiliate base and can sometimes overlook even the important stuff - not an excuse but now I try to set reminders and stickies all over my screen and thankfully talk to my people often enough.

DAMN it's a long post.......sorry