Referring other resellers and designers to Business Catalyst

As a Business Catalyst Partner you have the opportunity to refer other resellers to join the Business Catalyst Partner program, you can make up to $200 + 10% on all of this reseller's hosting fees into the future. 

Furthermore, there is an incentive for this reseller to signup after being referred by a current Partner because they will receive a 5% discount on the Business Catalyst Partner program sign-up fee should they elect to join us as a Standard or Premium Partner.  (You can also set up additional Partner Portals (self referral) where the Partner Portal is focused totally on a vertical market, niching down the content of the free Partner site, creating targeted template sites for replication at the 30-Day Trial link (only for Premium Partners), and customizing the auto responders for that specific target market). 

This is how it works:

• Partners refer other designers to the Business Catalyst Partner program, using the form in your Partner Portal > Resellers Tab > Refer a Designer to become a Reseller
• The referred person signs up using your Partner code in the Promo Code field in the signup page
• You earn an upfront finders fee + ongoing commissions (this will depend on the level of partnership the referrer is in and what level the referred Partner signs up for)

All Business Catalyst Partner referrals will be listed under the Reseller Tab of your Partner Portal.

Based on your level of Business Catalyst partnership the set finders fee and the 10% ongoing commission applies differently.

When to expect your commission and your finders fee:

• Ongoing Commission: Free Partners receive no ongoing commission. Ongoing commission will ONLY apply to hosting fees on sites created by referred Partners from the next billing cycle after the referring Free Partner upgrades to a Standard or Premium level. 
• Finders Fee:  Finders fee does not apply at any stage to a Free Partner referring other free, standard or premium partners.

• Ongoing Commission: Free Partners receive no ongoing commission.  Ongoing commission will ONLY apply to hosting fees on sites created by referred Partners from the next billing cycle after the referring Free Partner upgrades to a Standard or Premium level. 
• Finders Fee:  Finders fee does not apply at any stage to a free partner referring other Free, Standard or Premium Partners.



• Ongoing Commission: Paid Partners receive 10% ongoing commission on hosting fees on sites created by the Free partner.  
• Finders Fee:  Finders fee are earned/ accrued at the time the Free Partner upgrades to a Standard or Premium level.  The Finders fee is based on the Partnership level upgraded too, Standard or Premium.  See table above.  

• Ongoing Commission: Paid Partners receive 10% ongoing commission on hosting fees on sites created by the Standard or Premium Partner.
• Finders Fee:  Finders fee are earned/ accrued based on the paid Partnership level purchased, Standard or Premium.  See table above.

Important:  Business Catalyst will only award commissions to you for Partners that you refer via the form in the Reseller Tab of your Partner Portal and who use your promo code at the time of signing up. We cannot make any exceptions our platform is automated around this process. Under no circumstance may you promote or share your Partner Code with others verbally, or via direct email, in forums or posting it on a website or similar. Anyone found to be proactively marketing their Partner Code, or promoting any reference to Business Catalyst discounts on the web will have applicable commissions clawed back. 

As a Partner (Free, Standard o Premium) referring other resellers to join Business Catalyst is very simple process but one that must be followed without exception.  Simply access your Partner Portal > Resellers Tab > Use the form available on this page by selecting ' Refer a Designer to become a Reseller' 

Here is an outline of the process that needs to be followed to ensure your referral is linked correctly to you in our system (there are validations carried out at the time of signing up):

1)  You refer a person by simply entering their name and email address in the 'Refer a Partner box' located under your Resellers Tab in your Partner Portal. This sends them a template message inviting them to learn more about the Partner Program with Business Catalyst and instructions to follow if signing up.  This message is customizable if you want to change or add any content to make it your own. 

2)  Please Note: The person you are referring MUST receive the referral email that is triggered by the form noted in point 1) above. The referred person MUST then signup with the SAME EMAIL ADDRESS as used in the Recipient Email Address in this referral form AND they MUST also use your Partner code in the Promo Code field found in the automated signup form (to help with this process the link in the referral text auto populates your Partner Code into the Promo Code field). If this process, from initial referral by you to the signup of the referred person, is not followed we cannot pay out the finders fee commissions or attribute future commission over ride, there are no exceptions. Of course the referred individual would also not benefit by the 5% discount if the process is not followed. 

3)  The referred person will sign up as a Free Partner initially via the sign-up page using the correct email address and your Partner code in the Promo Code field (once they tab out of the Promo Code field the page will refresh and the price will have reduced by 5%).   There are a number of possible scenarios where the initial sign up won't go through and they will be presented with error message.  Our referral sign up process carries validations to ensure that the referred person uses the correct information:

• If the referred person does not use the correct email address while using your Partner code an error will be given asking them to use the original email address. 
• If using the correct email and address but an invalid Partner Code in the Promo Code field they will get an 'invalid promo code' error.
• If they used the correct email and another Partner's valid Partner code, they would see an error message asking them to use the Partner code received with the original referral.

4)  As the referring Partner, you will earn an instant $200 if referring a Premium level Partner or $100 if referring a Standard level Partner. You will see this commission showing in your Partner Portal > Dashboard along with standard hosting commission.  Please refer to topic above Referrer Finders Fee and 10% Ongoing Hosting Commission for detail on when the finders fee and commission is applicable to Partners. 

5)  You as the referring Partner will also earn 10% override commission on all ongoing hosting fees generated by this new Partner. Once the new Partner has hosting invoices you will be able to view these in your Partner Portal > Billing Tab, listing Reseller commissions. Please refer to topic above Referrer Finders Fee and 10% Ongoing Hosting Commission for detail on when the finders fee and commission is applicable to Partners. 

6)  Commission earned from referring a new Partner (finders fees and the 10% override on their hosting fees), are redeemable in the normal fashion (when total accrued commissions exceed $500). 

Important:  Business Catalyst will only award commissions to you for Partners that you refer via the form in your Partner Portal who use your promo code at the time of signing up. We cannot make any exceptions our platform is automated around this process. Under no circumstance may you exchange your promo code with prospects in any other fashion nor advertise it online. Anyone found to be proactively marketing their Partner codes online, or promoting any reference to Business Catalyst discounts on the web will have applicable commissions clawed back.  

The above validations are in place to try help prevent such circumventions.  Still there are occasions where the Partner has provided the Partner Code and information to the referral correctly (via my Partner Portal > Resellers Tab > Refer a Designer to become a Reseller) but the referred person circumvents the process (goes to Free Signup on www.businesscatalyst.com and does not use the Partner Code) and signs up at full price.

If this is the case then the referred Partner has not used your Partner Code and also has used a different email address (not the one used in the referral process).  If this occurs, our system will NOT recognize the new Partner as being referred by you. Unfortunately, as the whole setup process is an automated setup, we are not able to manually override this under any circumstances.   

Therefore, it is important that the correct steps are followed when referring a new Reseller to Business Catalyst.