Method and system for allocating and distributing royalty/commission payments to resellers/distributors
First Claim
1. A method for reducing sales channel conflict, comprising:
- receiving orders through an indirect sales channel;
receiving orders through a direct sales channel;
using a computer system, allocating a portion of revenue derived through the direct sales channel into a compensation pool; and
distributing the compensation pool to sellers responsible for sales made through the indirect sales channel at the end of a distribution cycle.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system, method and related apparatus are described for reducing channel conflict between a manufacturer'"'"'s direct sales channel and an indirect sales channel of independent sellers. The method generally includes receiving customer orders from the sellers or on behalf of the sellers through the indirect sales channel and receiving customer orders directly through the direct sales channel. A defined portion of the revenue derived through the direct sales channel is allocated into a compensation pool. At the end of a distribution cycle, the compensation pool is distributed among a plurality of sellers in the indirect sales channel based on each seller'"'"'s sales contribution.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A method for reducing sales channel conflict, comprising:
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receiving orders through an indirect sales channel;
receiving orders through a direct sales channel;
using a computer system, allocating a portion of revenue derived through the direct sales channel into a compensation pool; and
distributing the compensation pool to sellers responsible for sales made through the indirect sales channel at the end of a distribution cycle. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
computing a sales commission associated with each order derived through the indirect sales channel; and
distributing the sales commission to the sellers after a product/service associated with the order has been retained by a customer for a predetermined hold period, wherein the sales contribution of the seller is the sum of all sales commissions received during the distribution cycle.
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9. The method of claim 1, wherein the allocation of a portion of direct sales revenue into the compensation pool, and the distribution of the compensation pool are automatically implemented by a software program.
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10. An apparatus comprising a machine-readable medium containing instructions, which when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform operations comprising:
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examining orders placed within a defined time period;
identifying direct orders that were derived through a direct sales channel;
identifying indirect orders that were derived through an indirect sales channel;
computing revenue derived from the direct orders; and
allocating a portion of revenue derived from the direct orders into a compensation pool to be distributed to a seller in the indirect sales channel. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
computing a sales commission associated with each indirect order;
computing a sales contribution of the seller by adding sales commissions earned by the seller during a distribution period;
comparing the sales contribution of the seller with a total sales contribution made by all sellers; and
computing a compensation of the seller from the compensation pool based on the sales contribution of the seller compared with the total sales contribution.
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14. A computer system comprising:
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a data storage device to store data;
an order processing subsystem to process a customer order and store information related to the customer order in the data storage device;
a classification subsystem to classify the customer order as being placed through one of an indirect sales channel and a direct sales channel;
a pool contribution subsystem to allocate a predetermined portion of revenue generated from the customer order into a compensation pool; and
a compensation-computation subsystem to compute a sales commission and a channel-conflict compensation associated with the order. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus comprising:
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means for examining orders placed within a defined time period;
means for identifying direct orders that were derived through a direct sales channel;
means for identifying indirect orders that were derived through an indirect sales channel;
means for computing revenue derived from the direct orders; and
means for allocating a portion of the revenue derived from the direct orders into a compensation pool to be distributed to a seller in the indirect sales channel. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
means for computing a sales commission associated with each indirect order;
means for computing a sales contribution of the seller by adding sales commissions earned by the seller during a distribution period;
means for comparing the sales contribution of the seller with a total sales contribution made by all sellers; and
means for computing a compensation of the seller from the compensation pool based on the sales contribution of the seller compared with the total sales contribution.
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22. A system comprising:
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a data storage device to store data;
order processing means for processing a customer order and store information related to the customer order in the data storage device;
classification means for classifying the customer order as being placed through one of an indirect sales channel and a direct sales channel;
pool contribution means for allocating a predetermined portion of revenue generated from the customer order into a compensation pool; and
compensation-computation means for computing a sales commission and a channel-conflict compensation associated with the order. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification