You got an inquiry from outside of your territory, and it looks like a good opportunity. What now?
Good question. It’s one that GOTG’s founders have been mulling lately as we continue to grow and new issues surface. Solar grazing in particular has the potential to complicate things. It’s time for a clarification of our policy, so here goes…
Let’s start by laying some groundwork:
Your affiliate agreement allows you to provide targeted grazing services with goats or sheep to customers inside the bounds of your territory, or outside of your territory only with express permission from Goats On The Go, LC;
Even if you believe there is not another affiliate covering the area of the customer’s property, you still need to get express permission to pursue a project that falls outside of your territory;
We want our affiliates to be responsive to customers who contact them from outside of their territories. But, we would interpret active prospecting by an affiliate outside of their territory — without express permission — to be a violation of their affiliate agreement.
It’s important to be upfront here about Goats On The Go, LC’s interests. We make money by granting territories. The more territories we grant, the more we make. Because we want lots of customers to experience professional targeted grazing, we’re usually happy to say, “Go for it!” when a customer with a one-off, single season project approaches you about a property that would otherwise go un-served. But when that one-off turns into many projects in the same area, some with year-in/year-out potential, we’re apt to say, “It’s time for you to buy an additional territory.”
That’s all fine and dandy in thriving suburban metros. Buying additional territories where the demand has been proven is a no-brainer. But large, multi-year projects (often for government agencies or conservation groups) and utility-scale solar grazing contracts can pop up randomly in sleepy rural places. No one wants to buy a vast, quiet territory hoping for a 2,000 acre solar farm to come along. Sure, it could happen, but how would the territory pay for itself in the meantime?
We understand. So here’s how we’ll approach these infrequent, but potentially valuable, opportunities:
Whenever you are contacted about a potential project outside of your territory, even if it’s nearby and there appear to be no conflicts with other affiliates, talk to us first. Always.
If you hear about a large project (e.g. a solar farm) that may be a candidate for targeted grazing outside of your territory that you are interested in serving, talk to us. We’ll discuss whether you should attempt to develop the lead. The important thing is that we never want to have multiple affiliates vying for the attention of the same customer, as that would be confusing and self-defeating.
If you are able to land that big, multi-year project, we will work with you to create an additional territory around it. The territory will require payment of an additional affiliate fee, but you will have budgeted that into your proposal for the customer from the beginning. The length of the term of the additional affiliate agreement will be negotiable.
So, that’s a lot of words for an issue that will likely not pop up often, but there you go. Key takeaway: TALK TO US!