A few people a month search for "Crutchfield affiliate program" and land on our homepage, which does not explain it. So here is the whole thing on one page: who it is for, what you actually do, what you earn, and the part about paperwork that most referral programs leave out until after you have said yes.
Who it is for
Manufacturer reps and rep firms in hearth, patio, and outdoor living. If you already walk into dealer showrooms, sit down with owners, and know which of your dealers are doing well and which ones are quietly struggling, this was built for you.
It works for distributors and buying group people too. The common thread is not sales skill. It is access and trust. You are already in the room.
Start with sell-through, not the check
We want to put this first because it is the part that actually matters to a rep, and the commission is the second thing.
Your income is a function of what your dealers sell. A dealer whose phone rings sells more units of your lines, reorders sooner, and has the confidence to take on a new SKU when you bring one. A dealer whose phone does not ring cuts the order, sits on inventory, and tells you the market is soft.
Most independent hearth dealers are not underperforming because of the product. They are underperforming because nobody can find them. We have seen dealers with a great showroom and a website that has not been touched since 2014, or a Google Business Profile with the wrong hours on it, or a fireplace store that has never run a single search ad in a market where a homeowner searching "gas fireplace installation" is worth more than almost any other click in retail.
Fix that and the rep's territory gets better. That happens whether or not you take a dollar of commission. The commission is just how we say thank you for the introduction, every month, for as long as it lasts.
What you actually do
Very little, on purpose. Five steps:
1. You join. Free. No quota, no minimum, no cost of any kind, ever.
2. You make an introduction. An email, a text, a "you should talk to this guy" in a showroom. That is the whole ask. You are not pitching anything and you do not need to know how any of it works.
3. We take it from there. We run a free audit on that dealer, showing what their site, listings, and search presence look like today against what their competitors in the same market are doing. Then we present it. If it is not a fit, we say so and nobody has wasted anybody's time.
4. The dealer signs. We build and run the work: websites, search ads, paid social, SEO and GEO, listings, and lead management, all on LocaliQ's national media infrastructure. You are not involved in any of it.
5. You get paid, monthly. Not once. Every month that dealer stays on the program.
You never service the account. You never build a report. You are never in the middle of a complaint. If something goes wrong, the dealer calls us, not you, and that is deliberate: our job includes protecting the reputation you spent years building in that territory.
What you earn
Commission is a percentage of all revenue generated by the dealers you referred, paid monthly, recurring for as long as those dealers stay. Not a percentage of the first month. Not a one-time finder's fee.
The rate rises as your book grows. Tiers run off your total monthly commissionable revenue:
- Under $30,000 a month: 5%
- $30,000 to $60,000: 6%
- $60,000 to $100,000: 8%
- $100,000 and up: 10%
Put real numbers on it. A single dealer on a $2,199 a month program pays about $110 a month, or roughly $1,300 a year, from one introduction you made once. Ten dealers averaging $3,000 a month is a $30,000 book, which moves you to 6%, or $1,800 a month. That is $21,600 a year for referrals you made and then stopped thinking about.
Nobody gets to ten dealers in a quarter. That is fine. The point of a recurring structure is that it compounds without any further work from you.
The paperwork, honestly
Here is the part we would rather tell you now than after you have said yes. The affiliate agreement is not a one-pager. It is a real contract, and it takes a little while to get through.
The reason is that real checks follow. To be paid commission you are set up as a 1099 independent contractor, and that carries the tax and compliance paperwork that comes with being one. A program that pays you nothing does not need any of that. A program that sends you money every month does.
One thing worth knowing that changed this year: the reporting threshold for Forms 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC went from $600 to $2,000 for payments made on or after January 1, 2026, under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and it gets indexed to inflation starting in 2027. That $600 figure had been sitting there since 1954. It does not change what you owe on the income. It changes when a form gets issued, and it is the kind of detail your accountant will ask about.
Two rules we hold to
Territory protection. A dealer you refer is yours. We do not go around you to them, and we do not pay somebody else on an account you brought in.
Market exclusivity for paying clients. If we already have a dealer paying us in a market, we will not take on their direct competitor down the road. That is a promise we have made to the dealers who write checks, and it applies to referrals too. So if you introduce us to a dealer and we tell you we cannot take them, this is why, and we will tell you plainly rather than making something up.
Who this does not fit
If you are looking for a one-time bounty per lead, this is not that. Commission accrues on revenue that actually gets billed, which means it starts a little slowly and then does not stop.
If you would rather not be a 1099 contractor for a company you do not work for, that is a completely reasonable position and this program will annoy you.
And if you do not have real relationships with dealers, there is nothing here. The entire value of this is that a rep's introduction is worth more than a cold call, and we are paying for the difference.
How to start
Email us or book a call. Fifteen minutes covers it. We will send you the program details, walk you through the agreement rather than emailing it and disappearing, and answer the tax question honestly instead of waving at it.
If you would rather test it first, do that. Introduce us to one dealer in your territory, watch how the audit and the pitch go, and decide afterward. We would rather you saw the work before you signed anything.
Source: The 1099-NEC and 1099-MISC reporting threshold increase from $600 to $2,000, effective for payments made on or after January 1, 2026 and indexed for inflation from 2027, comes from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Confirm your own situation with your accountant. Commission tiers are the program's published schedule and are subject to change by the program.