Here are the specifics of the arrangement, according to the principals involved: Home Depot agreed to display residential equipment in their stores for the purpose of generating sales leads from walk-in customers in select geographical areas. Home Depot formed a relationship with Trane dealers from the area who were asked to join the program, which was designed to provide an equal number of sales leads for each dealer in the area. It was then up to the dealer to contact the lead and negotiate the sale and installation.
Home Depot encouraged the dealers to have their own salespeople on hand to talk with the walk-in customers. If that was not possible, a telephone hotline phone number was set up for walk-ins to call Home Depot for more information, which was relayed to Trane. For this exposure, Home Depot received a predetermined percentage of each sale as a “finder’s fee.” If no sale was made, no fee was collected.