Provided by SELCO Foundation, Content Partner for the Sendea Business Tools
Business Associates (BAs) are commission based employment opportunities provided to an individual or partner organization to increase outreach and efficiency of an enterprise particularly in rural areas. The services taken up by a BA can be in the form of needs assessment, sales and marketing, facilitation of end user financing and so on. The case study explores how BAs are leveraged in the organization thereby demonstrating the possibilities of replicating such a channel to suit similar needs.
The concept of a part time commission agent is not new and has been used by various types of organizations to offer a host of services that would be cost effective for the parent organization rather than using full time resources. SELCO borrowed this concept as a means to reach deeper within communities through local champions who were better embedded within communities to convince them about the benefits of the solution. Since trust and credibility were paramount in convincing customers, engaging a local champion was seen as an effective approach. 
The role of the BA was outlined to closely complement the activities of the branch thereby ensuring that the core mission and operations of the organization were not disconnected through independent resources. 

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