Systems and Methods of Matching Purchase Requests with Consummated Sales

Abstract

A sales matching system which may match sales of products or services with consummated sales by collecting selected leads from a group of lead suppliers, collecting a plurality of sales records from multiple sales sources, and matching at least some of the sales records to selected leads. The matches may be assigned a matching confidence, and may reach a threshold level of confidence to be considered a matched sale. The system may also generate invoices to selected sellers identifying invoice-able sales for which compensation may be obtained in exchange for providing leads giving rise thereto.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of matching leads with consummated sales comprising the following steps:
 collecting selected leads from at least one lead supplier which identifies a group of prospective buyers for selected products or services;   collecting a plurality of sales records having sales data information for consummated sales of the selected products or services, wherein the plurality of sales records are derived from multiple sales sources; and   matching at least some of the sales records to the selected leads provided from the group of lead suppliers according to a predetermined matching confidence.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the consummated sales of the selected products or services provide matched sales corresponding to at least one of the sellers from a group of selected sellers upon meeting a threshold level of matching confidence. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising the step of:
 generating invoices to a group of selected sellers identifying invoice-able sales of selected products or services for which compensation may be obtained in exchange for providing the selected leads giving rise thereto.   
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selected leads are collected from a group of lead suppliers. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the selected leads are collected from the group of lead suppliers through the Internet or other telecommunication medium. 
     
     
         6 . A lead matching system comprising:
 a source of sales leads data compiled from a plurality of lead suppliers;   a source of sales information including consummated sales data compiled from a plurality of confirmed sales transactions by a group of sellers; and   a sales lead matching system in communication with the source of sales leads data and the source of sales information, wherein the sales lead matching system includes:
 a data normalization engine for normalizing the source of sales information to provide a normalized sales dataset; and 
 a matching engine for automatically matching at least one confirmed sale transaction from the normalized sales dataset to at least one lead from the source of sales lead data. 
   
     
     
         7 . The lead matching system of  claim 5 , wherein the matching engine establishes matches between the confirmed sales transactions within the normalized sales dataset and the leads from the source of sales lead data based on a predetermined matching confidence. 
     
     
         8 . The lead matching system of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 a sales matching application in communication with the matching engine for identifying a plurality of matched sales that are automatically approved sales or sales requiring manual review.   
     
     
         9 . The lead matching system of  claim 5 , further comprising:
 a financial system adaptor for receiving information related to the automatically approves sales that are compiled in a financial collections database or a financial invoices database.   
     
     
         10 . The lead matching system of  claim 5 , wherein the financial invoices database contains information related to invoice-able sales that appear as a line item on an invoice to a seller from the group of sellers for which compensation may be obtained by a sales matching service provider for providing the selected leads giving rise thereto. 
     
     
         11 . A method of matching a sales leads with a consummated sale for recognition and compensation to a sales matching service provider comprising the following steps:
 collecting selected leads from a group of lead suppliers through the Internet or other telecommunication medium which identify prospective buyers of selected products or services;   collecting a plurality of sales records having sales data information for consummated sales of the selected products or services by a group of sellers, wherein the plurality of sales records are derived from multiple sales sources; and   matching at least one sales record to at least one selected lead from the group of lead suppliers according to a predetermined matching confidence to provide a matched sales record.   
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 10 , further comprising the step of:
 generating an invoice for a seller from the group of sellers who is identified in the matched sales record in accordance with a preestablished business arrangement for compensation from the seller to the sales matching service provider.   
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 10 , wherein multiple sales sources from which the plurality of sales records are derived include information from at least one or more of the following sources: dealers, loan originators, and insurance carriers. 
     
     
         14 . An automobile sales lead matching system comprising:
 a database of automobile sales leads data compiled from one or more lead suppliers;   a database of automobile sales information including sales data from automobile dealers derived from one or more automobile sales related transactions; and   an automobile sales lead matching system in communication with the automobile sales leads database and the automobile sales information database, wherein the matching system includes:   a data normalization engine for normalizing the automobile sales information derived from one or more sources of sales information to provide a normalized sales dataset; and   a matching engine for matching at least one sales record from the normalized sales dataset to at least one lead from the automobile sales lead database.   
     
     
         15 . The automobile sales lead matching system of  claim 13 , wherein the database of automobile sales information includes information from dealer based sales of automobiles. 
     
     
         16 . An automobile sales matching system comprising:
 a database of automobile sales purchase requests compiled from a plurality of sources of sales purchase request data;   a database of automobile sales information including sales data from automobile dealers derived from a plurality of automobile sales related transactions; and   an automobile sales matching system in communication with the automobile sales purchase request database and the automobile sales information database, wherein the matching system includes:   a data normalization engine for normalizing the automobile sales information derived from multiple sources of sales information to provide a normalized sales dataset; and   a matching engine for matching at least one sales record from the normalized sales dataset to at least one purchase request from the source of sales purchase request data.   
     
     
         17 . The automobile sales matching system of  claim 15 , wherein the database of automobile sales information includes information from dealer based sales of automobiles.