Growth & Strategy Conversations
Someone is already talking to your next customer. The question is whether they would mention you.
For many small businesses, the best customers arrive by recommendation. A referral partnership makes that deliberate: another business or person who meets your future customers agrees to point them your way, usually in return for something. This conversation helps owners work out whom to approach, what to offer, how to reward fairly and openly, and how to protect the trust that makes referrals work.
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A referral is borrowed trust. Handle it carefully.
When a plumber recommends an electrician, or a doctor suggests a physiotherapist, the customer believes them because of the person recommending. The recommender puts their own name at risk. If the referral goes badly, they lose something too, and they may not make another.
That is why referral partnerships work best when they are simple, honest and about the customer’s interest first. Owners who treat them as a commission scheme to push volume often find the referrals dry up. This conversation is about building them the slower and more reliable way.
What the conversation covers
35 topics across 7 areas. Seven points, from finding partners to protecting them.
Who Already Meets Your CustomersMap the people around the buyer.5
A hypothetical example: a small wedding photographer might think about caterers, decorators, venues and makeup artists, all of whom meet the couple before the photographer does.
- Businesses that sell something the buyer needs before or after yours
- Professionals the buyer consults, such as advisers or contractors
- Associations, clubs, housing societies and institutions
- Your own satisfied customers
- Which of these you already know and trust
Why Would They Refer YouTheir reputation comes first.5
- Whether you do work they would be proud to recommend
- Whether you reliably respond and keep your word
- What it costs them to refer, in time or risk
- Whether you can also send customers to them
- What they care about besides money
If you would hesitate to recommend yourself, work on that first.
Ways to Reward a ReferrerEach has benefits and difficulties.5
Money can change how the referral feels to the customer and the referrer. The more money involved, the more important honesty and a written record become.
- A sincere thank-you and a report on the outcome
- Sending customers back in return
- A gift or a discount for the customer who was referred
- A fixed fee per successful referral
- A percentage of the sale, with its record-keeping and tax effects
Openness, Rules and TaxWhat to be careful about.5
- Telling the customer when a recommendation comes with a reward
- Advertising and consumer rules on endorsements and misleading claims
- Some regulated professions restrict paying or receiving referral fees: check the rules for the profession concerned
- How payments to referrers are recorded and taxed: ask an accountant
- Protecting customer details when passing them on
This is awareness, not legal or tax advice. Check the current rules for your own case.
Making It Easy to ReferA good partner should not need to explain you.5
- A one-line description of who you help and how
- A card, a short message or a number they can pass on
- A quick way to contact you
- What the referred customer should say or bring
- A promise of how fast you will respond
Tracking What ArrivesSimple is enough.5
- Asking every new customer how they heard about you
- A code, a card or a number for each partner
- A short sheet: date, source, outcome, value
- Quality of referrals, not just number
- Reviewing the sheet every quarter
Protecting the RelationshipReferrals continue when the referrer is looked after.5
- Handling a referred customer better than any other
- Telling the referrer the outcome, where it is appropriate
- Dealing openly with a problem that involves a referral
- Saying no when a referral does not suit you
- Ending a referral arrangement politely
What participants leave with
- A map of ten potential referral partners for their own business
- A short, honest approach message for one of them
- A reward choice with its pros, cons and record-keeping needs
- A simple tracking sheet
- A list of questions to ask an accountant or lawyer about fees and disclosure
What this session is not
- A directory or introduction service
- Legal or tax advice
- A scheme for paying people to promote a business
- A promise that referrals will arrive
How the session runs
A small group, two to three hours. Each participant starts by mapping who already meets their ideal customers. The facilitator then shows how an approach to a possible referrer might sound, using hypothetical cases, and participants draft their own, rehearsing it with a partner in the group. The group discusses reward options and the honest limits of each. Everyone leaves with a short list of people to approach that week.
What your students leave with
- A list of people and businesses who already meet their ideal customers
- A clear, honest offer to the referrer, in words they would use
- A view of reward options and the problems of each
- Awareness of disclosure and the rules for particular professions
- A simple way to track which referrals arrive and what they are worth
- A routine for thanking referrers and protecting their reputation
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Be the business that people are glad to recommend, then make it easy for them to do so.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.