Protecting yourself with referrals...

[ChristopherCoy]

I have a few questions for those of you who are currently using B2B referrals, or who have done so in the past. I'm not talking about senior reps etc., but rather the type of program where the sporting goods store refers a customer to the sports shooter etc.

When developing referral programs, what are the key things that you need to keep in mind?

How do you protect yourself when entering into a referral situation?

If you've used referral programs in the past, how did you decide what to pay the referrer, if anything?

Do you have any good examples of your referral program?

[Flea77]

In a lot of towns you can join referral programs such as BNI or with your local chamber of commerce. These groups trade referrals for referrals and usually have pretty high standards (at least for BNI) as to the company they keep and who they refer to. My daytime company (computers) has participated in four referral groups over the years, the BNI type groups have a higher percentage of ones that pan out, the chamber ones rank pretty low.

Allan