Business Referrals Should Never Be Free
By Tino Buntic
Let's say you are a small business owner or a professional such as an attorney, CPA, engineer, insurance broker, or engineer and someone gives you a good business referral that results in a sale. The referral may have come from a colleague, an associate, a friend, a client, or a member of a business networking group that you frequent. You earn a commission or a fee from the sale. What do you do? Do you say thank you? Yes, of course you do. Anything else?
You pay for the business referral.
Business referrals should never be free.
When someone gives you a business referral that results in a completed sale you should always pay that person. Pay them in cash. Pay them handsomely. What happens when you just say thank you? The referrer feels appreciated. What happens when you pay that person with a handsome some of money? That person feels even more appreciated. Further, when you pay cash for a referral that person will always be on the look out to get you more referrals and sales leads because he will expect to be compensated.
Imagine having an entire network of people on the lookout to generate more business for you. That is what would happen if you pay people for business referrals. It would be having your own personal sales force generating new business for you. That's what business networking should be all about. What you could do own your own could be multiplied significantly. It would increase your commissions and fees in the long run and, subsequently, increase your income.