Program design is the planning stage: we decide, with you, which businesses should send you work, what you'll offer them, and the standard every referred customer gets. The result is a one-page plan you can actually follow. We're marketers and advisers, not contractors, so the plan covers relationships and communication, never the technical side of your trade.
What the plan contains
The finished plan fits on one or two pages, because a plan nobody reads is worthless. It answers five questions.
- Who already sends you work? Pulled from your job records, with each source marked as a business, a past customer, or unknown.
- Which partner types are missing? Businesses that meet your ideal customer just before or after you, within reach of your crews.
- What do you offer back? Reciprocal referrals, a faster response for their customers, joint quotes, a thank-you, or occasionally a fee.
- What's your standard for referred jobs? For example: a reply the same business day, a site visit within three working days, and a short note back to the partner once the job is booked.
- How will you review it? Usually a quarterly look at the numbers from referral tracking.
Who it suits
This service is for owners who suspect referrals matter but can't say how much. Typical clients include a plumbing company that gets steady work from two renovators but has never formalised anything, an electrician who wants to be the first call for a group of kitchen designers, and a small accounting practice whose clients come almost entirely from a few insurance brokers and lawyers.
It suits less well if you have no capacity for more work. A program that produces jobs you can't staff damages the very relationships it's meant to build.
How we build it
Weeks 1–2: your records
We go through six to twelve months of jobs. For each, we ask how it arrived. The answers are often surprising: owners regularly discover that one property manager or designer accounts for a large share of their best jobs.
Week 2–3: the conversation
We interview you for about an hour on your existing relationships. Who do you trust? Who has let you down? Which partners would you be embarrassed to send a customer to? That last question matters, because a referral runs in both directions.
Weeks 3–4: the plan
We write the plan, agree the service standard, and list the partner types worth approaching. Where money or reciprocal promises are involved, we flag them for written terms.
A worked example you can check
Suppose your average booked job is worth $1,900 and your close rate on referred enquiries is around 60%, against 25% on cold enquiries from ads. If three partners each send you four enquiries a quarter, that's 12 enquiries, about seven booked jobs, and roughly $13,300 of revenue a quarter. To get the same seven jobs from cold enquiries at a 25% close rate, you'd need 28 enquiries. If each cold enquiry costs $60 in ad spend, that's $1,680 a quarter you didn't have to spend. Your numbers will differ; the point is to run them with your own records.
How results are measured
We measure the program on four figures, reviewed every quarter:
- referred enquiries per partner
- booked jobs per partner
- revenue per partner
- the number of referrals you sent back
The last figure is the one owners forget. A partner who sends you eight jobs and receives none will eventually stop.
Mistakes to avoid
- Approaching too many partners at once. Five relationships looked after well beat twenty you can't keep up with.
- Offering money first. Cash thank-yous can work, but leading with them attracts the wrong partners and complicates disclosure.
- Forgetting the customer. The referred customer should always know who recommended you and, if there's any arrangement behind it, what it is.
- Treating partner pages as SEO. Swapping links for rankings is a link scheme under Google's rules. Our guide on partner links and Google explains the difference.
When you're ready to look at your own records, the contact page explains what to send. Pricing for this work is on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
How long does program design take?
Usually three to four weeks. Most of that time is spent reading your job history and talking to you about the partners you already have; the plan itself is short.
Do I need to pay partners for referrals?
No. Many strong programs run on reciprocity and good service alone. If you choose to offer a fee or discount, it goes into written terms and is disclosed to the customer.
What if my best referrer is a competitor?
That happens more than people think, especially when a competitor is booked solid or doesn't do a particular job. We treat it like any other partnership, with clear terms about which jobs go where.
Can a professional practice use the same approach?
Yes, with one caution. Some professions restrict or forbid referral fees, so a bookkeeper, lawyer, realtor or insurance broker should confirm the rules with their regulator first.