Referral work breaks down into five jobs: choosing partners, agreeing terms, tracking results, marketing together and giving referred customers a good place to land. Pick the one that matches your weakest link today, and add the others only when the first is working.
A useful test: write down the last ten jobs that came from another business. If you can't name the source of most of them, start with tracking. If you can name them but they all came from one person, start with mapping. If you have several partners but nothing written, start with terms.
Whatever you choose, remember the line we never cross. We are marketing and business consultants. We don't do trade work, we don't sell leads, and we don't build link networks.
-
Referral partner mapping
Find the Burnaby businesses that already serve your customers just before or just after you do, and rank them by fit.
-
Written referral terms and disclosure
Put who refers what, how it is acknowledged and how customers are told into a short written agreement both owners sign.
-
Referral tracking and partner scorecards
Know which partner sent which job, what it was worth and whether the relationship is still pulling its weight.
-
Joint marketing with partners
Shared guides, open houses and customer handovers that help both businesses without trading links for rankings.
-
Partner-ready website pages
A clear page that explains how you work with other businesses, so referred customers land somewhere that makes sense.
Referral partner mapping
Mapping answers one question: which Burnaby businesses meet your customer just before or just after you do? A kitchen renovator's customer meets a designer before and a cleaner after; a mover's customer meets a realtor before and a painter after.
We build that sequence for your trade, then score candidate partner types on overlap, reputation risk and how easy they are to reach. You leave with a ranked shortlist of business types and the reasons behind each. Details on the partner mapping page.
Start here if your referrals come from one or two people and you want a broader base.
Written referral terms and disclosure
Terms turn a friendly chat into something both owners can rely on. The agreement covers what gets referred, how fast each side responds, whether any fee or thank-you applies, how customers are told, and how either side walks away.
Disclosure matters as much as the terms. A customer who learns later that a recommendation came with a fee feels misled, even if the work was good. See written terms and disclosure for what we draft and what goes to a lawyer.
Start here if you already trade referrals but nothing is on paper.
Referral tracking and partner scorecards
Tracking means recording the source of every referred enquiry and the value of every job it became. Without it, owners keep thanking the partner who is friendliest rather than the one who sends the most work.
We set up source fields in whatever system you use, a simple code each partner can quote, and a quarterly scorecard. The tracking page shows the fields we use.
Start here if you can't say which partner sent your last five jobs.
Joint marketing with partners
Joint marketing is material two businesses produce together because it helps a shared customer: a moving-day checklist from a mover and a cleaner, or a renovation sequence guide from a designer and a painter.
Where a partner's website links to yours, we keep it honest. Google asks that paid placements be marked with rel="sponsored", and we don't arrange reciprocal links for rankings at all. More on joint marketing.
Start here if you have strong partners and want each relationship to produce more.
Partner-ready website pages
A referred customer usually looks you up before calling. If your site says nothing about who you work with or what happens next, some of that warmth leaks away.
We write a short page that explains how you work with other businesses, what a referred customer can expect and how to reach you. The partner pages service covers the layout and wording.
Start here if partners already send people to your site and too few of them call.
How the services fit together
Most clients follow roughly this order over the first six months:
| Month | Typical focus |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mapping and a review of existing referral sources |
| 2 | Terms and disclosure wording with two or three partners |
| 2–3 | Tracking fields and partner codes |
| 3–4 | Partner page on your website |
| 4–6 | First joint marketing piece and first scorecard review |
Costs are on the pricing page, and our guides explain each step in more depth if you would rather try it yourself first.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to buy all five services?
No. Plans cover a mix of work each month, and we start with whichever gap costs you most. An owner with good partners but no records starts with tracking; one with no partners starts with mapping.
Will you introduce me to partners?
We help you identify the kinds of businesses to approach and prepare what to say, but you make the approach. The relationship has to be yours, between two owners, or it won't survive the first awkward moment.
Do you write the legal agreement?
We help you draft plain business terms. We are not lawyers, and we recommend a lawyer reviews anything involving money, exclusivity or liability before either side signs.
Is this different from normal marketing?
It overlaps, but the focus is relationships with other businesses rather than ads or rankings. Many clients run it alongside local search work.