Partner mapping is a structured look at who touches your customer before and after you. It produces a ranked shortlist of business types worth approaching, so the time you spend on relationships goes where referrals are most likely to flow.
Owners skip this step all the time. They partner with whoever is friendly at a supplier counter, or with a cousin's business, and then wonder why nothing comes of it. Friendliness is not the same as customer overlap.
What partner mapping is
It is a map of the customer journey around your work, built from your own job history. For each job we ask: what did this customer need in the month before they called you, and in the month after?
A few patterns we see across Burnaby trades:
- Painters follow drywall repairers, restoration crews and movers, and come before flooring and final cleaning.
- Flooring installers follow demolition and subfloor work, and come before trim carpenters and painters.
- Residential cleaners follow movers, renovators and property managers handling turnovers.
- Landscapers follow builders and fencing crews on Burnaby's detached lots, and work with arborists on the slopes near Capitol Hill and Burnaby Mountain.
The pattern for your business is specific to your jobs. That is why we build it from your records, not from a template. See how density varies across the city on our areas page.
Who it is for
Mapping suits owner-run firms with at least a year of job history and a sense that referrals are uneven. It works especially well for businesses whose customers hire several trades in a row: renovation, moving, strata repairs and turnovers.
It suits you less if your work is mostly emergency calls from strangers, where the customer rarely has time to ask anyone for a name. In that case local search usually matters more, and a sister site, BurnabyAgency.ca, covers that side of marketing.
What is included
- A job review. We go through 30 to 50 recent jobs with you and note where each customer came from and who else worked on the property.
- The sequence map. A one-page view of the trades and services before and after yours, with rough frequency.
- A scoring table. Each candidate partner type is scored on four things:
| Factor | Question we ask |
|---|---|
| Overlap | How often does their customer need you within 60 days? |
| Direction | Can you send them work too, or is it one-way? |
| Reputation risk | If they do a poor job, how badly does it reflect on you? |
| Reach | Can you realistically meet the owner, not a call centre? |
- A shortlist of three to six business types, ranked, with a sentence on why each made the cut.
- An approach note for each type: what you can offer them, and the first conversation to have.
Timeline
Week one is the job review, done over one or two calls. Week two produces the map and scoring. In week three we go through the shortlist together and agree the first two approaches. From there, written terms are the natural next step, covered under referral agreements.
How results are measured
Mapping itself produces a document, not jobs, so the honest measure comes later. We look at two numbers three to six months on:
- Active partners: how many of the shortlisted types turned into a relationship that sent at least one enquiry.
- Referred job share: the percentage of your jobs that came from a mapped partner, compared with before.
Both depend on tracking being set up, which is why we usually pair the two.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing partners by size. A large firm may send nothing because referrals there go through a manager with their own favourites. An owner-run shop often sends more.
- One-way relationships. If you can never send them anything, the relationship will cool. Look for partners where work can flow both ways.
- Ignoring reputation risk. Your name is attached to every recommendation you make. Partner only with businesses you would hire yourself.
- Too many at once. Five half-hearted relationships produce less than two well-kept ones.
When you're ready to start, see pricing or contact us by call, text or email.
Frequently asked questions
Will you give me a list of specific businesses to call?
No. We work with business types and the criteria for choosing among them. You know your local reputation far better than we do, so you pick the actual firms and make the approach.
How many partners should I aim for?
Three to five active partners is plenty for most owner-run businesses. More than that and you can't keep your promises to all of them.
Can a competitor be a partner?
Sometimes. Two firms in the same trade with different specialities, or different job sizes, can refer overflow to each other. The terms need to be clearer, not looser.
How long does mapping take?
Usually two to three weeks, most of it spent going through your past jobs with you.