Referral Management

What is referral management?

Referral management is a structured process for handling, tracking, and optimizing business referrals, maximizing their impact on your growth and rewarding your referral partners fairly for their contributions. It’s an essential part of building and nurturing a thriving referral program with your partners.

Referral management encompasses a range of activities and processes. Most importantly, referral tracking involves monitoring and recording the source and details of each referral, including who made the referral, who received it, and the outcome (e.g., whether it resulted in a sale or a new client).

Automated referral tracking systems are critical for streamlining these efforts, and can help with:

• Custom links or codes: Creates personalized referral links or codes that your referral partners can use in their efforts.
• Attribution: Identifies the sources of referrals, whether they are customers, employees, partners, or affiliates, and gives credit to the correct referrer for their contribution.
• Incentive management: Manages incentives for referrers, such as commissions or other benefits, allowing both you and your partners to track them.
• Reporting: Shares program data so you can determine which referral sources are the most productive, which incentives are the most effective, and how referrals are impacting your overall business growth.
• Compliance and legal considerations: In some industries or regions, referral management must adhere to legal and regulatory requirements, which can be streamlined in your tool.
• Tech stack integration: Successful referral management often involves close integration with other sales and marketing efforts, and these solutions can integrate into your CRM, account mapping tools, and other software in your tech stack.

Great referral management practices and tools keep your partners engaged and incentivized to send more high-quality leads your way. By managing referrals effectively, you can make the most out of your channel partnerships and grow faster, together.

Related content:

Automated Referral Partner Management with Impartner | Download a Referral Partner Agreement Template | 15 Referral Program Ideas for Growing Your B2B Sales | How to Build a B2B Referral Program: Your Guide