How I earn $33,546 from referrals

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Start with the problem

If you’re an expert, your audience probably has problems and is consuming your content in the hope of solving those problems.

You’ll know what those problems are because, inevitably, people in your audience will DM you asking for help. For example:

• Skincare experts might get a lot of questions about professional treatments (Botox, chemical peels, etc.)

• Personal finance experts might get a lot of questions about tax minimization

• Automotive experts may get questions on where and how to buy a great used car

In my case, the biggest problem my LinkedIn audience had - and the most common DM I received -  was this:

“How do I get Creators to use my product?”

Having done Creator partnerships at several big companies (and led teams to do the same), I have a good sense of how to solve this problem. 

If a company was willing to pay my consulting rate, they could hire me directly - but many of these companies were very early stage, and I had intentionally set my hourly rate very high because I didn’t want to be spending too much time consulting. As a result, most of them couldn’t afford me - but not helping them succeed meant I might be leaving a lot of money on the table (and building bad will with my audience to boot - not a good idea).

Find companies with high-value solutions

I knew about a couple of companies offering services that were good solutions for Creator partnerships and had good reputations in the community. If you’re an expert, you probably know who these companies are in your own space.

In an ideal world, you want companies with high-price solutions where you can make a good amount of money from just a few referrals per month, several times or even on a recurring basis (though not all industries allow for that). For example:

• Skin care experts might build a multi-city network of high-end aestheticians, as treatments like laser treatment or microneedling are over $1,000 and done several times a year

• Personal finance experts may build a network of accounting firms, as ongoing bookkeeping and tax management can be $250-$1,000 per month

• Automotive experts may find the best used car dealerships in a variety of major metros, and get a cut of every $5,000-$20,000 used car sale

In my case, one company charged $4,000-$7,000 per month to do email outreach, while another charged $8,000-$10,000 per month for bigger partnerships and strategy.

I reached out to them, sat down with them, and learned more about their offerings. Here’s how I evaluated them:

1. Do I like the people? I was going to be talking to them quite a bit, and sending my readers to them as well, so I had to feel they were likable and would be easy to work with.

2. Is the service or solution legit? I can’t tell you how to evaluate this because every industry and hobby and space in general will have different criteria. You’re the expert; you should be able to make this decision your way.

3. Do they have big, prestigious, and/or successful customers? Social proof is important. When I recommend one of my partners, sometimes people are still skeptical. Telling prospects that this partner works with companies like Bytedance and Linktree goes a long way to building their credibility and getting prospects to agree to a meeting.

4. What do previous and current customers say about them? You want to understand the experiences customers have had. Does the company leave relationships warm or do they burn bridges? Was everyone happy with the work? Why or why not? There are many reasons customers churn or retain; nothing beats speaking to previous customers. Not all prospective partners are willing to (or even can, depending on confidentiality agreements) introduce you to previous customers, so sometimes you may need to do some cold outreach and leverage that expert reputation to have these conversations.

Ultimately, only you can decide if you feel good about a partner, but in general - if you don’t feel great, don’t do the partnership.

Make a deal

Once you feel good about a referral partner, make a deal with them and paper it. 

I’m not a lawyer, this is not legal advice…here are some of the things that matter to me in my referral deals:

• Fee - The standard best practice I’ve seen is 10% - 20% of topline revenue from clients you bring for up to a year - though this may vary by industry. I’ve turned down partners who only want to give me a payment for the first month or who only want to pay 5%, because as far as I’m concerned, I’m bringing them a new customer they wouldn’t otherwise have. If they don’t value that, that’s OK - I’ll find a partner who will. Remember - you’re the one bringing the customers at no risk to the partner (since they aren’t paying you upfront). Don’t let that be undervalued.

• Process - You want a referral to count the moment you introduce them to the partner, and you want the partner to be responsible for getting the customer signed. Your job is to bring leads, not sell. It’s OK if the client wants to approve prospects first - just make sure that once you make the email introduction, it’s a point on your scoreboard.

• Non-exclusive - As far as I’m concerned, it’s OK to have multiple partners in a single category. It’s up to the partner to win the business, and if they don’t have the chops, you still brought the customer and should find a way to get paid on that customer. If that means sending the customer to a different partner - that should be OK. Again - referral partners aren’t paying you upfront, so you should have no obligation to each other, aside from payment for customers signed.

• Term and termination - Keep it simple - one year, month to month after, and either party should be able to terminate and move on if it’s not working. No one has taken any risk, after all.

• Payment terms - Get accounted to at the end of each month, get paid within 30 days, and have the right to audit once a year at your own cost (just in case you suspect they’re stiffing you - unlikely, but worth having). If either party terminates, you should still get paid for the full year (or more!) that you agreed upon for any clients you’ve brought. After all - those clients will still be paying.

• Mutual everything - Every clause in the deal, from confidentiality to termination rights to exclusivity should be mutual. No one is above the other here; if they demand something from you, demand it back from them and if they refuse, ask why.

Make referrals

The deal’s done - now it’s time to send some customers to your partners!

Here’s how I do it:

• Ask questions - When a reader messages me, I try to figure out what they need by asking lots of questions. What have they tried, what has worked, what hasn’t, etc. Once I have a sense of what might work for them (because, remember, I’m the expert here - so are you) I tell them about the partner that is a good fit, explain why I think it would be a good fit, and then I ask if they’d like an introduction.

• Follow up - Check in with referrals you’ve made to see if they’re happy. If they are, you can ask for testimonials to use in future referral conversations. If they aren’t you have the opportunity to give your partner helpful feedback or, if necessary, re-evaluate the partnership.

• Offer benefits - I try to get partners to give me a special offering for my referrals. This doesn’t have to be a discount - it could be more services for the same fee. Being able to say, “You’ll get a better deal if I introduce you” helps get people to say yes while building trust.

• Be transparent - Trust is the whole reason your audience cares about your recommendation; a single referral isn’t worth breaking that trust, so always be transparent that you are going to get a commission from an introduction. Audiences expect that you’re not working for free, and it actually builds trust when you are open about it.

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