[Moma]

I have been pushing a business , to hopefully make the transition from the 9-5 to the call my own shots world and I was wondering about how to compensate people for finding leads.

I find that when you offer people money for a simple referral, it can act as a counter incentive as opposed to if you merely ask them to do it as a favour.
I wonder if that is just a Toronto thing or if it is a human thing?

My question is, is it counter-productive to offer direct money as a compensation/reward/gratitude for someone advancing your business?

What have you guys during your business growing process found that works in terms of your business development?

[el mechanico]

Ten percent of profit is good. Don't think about it a referrals, think of the people finding leads as salesman.
This one guy that works at wal mart pimps me out at work and church. I give him 10% on everthing he throws my way.

[Pepini]

(08-18-2011 10:58 AM)Moma Wrote:  

I have been pushing a business , to hopefully make the transition from the 9-5 to the call my own shots world and I was wondering about how to compensate people for finding leads.

I find that when you offer people money for a simple referral, it can act as a counter incentive as opposed to if you merely ask them to do it as a favour.
I wonder if that is just a Toronto thing or if it is a human thing?

My question is, is it counter-productive to offer direct money as a compensation/reward/gratitude for someone advancing your business?

What have you guys during your business growing process found that works in terms of your business development?

Depends on the person. If you say it to everybody, people will think you´re not good enough and so you need to pay for people to say your skillfull.
You can tell by the way someone acts if their motivation in life is money or other things such as travel, etc. Normally people with a strong commercial background are your best bets. I normally give 30%. Cause in the begining the important is not how much money you get, but how many links have you made. First build a net , money will flow after if you´re good.

[Neo]

(08-18-2011 10:58 AM)Moma Wrote:  

I have been pushing a business , to hopefully make the transition from the 9-5 to the call my own shots world and I was wondering about how to compensate people for finding leads.

I find that when you offer people money for a simple referral, it can act as a counter incentive as opposed to if you merely ask them to do it as a favour.
I wonder if that is just a Toronto thing or if it is a human thing?

My question is, is it counter-productive to offer direct money as a compensation/reward/gratitude for someone advancing your business?

What have you guys during your business growing process found that works in terms of your business development?

I've worked in a sales position where I would get referrals. I don't think it's counter productive to offer money as an incentive if it's legal to do so. Some industries don't 'technically' allow it but it's still done.

One thing I've found is it's important to get the right person. When I started I thought that some of my friends would be good to get referrals from but I was wrong. It's important to find a business minded individual who understands that it's good practice to give you referrals because you will also refer him etc. I've found that people who are way too programmed into the 9-5 lifestyle(guys who say to themselves they're just going to work a regular job after college until they retire) for me were not the greatest people to get referrals from. Even compensation wasn't a motivator because they were too comfortable. Guys who are go getters, business minded, and positive gave the best referrals for me.

[Moma]

(08-18-2011 06:54 PM)Neo Wrote:  

I've worked in a sales position where I would get referrals. I don't think it's counter productive to offer money as an incentive if it's legal to do so. Some industries don't 'technically' allow it but it's still done.

One thing I've found is it's important to get the right person. When I started I thought that some of my friends would be good to get referrals from but I was wrong. It's important to find a business minded individual who understands that it's good practice to give you referrals because you will also refer him etc. I've found that people who are way too programmed into the 9-5 lifestyle(guys who say to themselves they're just going to work a regular job after college until they retire) for me were not the greatest people to get referrals from. Even compensation wasn't a motivator because they were too comfortable. Guys who are go getters, business minded, and positive gave the best referrals for me.

Where did you go to find these people? What kind of things did you do to dredge out these business minded people?

[Neo]

(08-18-2011 07:14 PM)Moma Wrote:  

Where did you go to find these people? What kind of things did you do to dredge out these business minded people?

I looked for guys who had businesses themselves whatever it was. If you have friends with common goals that's probably best, but a lot of mine were the 9-5 type that I mentioned so they sucked at giving me referals. I knew a guy who was a friend of the family that had a waste disposal company and made bank he was a good referral source. So I'd start by tapping your network, business minded friends, friends of the family who are business people. Since they already know you and trust you they will probably refer you. Then you can refer their business to your clients as well and it's a win win.