The partners worth having are the professionals a merchant already trusts and who see the cash-flow problem before you do — bookkeepers, accountants, equipment dealers, POS resellers and business brokers. They produce fewer, better leads with no acquisition cost, and they take months to develop, which is why almost every broker talks about them and almost none has a working programme.
Referral is the only channel where the leads are pre-trusted and cost nothing to acquire. It is also the slowest to build, which is why it is permanently the thing brokers are about to get around to.
| Partner | Why they see it first |
|---|---|
| Bookkeepers and accountants | They watch the cash position weekly |
| Equipment dealers | A merchant who cannot pay for the machine |
| POS resellers | They see the card volume directly |
| Business brokers | Buyers needing working capital at completion |
| Commercial insurance brokers | Same client, adjacent need, no conflict |
| Bank branch staff | Declines they have nowhere to send |
A branch that declines a small business loan has a customer with a problem and nothing to offer them. Being the person they can send that customer to is valuable to them, and it costs the merchant nothing to be referred. It takes persistence to establish and it produces qualified, warm introductions when it works.
Reporting back is the habit that separates programmes that grow from ones that produce two introductions and stop. A partner who never hears what happened assumes it went badly, and stops sending.
Bookkeepers and accountants, equipment dealers, POS resellers, business brokers, commercial insurance brokers and bank branch staff — the professionals who see a merchant’s cash-flow problem before the merchant calls anybody.
Months. It is the slowest channel to build and the only one with no acquisition cost, which is the trade-off in one sentence.
In writing, before the first referral — what it is worth and when it is paid. Check whether the partner’s profession restricts referral fees, because some do.
Not reporting back. A partner who never hears what happened to an introduction assumes it went badly and stops making them, which is the most common way these programmes quietly die.
Because a branch declining a small business loan has a customer with a problem and nothing to offer. Being the person they can send that customer to helps them and produces genuinely warm introductions.
We will tell you straight up if we cannot help you. No commission deals, no free trials, no chasing you for three weeks.