Never miss making money again for referring someone or something
“Profiting with referrals while helping others to profit and succeed” This is the concept behind the Referral Program on www.constructionplace.com which includes a referral fee negotiating process. The Referral Program can be used by Sellers, Buyers, and Referrers. Login to www.constructionplace.com and select My Referrals.
Referrals
A Referral is the action of mentioning someone or something to another party and is used frequently in the Real Estate industry for generating business associated with real estate transactions for a Referral Fee.
Real Estate agents, for various reasons, opt to refer buyers and sellers and/or their agents in exchange for a referral fee. And some real estate agents prefer to simply refer and collect referral fees in lieu of getting involved with the actual Real Estate transactions because referring can become quite lucrative with limited liability.
Generally a referring buyer is known by the referring party either by past experience in a working relationship or personal knowledge. And in most cases hiring parties tend to feel more comfortable with Referrals because of the referral relationship with the referring party.
However, I have not seen the referral process used outside of the Real Estate Industry. I have referred buyers, sellers, resources, and clients over the years to others for various reasons (too busy, not my expertise, referral request, etc.) but it never occurred to me to request or collect a referral fee or profit in any way.
Here are a couple of suggestions when considering the Referral Process:
- Don’t be timid and/or feel uncomfortable asking for a Referral Fee in exchange for referring someone, something, or bonafide opportunities to others because a referral provides value to the buyer by helping him/her succeed;
- Think of a referral as giving a helping hand and be prepared to negotiate the referral fee;
- Use and promote the referral process in industries outside of the Real Estate Industry; and
- Helping others succeed and profit can be fun, profitable and personally rewarding.
The Referral Program on www.constructionplace.com makes initiating referrals fun and easy and it keeps a personal history of your Referral Transactions.
In addition to the Referrals consider Performance Reviews when hiring resources.
Performance Reviews
A Performance Review is a method by which the job performance of a resource is examined, evaluated and documented. Here are a couple of ways Performance Reviews are created and presented:
Rating Services and Published Lists
Rating Services and Published Lists usually contain Third Party Performance Reviews. The third party Rating Service or List Provider obtains the background information from a member resource and/or references provided by the member resource. But such references are questionable because who provides or uses poor or bad references for reporting performance?
Furthermore, to be meaningful third party reviews should be current (based on work recently completed or performed) and consist of candid information provided by hiring party(s).
And, rating services and lists usually require the resource to pay a membership fee which suggests that such rating or listing services are motivated to be somewhat bias and/or to lower their qualification standards to grow or maintain paying members.
Hiring Parties
Hiring parties provide First Hand Performance Reviews. A first hand performance review usually contains a resources background information based on actual recently completed performance on a specific project(s) directly from the hiring party.
These reviews can take the form of a Letter of Reference prepared for the resource by the hiring party or a Performance Report generated from a list of questions answered directly by the hiring party. www.constructionplace.com offers such a check list wherein the hiring party simply selects Yes or No from a list of performance related questions. A Performance Review Report is available showing only the YES selections and the resources Overall Performance Rating, Quality of Work, Punctuality and Professionalism.
This type of review is also useful for resources wanting reviews because it is easy for the hiring party to complete the review questions and post the results for the resource.
The resource simply asks the hiring party to “please review my performance”. Upon completing the review it is listed in the resources profile. The resource has the option of displaying the reviews in a Professional Search on www.constructionplace.com
While Performance Reviews and Lists are useful for finding resources they should not be used solely for hiring resources. One should continue with the due diligence (professional screening process) before hiring the resource.
Some say this screening process takes too long but what is one or two days (that’s how long it should take to complete a professional screening process) if it:
(1) can save lots of money (sometimes thousands or tens of thousands of dollars);
(2) insure minimal or no schedule delays;
(3) can produce good job performance, quality and workmanship; and
(4) avoid needless worry, confrontations, and sometimes legal battles.
Here is a simple screening process named Subcontractor Hiring Guidelines which can be used for all types’ resources.
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