I regularly meet Referral Institute clients, BNI members and business people who completely believe in “Givers Gain” or the Law of Reciprocity, ie: if I help you, then you will want to help me.

Yet they are stuck in relationships with some companies who expect cash for referrals. I see them repeatedly try to educate their “referrers” on the benefits of working in the ‘Givers Gain’ manner and repeatedly it fails.

So what can you do?

Firstly… start looking for new partners (I am not saying immediately disengage with the old ones – yet. This is your choice). It will be hard to move someone from a financial agreement to other forms of reward (although not impossible, maybe they don’t like it either).

I say ‘reward’ and not ‘motivation’, because some studies actually show that non-financial motivation can be more effective than financial motivation. Particularly for some nationalities and industries, it is very much the norm to pay cash for referrals. We see this repeatedly in the Middle East, particularly with its diversity of nationalities.

When I have suggested finding new partners to my clients, they immediately start looking back in their own industry or similar industries for partners. One problem with this is that, in certain circles, the majority of the companies work in this manner – paying cash for referrals. So they are “stepping back into the fire” so to speak.

One solution we are having success with, is getting the client to be laser specific about their Target Market. If we can bring that Target Market down to an individual type (description of a person), then we can start to find that person in completely different industries. These industries, although completely different, do have connections to each other’s ideal clients (Target Market). These people, because they are so far removed, are less likely to be expecting cash for referrals and hence it’s an easier conversation.

There is the added advantage that your competitors, who are not trained in Referral Marketing, will undoubtedly not be so definitive in their search and, hence, you will have no competition for their referrals.

Even less reason for them to ask for referral fees!