A good referral partner does more than send business your way. Sometimes they make that business considerably easier to serve. When I was designing kitchens and baths, some of my most productive referral relationships were with remodeling contractors. These... In kitchen and bath design, that might mean understanding whether the homeowner actually had a project. What were they considering? Were they replacing cabinets or contemplating an entire remodel? Did they have measurements? Were they working with a contractor? Were... My approach would look something like this. First, identify the relationships worth revisiting. Then review the account history before contacting anyone. Know who they are. Know what business they previously did with you. Know anything important that happened near the... That was the system. Someone came into the store. They asked about a kitchen. We offered free design. Sometimes a serious project came from it. Sometimes we invested considerable time in someone who wasn’t remotely ready to buy. Eventually I began noticing something... I’d spend more time identifying a small number of people whose clients, standards and way of doing business fit naturally with mine. My own productive referral network in kitchen and bath was relatively small. Roughly five to eight relationships eventually generated... It carries some of the other person’s reputation with it. That deserves to be treated... 