How Much Do You Pay?

I’m back from Genting and I’m now down from the hill along with an accompanied cold. The sneezing and leaking faucet are the worst things of a flu. Just hope the next thing that develops isn’t a cough.

Anyway, how much do you pay your referrals?

I’ve been rather ignorant ever since I’ve been back from Melbourne, believing that one of the strict principles I should start are to not pay cash for referrals. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m not paying them for their gratitude but I tried to believe there’s more ways of showing appreciation.

In Sitepoint, they were having a discussion if we should even pay cash to referrals. It was there that I learnt many don’t exactly pay their referrals but reward them.

So what’s the difference when you pay or reward your referrals?

Well, I’ve tried teaching myself from what I’ve tried to understand that when you pay your referrals, you’re actually kind of bribing them into influencing their contacts for you. But I can’t blame them because I, myself understand the first thing in most of us when it comes to appreciation or gratitude having to do with business is; money.

Maybe it isn’t found so much in the Australian or Western culture, in Asia it’s like that I guess. I even tried to conduct a small survey at the LowYat forums but it seems that not only are we quite greedy for money, we’re also very ‘shy’ in discussing certain things like this.

Nonetheless, when you reward your referrals its certainly not less but mostly more value than the cash received. For instance, if I had a friend refer a few clients to me averaging RM2000-RM4000 per project, spending him and his girlfriend dinner would be worth more than cold hard cash. Especially if dinner is at places like The Ship or Eden maybe.

I feel that when you reward a referral, you’re actually treating them as someone close or a friend that might’ve known for a long time. When you pay a referral, it’s like you’re looking for a one-night-stand and not a long term relationship with the person.

Here’s a metaphorically ridiculous example I’ve come up with: (read at your own discretion)

Like sex, when you crave it then you want it really badly. The paid referral is like the guy seeking sex. When he’s addicted or is just afraid to start a relationship, they get hooker-ed onto sex.. or money.

That said, I guess the next time your referral comes around, you should try talking them into a reward. If not, I guess you’ll know what they’re addicted.