The playbook
Referral Programs: Checklist
Use this referral programs checklist before a new release, a handoff, or a scheduled review. Its purpose is to verify the decisions that affect qualified referred opportunities. Check an actual customer or opportunity record; a box marked complete without evidence does not show that the customer journey works.
Put the task in context
Explain what makes a relevant introduction and how the referred person will be contacted. Keep incentive terms clear. Track introductions through acceptance and qualification so the program rewards useful relationships rather than indiscriminate contact submissions.
Before you use the checklist
Name the exact item being checked and its purpose. Gather referrer, introduction, eligibility, outcome. If one of those details is unknown, mark it as unknown and assign a way to resolve it. An invented value makes the checklist look complete while weakening every later decision.
Working checklist
| Check | Evidence to keep | Responsible role |
|---|---|---|
| Define who is a suitable referral and how introductions work | A dated observation showing how referrer was verified | sales operations lead |
| Explain any incentives and eligibility clearly | A dated observation showing how introduction was verified | record owner |
| Track referrals through qualification and follow-up | A dated observation showing how eligibility was verified | sales manager |
Check the failure path
- Look specifically for this failure: rewarding raw contact submissions without regard to relevance.
- Measure accepted introductions and disclose program terms. Record the actual correction, not just the intention to make it.
- Repeat the affected task after the correction and check outcome.
- Make sure the next owner can find the decision and supporting evidence.
Use three outcomes for each check
Mark an item as complete only when the expected behavior or information has been observed. Mark it as incomplete when a required condition is absent. Use not applicable when the condition genuinely does not belong to the chosen scope, and write a short reason. These states keep a review useful without forcing every process into an identical mold.
For example, if the check is “Define who is a suitable referral and how introductions work,” a meeting about the subject is not the evidence itself. Retain the relevant referrer and introduction, the decision made from them, and the result of checking that decision. The record should allow someone who missed the meeting to understand what changed.
Decide what must be resolved first
An incomplete item that prevents make it easy for satisfied customers to introduce relevant people deserves attention before a cosmetic improvement. Assign an owner and a next action to that issue. Keep optional refinements visible, but do not let them obscure a failure in the core process.
Close the review
Recheck corrected items and note anything still uncertain. The checklist is finished when the next owner understands what was verified and what remains open. Follow qualified referred opportunities using a consistent definition so later reviews can connect execution quality with useful results.
Review a small sample of underlying records before trusting a summary. Duplicates, stale close dates, and missing outcomes can make a dashboard misleading even when the calculation is correct. Correct the record-level cause.
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