Referral review procedure

Internal: RelayWorks partner operations 2 referrals to review 1 commission to approve Average review 1 day

How RelayWorks partner operations reviews a partner referral, decides who holds a company, handles offered leads that lapse, and approves commission only from the signed order. Owned by Mei Tanaka, partner operations lead, who decides referrals and approves commission lines. Devon Acheampong, partner manager, offers leads and hears disagreements. Ruth Adebayo, finance manager, confirms signed values. Marcus Wynn, account executive, keeps RelayWorks' own pipeline current.

Sample template: the firm, people, clients and figures are fictional.

The desk on Oct 5

The partner view of the same desk is the count of open referrals and leads. Northgate has four open and one lead waiting.

Live example from the Dashboards app, shown with Northgate Operations Advisory's demo data. Block dates move forward each week, so they can differ from the sample dates on this page.

Reviewing a referral

Before deciding

Company, contact with authority over the service team, product, team size, handoff problem in the customer's words

Not in RelayWorks' own pipeline: check with the account executive's open opportunities

Not held by another partner under an accepted referral or lead

A fit: 15 or more people handing work between shifts or sites

Decision and one sentence of reason recorded the same day

If a fact is missing, ask one question and let the referral wait. Two Northgate referrals arrived without the team size this year; review stalled until Mei asked. Since then a referral needs the team size and the problem in the customer's words before review starts.

flowchart TD
  A[Referral received] --> B{All five facts?}
  B -->|No| Q[One question; referral waits]
  Q --> B
  B -->|Yes| C{In RelayWorks' own pipeline?}
  C -->|Yes| N1[Not accepted: already in our pipeline]
  C -->|No| D{Held by another partner?}
  D -->|Yes| N2[Not accepted: already referred]
  D -->|No| E{Fit for RelayWorks?}
  E -->|Not yet| N3[Not accepted: refer again when the handoffs start]
  E -->|Yes| OK[Accepted: credited for 90 days]

Who holds a company

Case: Medford Cold Storage

• Held: Cascade Freight Advisors referred Medford Cold Storage on Sep 14; accepted Sep 15 and credited until Dec 14, Enterprise at $70,000.
• New: Northgate Operations Advisory referred the same company on Oct 2, Enterprise at $72,000, with the same general manager as contact.
• Check: one company, one buying team, inside Cascade's credit window.
• Decision: not accepted for Northgate. The reason Northgate sees: "This company is already referred by another partner." Nothing more.
• Owner: Mei Tanaka, by Oct 6.

Case: Lakeshore Parcel Network

Tidewell Supply Chain Partners referred Lakeshore Parcel Network on Sep 28, Enterprise at $95,000. Lakeshore is in RelayWorks' own pipeline at the proposal stage with Marcus Wynn, so the referral was not accepted on Sep 29 with the reason "This company is already in RelayWorks' own sales pipeline."

Leads that lapse or are declined

Leads go to the partner admin and the named referral contact, so a lead never waits on someone on leave. A lead not answered by its respond-by date returns to RelayWorks the next morning and is offered to another partner in the region.

Approving commission

A commission line is approved only on the value in the signed order. Brindle Home Delivery reduced its seats before signing, from an estimated $26,000 to $22,000, so the line is $3,300 and waits for the signed order to be filed.

Live example from the Dashboards app, shown with Northgate Operations Advisory's demo data.

Service level

The last ten reviewed referrals were decided in one day on average against a target of one business day. Time waiting for a partner's answer is not counted.

A partner forgives a no that arrives the next day with a clear reason. What it does not forgive is finding out after a sales call that someone else held the company all along.

Owners and dates

• Decide Medford Cold Storage for Northgate. Owner: Mei Tanaka, Oct 6
• Review Oriel Pet Supply for Brightwater. Owner: Mei Tanaka, Oct 5
• File the Brindle signed order and approve the line. Owner: Ruth Adebayo, Oct 9
• Get the Greystone signed order form from sales. Owner: Marcus Wynn, Oct 9
• Return Ambrose Wholesale again if Brightwater does not answer by Oct 8. Owner: Devon Acheampong, Oct 9
• Not accept Lakeshore Parcel Network for Tidewell. Owner: Mei Tanaka, Sep 29

How to use this template

Keep one procedure for the program and one desk table per week. Record each decision with its one-sentence reason the day it is made, and approve each commission line only against the signed order.

Variable	Meaning	Required
{{referral.company}}	The company referred	Required
{{referral.partner}}	The partner that referred it	Required
{{conflict.holding_referral}}	The accepted referral or lead that already holds the company, if any	Conditional
{{conflict.own_pipeline}}	Whether the company is in the vendor's own pipeline	Required
{{decision.reason}}	One sentence the partner sees, naming nobody	Required
{{commission.signed_value}}	The value in the signed order	Required
{{lead.respond_by}}	The date an offered lead must be answered	Conditional

If a required value is missing, show Needs review and leave the item undecided; never accept a referral whose pipeline check could not run, and never approve a line without the signed order. If a record cannot be read, show Unavailable.

The live Dashboards blocks on this page show the Northgate Operations Advisory demo profile. Point each block at your own client's profile, or remove it, before you share the page.