# Customer referrals Human Guide

## What This Is For
Provides expert guidance for guidance for referral-based selling and partner channel development. It gives the agent a clearer input/output frame for growth marketing: what context to ask for, what decisions to make, and what usable artifact to return.

Use this as a human-readable version of the Customer referrals agent skill. It is meant for marketers, operators, founders, and other non-coders who want the workflow without reading agent-specific implementation instructions.

## When To Use This
- Use this when you need a repeatable process for customer referrals.
- Use this when the task needs judgment, examples, constraints, or a clear output format rather than a one-off prompt.
- Use this when you want to hand an AI assistant enough context to produce a usable marketing artifact.

## When Not To Use This
- Do not use this when you only need a quick factual answer.
- Do not use this when the work depends on private data you cannot share with the assistant.
- Do not use this as a replacement for legal, compliance, financial, or medical review.

## What You Need Before Starting
- The goal or business outcome you want.
- The audience, customer segment, or market context.
- Any source material the assistant should respect, such as notes, briefs, examples, URLs, or brand guidance.
- Constraints such as tone, length, channel, deadline, region, or approval requirements.
- A clear definition of what a good final answer should look like.

## Step-By-Step Workflow
1. State the job clearly: "Use the Customer referrals guide to help me with..."
2. Add context: audience, goal, offer, channel, source material, and constraints.
3. Ask the assistant to identify missing inputs before producing the final output.
4. Have the assistant follow the skill-specific guidance below.
5. Review the result against the final checklist and ask for revisions where needed.

## Skill-Specific Guidance
- How do you get referrals today?
- What percentage of pipeline comes from referrals?
- What's your customer satisfaction/NPS?
- Do you have a formal referral process?
- How many happy customers do you have?
- What partner relationships exist?
- What's your personal/team network?
- What pipeline do you need from referrals?
- What segments are you targeting?
- What's the ideal referral profile?
- What can you offer in return?
- Customer must be genuinely happy

## Decision Points And Nuance
The original skill emphasizes: Initial Assessment, Core Principles, Earn the Right to Ask, Make It Easy, Be Systematic, Reciprocate Value, When to Ask for Referrals, Optimal Timing, Timing to Avoid, The Right Cadence.

Use these questions to steer the work:
- What is the intended audience or buyer?
- What source material must be preserved?
- What should the assistant optimize for: clarity, persuasion, accuracy, speed, creativity, or conversion?
- What examples represent the desired quality bar?
- What should the assistant avoid?

## Common Mistakes
- Customer must be genuinely happy
- | 0-3 months | Don't ask (focus on success) |
- Don't overuse (max 1-2 calls/quarter)

## Copy-And-Paste Prompt
```text
Use the Customer referrals human guide.

My goal:
[Describe the business outcome]

Audience:
[Describe who this is for]

Context and source material:
[Paste notes, examples, links, or existing copy]

Constraints:
[Tone, length, channel, timeline, must-include items, must-avoid items]

Before producing the final output, ask me for any missing information that would materially improve the result.
```

## Final Checklist
- [ ] The output matches the original goal.
- [ ] The audience and context are reflected in the answer.
- [ ] Important constraints and source material were preserved.
- [ ] The assistant made the relevant decisions explicit.
- [ ] The final artifact is ready to use, review, or hand to the next person.

## Source
This guide was generated from the louisblythe/salesskills skill entry for `customer-referrals`.

## Source Skill Notes
These notes preserve the nuance from the original skill. Use them as supporting reference when the workflow above feels too generic.

# Customer Referrals & Partner Sales

You are an expert in referral-based selling and partner channel development. Your goal is to help sales professionals systematically generate warm introductions from customers, partners, and their network to accelerate pipeline growth.

## Initial Assessment

Before building a referral strategy, understand:

1. **Current State**
   - How do you get referrals today?
   - What percentage of pipeline comes from referrals?
   - What's your customer satisfaction/NPS?
   - Do you have a formal referral process?

2. **Relationship Assets**
   - How many happy customers do you have?
   - What partner relationships exist?
   - What's your personal/team network?
   - Who are your advocates?

3. **Goals**
   - What pipeline do you need from referrals?
   - What segments are you targeting?
   - What's the ideal referral profile?
   - What can you offer in return?

---

## Core Principles

### 1. Earn the Right to Ask

Referrals are earned through value delivery:
- Customer must be genuinely happy
- You've delivered on promises
- Relationship is strong
- Timing is right

### 2. Make It Easy

Reduce friction in the referral process:
- Specific, clear asks
- Provide what they need
- Handle the outreach
- Follow up appropriately

### 3. Be Systematic

Referrals shouldn't be random:
- Built into your process
- Asked consistently
- Tracked and measured
- Optimized over time

### 4. Reciprocate Value

Give before you get:
- Provide referrals to them
- Add value beyond the product
- Recognize and reward referrers
- Maintain the relationship

---

## When to Ask for Referrals

### Optimal Timing

**High-Value Moments**:
- After successful implementation
- Following a business review with positive results
- When they give positive feedback unprompted
- After you've helped them with something extra
- When they've achieved a milestone with your product

**Natural Conversation Points**:
- "I'm glad we've been able to help you achieve [result]..."
- "Now that you're seeing success with [solution]..."
- "Given how well this has worked for [use case]..."