Referrals and Pricing

John Ray: [00:00:00] Hello again. I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey.

John Ray: [00:00:04] Referrals and pricing. Recently, a friend, I’ll call her Elizabeth, she asked me to recommend two or three professionals in a particular services segment. I gave her three names of individuals who I know do outstanding work. One of them was a professional I’ve known for a long time. I’ll call him William. I’ve worked with William on his pricing, and I disclosed that fact to Elizabeth when I included him on the list of names that I gave her.

John Ray: [00:00:36] Elizabeth also asked someone else, and I’ll call him Bob, the same question, and I found this out because Elizabeth forwarded me what Bob had written about his recommendations. She was confused because Bob had commented that William was probably “less expensive” than the other professionals Bob had recommended. What Elizabeth naturally wanted to know was how William was less expensive if I’d been working with him.

John Ray: [00:01:09] Now, I had to smile at that comment. I told her that Bob, frankly, had no idea what he was talking about, and I wouldn’t have either, for that matter, I told her, if I’d made any comments about William, or anyone else on my list, or Bob’s list, for that matter. Because he recommended him, I assume Bob was trying to help William, but that help came at a cost that Bob didn’t grasp, however. Bob could have hampered William’s ability to land the business because he placed a potentially unfair preconception in the mind of the prospect.

John Ray: [00:01:50] Now, here’s the point. When you refer someone, assuming you really care about them and want to see them succeed, never reference the level of their pricing. Unless you’re sending out their invoices for them, you have no idea where they are on their pricing journey, and it’s unfair to prejudice the mind of the potential client with any of your value judgments about their pricing.

John Ray: [00:02:17] Further, it’s highly unlikely you know the scope of the project the person asking for the referral has in mind. In this case, I had little information on the specifics of what Elizabeth wanted. Finally, I had no sense of how Elizabeth might value the outcomes that William or the others I’d recommended could deliver. I’m 99.9% certain that if I didn’t, Bob didn’t either, yet Bob was providing editorial comment on William’s pricing. If you make any sort of comment on someone you recommend, couch that recommendation solely in the value they provide, reference their quality, their timeliness, their insightly advice, whatever, but just don’t get into their pricing. If you’re really trying to help, don’t be Bob.

John Ray: [00:03:12] I’m John Ray on the Price and Value Journey. If you’d like to connect with me directly, you can send me a note, john@johnray.co. And past episodes of this series can be found at pricevaluejourney.com. Thank you for joining me.