I finally cracked the code on partner referral forms at a conference in Denver

Last month at the Agency Growth Summit in Denver, I watched a guy from a media buying firm hand over a one page referral sheet to like 30 people in 10 minutes. No back and forth emails, no complicated portals. I copied his format and used it with 5 partners last week, got 2 solid leads within 48 hours. Has anyone else found a simple paper form works better than all those fancy CRM tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

drew69028d ago

I get the appeal of paper forms, but relying on them this way is a short term win. Handing a sheet to 30 people in 10 minutes means they didn't read it - they stuffed it in a bag or tossed it. Those 2 leads you got probably would have found you anyway through a linkedin message or email. The real problem is that paper forms can't track what happens after the handoff. You have no idea if your partner actually passed it to the right person or just lost it. A proper CRM tools at least give you data on when forms were opened, who forwarded them, and what specific offers got clicks. You're trading long term metrics for a quick dopamine hit of a few sign ups.

hart.cora28d ago

Paper forms still work in low tech situations though.

robertgreen28d ago

And the real drawback with paper though is you can't A/B test your pitch or follow up timing which is how most teams actually improve their conversion rates over time. It locks you into whatever you scribbled on the spot with no way to iterate.