TIL a simple referral fee split changed my whole partnership game

I was stuck for months with a big web design agency that kept sending me small projects. They'd throw me a $500 site build here and there, but nothing steady. Last month I finally sat down with their account manager and proposed a 15% referral fee on any project over $5,000 that came through them. I thought they'd laugh me out of the room, but the manager said 'that actually makes it worth our time to push bigger deals your way.' Within two weeks they sent me a $12,000 e-commerce rebuild. The trick was putting a dollar amount on the referral incentive instead of just hoping for good will. Has anyone else tried a performance based split like this with a partner agency?

3 comments

3 Comments

valh321mo ago

That 15% cut probably killed your profit margin on that $12k job.

gray61mo ago

Nah, 15% is rough but not a death sentence on a 12k job. You just gotta price it in from the start.

masonbell17d ago

Heard that logic before and still managed to botch it somehow. On my last big job I figured 15% was no big deal, just add it to the quote. But then I forgot to actually pad my numbers and ended up eating the whole thing myself. My accountant still brings it up at family dinners, like some kind of roast I can never live down. Learned my lesson though, now I double check everything before I even send a proposal.