GETTING FOUND
The four businesses that should be sending you work, and the text that starts it
Ask any contractor where the best jobs come from and the answer is a referral. Ask how many came last month and the answer is a shrug. Referrals are the one lead source almost nobody runs as a system: nobody asked for them, nobody thanked anyone, nobody wrote down who sent what. This is how to do those three things with a phone and a job board.
A note on what this is. It is not about paying for leads. It is about the four businesses that already talk to your customers before you do, and the text that turns a handshake into a habit.
THE SHORT ANSWER
Why do referrals feel random?
Because the parts that make them regular are missing. The electrician who sent you a panel job in March never heard whether it closed. The property manager who tried you once has no reason to remember you over the last company. And you do not know how many jobs any of them sent, because the notebook says "referral" and nothing else.
Referrals are not random. They are unrecorded. Record them and the pattern shows up in a month.
Who are the four?
- The trade next to yours. A plumber and an electrician stand in the same kitchens. A roofer and an AC company meet in the same attic after a storm. Each one sees the other’s problem first.
- The property manager. One person, twenty units, a list of companies in a drawer. Whoever answers first and sends the report the same day goes to the top of the list.
- The supply-house counter. The person behind it hears every contractor in the area complain about who did not call back. They get asked for names every week.
- The realtor or the home inspector. Every inspection report flags the AC, the panel, the water heater or the roof, and the buyer asks "who do you know?"
One name in each. Not a list of twenty. Four people you can text by name.
What is the text that starts it?
It offers before it asks. In your voice, in their language:
ES: Hola Luis, soy Carlos de Aire Frío. Cuando alguien me pida un plomero, lo mando con usted. Si un cliente suyo necesita aire, mándeme el número y le aviso el mismo día cómo quedó. EN: Hi Luis, this is Carlos from Aire Frío. When someone asks me for a plumber, I send them to you. If a customer of yours needs AC, text me the number and I will tell you the same day how it went.
Two promises in there: you send work first, and you report back. The second one is the one nobody keeps, and it is the one that makes a partner send the next job.
How do you keep count?
Every job on the board has a source. When a partner sends one, the source is the partner’s name, not "referral." At the end of the month the report shows jobs by source, and four of the lines are people. The one who sent three jobs gets lunch. The one who sent none gets a text asking what you can send them.
The day a referred job closes, one text goes to the partner: "Closed the job at the Hernández house, thank you." It is already in the seven follow-ups as the referral thank-you. Turn it on.
What about paying for referrals?
Start without it. A same-day report and a thank-you do more than a check, and they never cause a problem. Before you offer money to anyone with a license, yours or theirs, read what that license allows. Realtors in particular have rules about what they can take from a contractor.
When should you skip this?
When you are one truck and already full. A partner who sends you work you cannot take stops sending it. Fix the phone first, then build the four.
Questions we get asked about this
Do I have to give a partner anything?
Work first, then a report the same day, then a thank-you when it closes. That is the whole deal. Money is a separate decision and a licensing question; read the rules before offering it.
What if the partner uses a different system?
It does not matter. The partner sends a text with a number. Your board records the source. Nothing has to connect.
How do I know it is working?
The monthly report by source. If four lines are people and two of them sent jobs, it is working. If none did, the text was not sent, or the report back was not.
Related
Want the source field set up for your four?
Book a 30-minute call. We set the board so every job carries the name of who sent it, turn on the referral thank-you, and write the first text with you.