So you’ve decided to put some effort into recruiting referral partners to introduce your product to potential customers you might not have otherwise been able to reach. You’ve evaluated commission payouts, prepared your direct sales reps to partner with your referral agents to close business, maybe you’ve even convinced a few people to become referral agents. In the world of SaaS, this is an invaluable distribution strategy, as so many business consultants and independent sales reps are already making referrals of this sort to their prospective and existing customers.

A few weeks go by, you do a few webinars with your referral partners, the momentum is there and expectations are high. Soon, a couple more weeks go by, and still nothing. No leads, no opportunities, no word from your referral partners. What’s up?

There’s a pretty good chance you’ve missed a crucial component in the process. Your referral partners aren’t being paid a base salary, they don’t work in your office, most likely they have never even met you face to face. How can you engage them for maximum performance given the nature of the situation?

It’s easy — sales management 101. The best practices of any good sales manager MUST be implemented for your referral partners if you expect to see any results. Webinars, online demos, getting them excited about the potential commission payouts are all good, yes, but without fundamental sales management, more so then you’d even give your direct sales reps, you can’t expect much to happen from referral partners.

Following are a few key elements of essential sales management that you can immediately implement for your referral partners:

1. Build trust

Your referral partners need to know they can trust you. Show them that you are interested in them as people and you will gain their trust. This can be achieved by asking open-ended questions about their background and experiences, and taking the time to actively listen.

2. Create value

You (or your Account Manager) need to be viewed as an invaluable resource for your partners to learn not just about your technology and market, but general business and sales strategy. Every call or e-mail exchange with you is a chance for your referral agent to learn something new about sales/business/life. Metaphors always work well (most sales reps are visual) when explaining a strategy. Share a success you’ve had, a deal that you closed (how you did it), a new way of thinking about basic prospecting that perhaps the reps has never heard. I can’t script this for you, but consider what value you can bring as a human being to your partners and you’ll win their attention for the long haul.

3. Role play

Now that you’ve trained your partners on the technology, take some time to role play back and forth with them a prospect/sales rep phone call. Play the part of the sales rep first, and walk them (in their role as prospect) through an initial sales call. Then, flip it, and have them try to sell to you, and throw out all of the most common objections they will face in the market, and coach them on how to get over those objections.

4. Follow up

Can’t stress this enough — probably the most important aspect of sales management. You must continue to check in with your referral agents weekly, if not daily, to see how things are going. Good questions to ask are: “what opportunities did you uncover today?” “where are you looking for leads?” “what can I do to help?” Let them know you care about their success by continuing to check in.

5. Throw them a bone!

Finally, make sure you are helping these reps sell by throwing an opportunity their way every now and then. Find some leads for them to help jump start their prospecting. Direct them towards a defined opportunity. Let them sit in on a live call with a prospect. Make sure you are helping them be successful by giving them something tangible to help them find and close a deal. Once they get a taste of success, they’ll come back for more.

Remember, your referral agents are working 100% commission and have no loyalty to you beyond what you create for them. It’s up to you to build trust, create value, role play, follow up, and throw them a bone every now and then if you want them to be successful marketing your solution.

A referral partner network is an inexpensive and potentially highly effective distribution strategy for your company — but without proper nurturing and care, you’ll have nothing more then a handful of prospective referral partners that you haven’t yet converted into real sales people.