What is a business introducer and how do they benefit businesses?
To build up strong levels of trade when starting out in the world of business, it’s crucial you cultivate a lengthy list of prospective customers, clients, partners, suppliers, and investors. While professional social media services might seem like the first place to look when building such a bank of business, business introducers can be a much more direct and effective way of doing so. In this article, we look at what they are, which industries typically use them, and how they benefit businesses.
What is a business introducer?
Business introducers work for a business, introducing them to potential leads and being paid a commission on the sales they introduce. Business introducers are strictly involved with introducing customers – they don’t get involved with the sales or agreements themselves.
Introducers are common in the financial services field, and as a result, their activities are specifically covered by Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidelines. Due to the nature of the work, whereby the contacts introduced are expected to be of a good quality and correct for the business, introducers typically foster a close working rapport with the paying company.
That said, business introducers with connections in hard-to-reach parts of the market can often easily find new work with hitherto unknown business partners.
The terms of an introducer relationship are laid out in a sales commission agreement.
The benefits of using a business introducer
Using a business introducer can bring a raft of benefits to your business.
First, their leads can yield results quicker than if you were relying on your normal sales funnel. According to MarketingSherpa, 73% of all B2B leads are not sales ready, and thus must be nurtured. This activity can be expensive and time-consuming, so gaining the help of an introducer can cut out a lot of this unproductive work, reducing lead generation costs in the long run.
Second, due to the way sales commission agreements are designed, the introducer is only paid commission if their introduction directly leads to a sale. It’s a no win, no fee arrangement, which makes it a risk-free way of adding leads into your funnel which may well yield further gains by way of referrals.
And lastly, introducer leads can be much easier to assess in terms of profit margin, given that the introducer’s commission will be set out clearly in the sales commission agreement. This is very different to traditional leads, where the costs of various marketing and advertising activities need to be factored into the equation.
Has your business ever used the services of a business introducer? Let us know your experiences, the benefits you’ve gained, and what your relationship looks like in the comments section below.