How To Build a B2B Referral Program [The Ultimate Guide]

Referral marketing isn’t only for B2C businesses. Decision-makers in B2B companies also turn to people they trust when making a purchase. And when someone recommends a product to a B2B decision-maker, they listen. So, B2B referral programs bring in loyal clients with a higher lifetime value.

But what makes a B2B referral program (aka business-to-business referral program) different from its B2C counterpart? What are the best practices for B2B referral marketing programs? This definitive guide has the answers.

What is a B2B referral program?

A B2B referral program is a marketing tactic that encourages satisfied customers to recommend your brand to decision-makers at other businesses. If your business informally emails or calls customers to ask them to share your brand, that doesn’t quite count as a referral program.

Instead, B2B referral programs involve a more formalized process: a unique share link for the referring customer (member), a streamlined referral page where those members enter their peer’s information (or the referral fills it out themselves), and a process for managing rewards. These programs involve tracking the referrals your customers make, and rewarding them whenever their recommendation results in a qualified lead and/or sale.

Why start a B2B referral program?

Referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations are random and unpredictable. But a formalized B2B referral program can give your brand more control over the sharing process. A B2B referral program makes it easier for someone to share your product or service with others by:

• Streamlining the sharing process (empowering customers to share on their own with a unique link)
• Building the referral “ask” into the customer lifecycle (e.g. through post-purchase email campaigns, for example)
• Tracking all referrals and automatically rewarding the person/business for sharing

And because B2B purchases are usually larger and have a longer sales cycle, a trusted recommendation carries a lot of weight. It can be argued that referral marketing is even more important in the B2B space than the B2C space. Here are some B2B referral statistics to prove how well referral programs work:

• A report reveals that word-of-mouth marketing influences 91% of a B2B purchaser’s buying decisions.
• According to Forbes, 78% of B2B marketers believe that B2B customer referral programs are a source of high-quality leads.
• The same source says 54% of marketers believe B2B referral programs bring in leads at a lower cost than other marketing channels.

B2B referrals vs. B2C referrals

To make the most of your B2B referral program, it should be tailored to the distinct needs of the B2B purchasing process. Before making any purchase, a B2B company often goes through a multistep sales journey and decision-making process with a number of stakeholders. It’s rare that a business decision-maker will agree to an instant transaction; companies are usually looking for long-term deals that last at least a few years, particularly if there’s a longer onboarding process or multiple teams will be using the product.

This makes the buying process drastically different from B2C, where a customer is in control of their individual, short-term decision. B2B purchases are usually a highly personalized experience: A business wants to know exactly how your product or service will meet their needs (e.g. specific integration or customer support details) and be assisted through every part of the sales funnel.

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 The differences between B2B and B2C customers usually calls for a different type of referral reward structure: for example, rewarding people who refer qualified leads to your business, as well as providing a reward if that lead ends up purchasing. This can be called a “multi-step” reward program, e.g.

• Customer A earns $15 when their referral books a demo with your company
• Customer A earns $25 when the referral purchases an annual subscription to the product (and this could recur annually if you opt for a recurring rewards program)

Here’s a snapshot of how you can set up advanced reward rules in Referral Rock:

Before you start a B2B referral program

To set your business up for success, we created a checklist of what you need before you start a B2B referral program. Make sure these foundations are in place!

A great product worth sharing

Customers will only share your product or service with others if they’ve had a positive customer experience. This starts with a great product and service. How can you tell if a customer is satisfied enough to recommend you to other businesses? Here are a few ideas:

• Look at your customer retention rate — is it strong or do you have a lot of churn?
• Check your customer reviews online on platforms like Capterra and G2, or even Google. How many positive reviews does your business have? What do they say about you?
• Look at your existing customers. Are any recommending your products or services? You may already have some B2B influencers or partners recommending your business to their clients.
• Conduct a Net Promoter Score (NPS) survey to gauge which of your customers are most likely to recommend your product or service to their peers.

Once you’ve identified your best customers (or referrers) who are likely to share your brand with others, reach out to them first when you launch your B2B referral program.

A strong customer base

Your loyal customers are your best brand advocates. Commit to building lasting relationships with them from the beginning. This is especially important in the B2B landscape, where the relationship with your buyers is for the long term.

After you make a sale, don’t leave your customers on their own. Keep the lines of communication open, and support them at all stages after their purchase. For example, if you’re a software company, assist your customers with setup, and then check in periodically to see if they have any questions (you may have onboarding or account managers for this).

Take an extra step and get to know each of your customer’s businesses. Listen to their needs and concerns. Gather their individual feedback, both about what you’re doing well and what you could improve. This will help you deliver better service for each customer, improve their overall experience, and make them feel highly valued. Fostering these solid relationships increases customer satisfaction, which is the key to driving more referrals.

A ready and available customer support team

Before you start a B2B referral program, you might want to gauge how well your business will be able to handle added customers. This type of program is meant to bring in new customers through your existing customers, and hopefully start a cycle where these new customers will then bring in more new customers.

But if all your new customers aren’t satisfied with your customer service, your program may end up being bad for your business. Customers will no longer recommend you – or worse, they’ll leave you for a competitor. Make sure your customer support team is able to deliver the same high levels of service to your new customers before launching your B2B referral program.

How to ask for B2B referrals

There are two key factors when asking for B2B referrals: which customers to target and when to target them. The most effective referral programs invite the best customers first. So which customers should you ask?

• Paying customers
  • This may seem obvious, but it’s important to keep in mind, especially if you run a service where you have customers using free trial and paid versions.
  • Reach out to paying customers first. They’ve experienced your full range of features, and have a deeper knowledge of what you have to offer. Plus, they’ve expressed their confidence in the value your product by becoming a paying customer.
• Loyal users
  • If you sell products, choose customers who use your product frequently. Prioritize long-term users and repeat buyers, especially if they have expressed their satisfaction in your product.
  • If you offer a service or a subscription, prioritize customers who have been with you the longest. These are often the customers who really know your value and growth. If you sell software, you can use a product analytics tool to see what customers are most active.
  • No matter what you’re selling, it’s best to look for customers who have used your product with success. This allows them to recommend you sincerely and express how you’ve helped grow their business.
• Willing promoters
  • If you conducted an NPS survey, reach out to the customers who said they would be most likely to promote you.
  • You can also directly invite any customers who have left you positive reviews online.
  • Do you already have customers you know are spreading the word about your brand? These are the perfect candidates for your company’s B2B referral program because you can start incentivizing them.

The bottom line: don’t ask customers to join your referral program the minute they become paying customers. This seems like you’re just using them as a means to another transaction.

It’s best to ask for referrals after your customers see the value in your product or service. Once they’ve had the time to use and enjoy their purchase, they’re far more likely to refer others. Some key moments where customers see the most value are usually a few weeks after they’ve started using the product or service, after a successful customer service experience, or after a subscription renewal. These are the perfect times to send a quick thank you note with an invitation to your referral program.

How do you create a B2B referral program?

Once you’re ready to start a referral program, you need to create a plan that will deliver the best results. These B2B referral program ideas and best practices are key to delivering a business-to-business referral program that accelerates your growth. Here are 14 secrets to B2B referral program success:

1. Make it super easy to share
2. Write clear B2B referral program messages
3. Design a simple lead form
4. Include an engaging call to action (CTA)
5. Use a referral code or link
6. Create an FAQ with all the important info
7. Personalize the referral’s experience
8. Craft a compelling referral message (with the help of your customers)
9. Analyze and qualify your referrals
10. Choose an incentive that motivates your B2B customers
11. Decide who will get the rewards and when they’ll get it
12. Promote your B2B referral program
13. Automate your referral program with B2B referral software
14. Keep track of your referral marketing goals

1. Make it super easy to share

Even though you’re running a B2B program, referrals will still be made from individual to individual: an employee at one businesses will refer an employee at another business. Given this, one of the biggest keys to a successful B2B referral marketing program is to keep the sharing process simple. If your process takes too many steps, or is unclear to the user, you’ll lose out on valuable opportunities to acquire new customers.

From learning about your B2B referral program to sending their first referral message, the entire process should take as few clicks or taps as possible. Streamline your referral process and make it easy for your customers to refer others to your business.

Revel Systems has an uncluttered layout, with a concise explanation, clear CTA, and simple lead form.

2. Write clear B2B referral program messages

Your clients are busy. Make sure your message is easy to understand and clearly explains what you want them to do (refer potential new clients), what’s in it for them (incentives and rewards), and the rules to get the rewards (what counts as a successful referral, and how are rewards earned).

Wellness center management software MINDBODY does a great job at keeping its referral program simple.

3. Design a simple lead form

Many referral programs tend to ask for a lot of information about the person and their company. But too many questions can get overwhelming quickly. Don’t be tempted to get all their information right away. Instead, think about the minimum amount of info you need from customers and their referrals to accomplish your goal. You can always ask for more info later.

Consider one of these simple lead form combinations:

• Member name, company, and email; lead name, company, and email
• Member name, phone, and email; lead name, phone, and email
• Member name and email; lead name, phone, and email
• Member name and email, lead name and email

4. Include an engaging call to action (CTA)

Your call to action should be large and prominent on the page. Whether your call to action is a headline, a button, or it should catch the customer’s eye and invite them to take the next step in your referral program. Some examples include: “Refer customers, grow your revenue,” or “Invite other businesses and earn free storage space.” Other programs stick with an even simpler CTA like “Join our referral program.”

MINDBODY’s eye-catching page focuses on multiple benefits of referring others: earning rewards and the intrinsic benefit of being part of something bigger.

5. Use a referral code or link

Referral codes and referral links make sharing easier for your customers – they can just copy and paste them into any message. These codes and links also tie the customer to their referral, making sure the right customers are rewarded for their efforts. Here’s an example of what the customer share link looks like in Referral Rock.

6. Create an FAQ with all the important info

A referral program FAQ page informs your customers about what to expect from your referral program. The quick, easy-to-read format allows you to explain your program in greater detail, including your program’s terms and conditions, without cluttering your main referral page. Plus, it will help address any concerns and reduce the load that falls on your customer support team.

7. Craft a compelling referral message (with the help of your customers)

In any referral program, it’s important the very first contact a referral has with your business comes directly from the existing customer. You’ll need to work with your customer to craft a compelling, personalized message that is sent directly from them to their peers.

How do you do this? You might follow the traditional route, similar to a lot of B2C referral programs – you provide each customer with a pre-drafted referral message, with the opportunity to customize the message before sending it to their peer. Allow them to write what they want and explain personally why they love your business. It’s important to also provide customers with several sharing options, including email, text message, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and any other relevant platforms.

Here’s an example email template:

• An initial greeting (“Hi [name], I hope you’re doing well. I thought you might be interested in [business]”)
• A short introduction to your business
• Space for the customer to describe their relationship and benefits they’ve had with your business.
• A way for the referral to contact your business
• The referral code or link (this is best at the end of the email)

Remember that the message should read like it’s coming from the customer.

8. Analyze and qualify your referrals

When new referrals and leads start coming in, it helps to have an efficient process to analyze and qualify these potential customers. This is especially helpful for B2B businesses, where customer relationships tend to be long-term and more personal.

Start by checking for the referral’s position in the company. Are they a decision-maker in the purchasing process? Is the company the right size for your product or service? Can your company meet its needs?

Next, get some background info about the company, their industry, products, etc. You can even reach out to the referring customer for any any details about the referral. Why did they think the company would be a good fit? Find a good jumping off point to explain how your business will meet their unique needs.

Then have someone on your sales team personally contact the referral to introduce your company. If your marketing team doesn’t properly hand off a B2B sales lead referral to your sales team, and sales doesn’t follow up efficiently, you’ll lose the sale (which might also dissuade customers from referring others).

9. Personalize the referral’s experience

B2B businesses are looking for customized experiences, and the ways you connect with new customers should also have that personal touch. Oftentimes, it’s the first experience the referral is having with your company. Be sure to show the potential buyer how your solution can meet their needs based on their industry, role, and company size, plus their unique pain points. 

10. Choose B2B referral incentives that motivate your customers

Now it’s time to figure out how to reward customers for referring others to your business. The rewards that work for a B2B referral program are very different from B2C programs. Standard B2C incentives, like discounts and money back, can work for small or medium businesses. But they won’t work for bigger businesses, as the referring customer is usually not the one paying for your product.

• Direct cash incentives and gift cards work for most clients.
• Swag, like apparel and bags, also work for most B2B customers, regardless of the size of their own business.
• If you’re a SaaS company, consider offering upgraded features as a reward for referrals. For example, more storage space, premium features, or a free month of your program are all attractive B2B referral incentives (something Dropbox has done very effectively).
• If your company holds courses, events, or webinars (or if you’re partnered with a company that does), you can offer free passes in exchange for a successful referral. After all, B2B employees often value opportunities to grow professionally.

Zoho’s referral program offers product credits in exchange for successful referrals.

When choosing the right incentives, it’s all a matter of who the referring customers are, and what is going to motivate them.

11. Decide who will get the rewards and when they’ll get it

The second part of your referral incentive is deciding how the incentives will be paid out.

• Consider offering dual-sided incentives. In addition to rewarding your customers for their referrals, you can also offer incentives to the referred lead and motivate them to make a purchase.
• Consider a multi-step reward program, where your customers are rewarded first when a referral becomes a qualified lead and again when that lead makes a purchase.
• Think about using cumulative incentives, which increase the reward customers receive each time they successfully refer a lead.
• Along those lines, you can also offer staggered rewards. Given the length of the B2B process, you can give your customer a small reward for every referral who signs up for a trial. Then, the customer will get a bigger reward if the referral ends up making a purchase.
• An attractive structure is gamified incentives, which adds a bit of fun and competition to your B2B referral program. For example, you can set up a simple points systems, where points can accumulate and be redeemed for a bigger incentive of the customer’s choice. You can also hold a competition, where the customer with the most successful referrals in a month earns an extra reward. Learn more about reward rules and incentive structures >

Hiver uses a multi-step structure, where customers earn some Amazon credits for referring a qualified lead, then more Amazon credits once that lead purchases a plan. They also offer tiered milestone rewards, which increase in value with every qualified referral someone makes. 

12. Promote your B2B referral program

You’ve put in all this work to design your B2B referral program. Now, it’s time to let your customers know about it so they can start referring others. There are several ways to promote your referral program.

As mentioned, you’ll want to target your best customers first. Send each one a personalized email or message to thank them for their support and then invite them to join your referral program. Let them know you specifically chose them. Once your referral program is up and running, you can use general promotion techniques to remind customers about the program.

• Promote the referral program on your website’s homepage with a referral call-to-action button. Place the button in an area that’s easy to find, such as the navigation menu or sidebar.
• Promote the referral program on your blog or social media accounts.
• Integrate your promotions into transactional messages or existing communications. After all, customers are already expecting to hear from you – why not invite them to a new program? For instance, you can include a banner on their shipping notification, thank you page, or regular newsletters.

Whichever promotion method you choose, don’t be afraid to have fun. Yes, you’re a B2B company, but that doesn’t mean you can’t inject some personal joy and humor.

• Use eye-catching text and images in your promotions.
• Tie a promotion into an upcoming holiday or sporting event, or reference a movie or another well-known pop culture moment that will resonate with your clients.
• Feature your successes. Welcome any new referral program customers, or add a note of congratulations for the customer who had the most number of referrals in the quarter.

13. Automate your referral program with B2B referral software

Referral programs have a lot of moving parts. For busy companies, automating some routine steps will make the entire program easier to run and increase your odds of success. Thankfully, there are a lot of good B2B referral software options out there to help manage your program’s success, but note that many are targeted to e-commerce or B2C businesses and don’t account for the complexity of a B2B sales.

At Referral Rock, we support:

• Multi-step reward programs (where customers can be rewarded at both the “qualified lead” stage and the “closed won” stage, if you want)
• Automated payout options, including gift cards, PayPal, Wise transfers, coupons, or custom rewards
• Seamless integration with your CRM to track referrals and trigger rewards (including HubSpot and Salesforce)

In addition to creating a database of all your customers and their referrals, referral software generates the referral links and codes needed to automatically account for each action and reward customers for their referrals.

14. Keep track of your referral marketing goals

To know if your referral program is successful, you need to set detailed goals and implement tracking systems to measure whether or not you’re on the right track to reach these goals. Here are a few useful B2B referral program metrics to track:

• Referral conversion rate: the number of referred leads who ultimately make a purchase, relative to the total number of referred leads
• Customer participation rate: the number of customers who make referrals, relative to your total number of customers
• Total shares: The number of shares of business that have happened from customers participating in your program.

Using referral marketing software can make measuring your program’s ROI much easier, with built-in analytics, referral link tracking, and reward payout features. Even after you set up your referral program, software can help you easily refine and improve your program. For example, you can experiment with different referral messaging or types of reward to see what your customers and referrals respond to best.

9 best B2B referral program examples

Before we wrap up, let’s look at some of the best B2B referral programs out there, run by top companies. Steal some of their secrets to run your own successful referral program.

1. ActiveCampaign

ActiveCampaign knows how to turn customers into reliable brand ambassadors. It’s easy to refer ActiveCampaign’s marketing automation tool, as all current customers are automatically enrolled in the program thanks to referral software. Logged-in clients can copy their referral link right from their portal. No need for an extra step!

We also love that stakeholders earn rewards based on the value a newly referred ActiveCampaign brings to the company. Incentives range from $25-$100 in Amazon credits, based on the cost of the plan the referred customer bought.

And if any customers regularly create content, ActiveCampaign also offers a separate affiliate partnership program for these creators to earn passive income through promoting the software. 

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2. Hiver

We highlighted their rewards earlier, but Hiver is such a great B2B referral program example, so we’re featuring it here as well. Eye-catching images grab customers’ attention, and little mascot icons show they’re not afraid to have fun.

Hiver explains the program in four simple steps, which makes the sharing process easier to understand. If customers have any more questions, an FAQ breaks things down and they’ve even made a chat feature available. We also love how the testimonials on the referral program page can remind customers why they love Hiver and should share this help desk software. 

And of course, we can’t forget about the rewards! As we featured earlier, Hiver uses multi-step Amazon gift card incentives to reward both referrals of qualified leads and sales. Then, when customers refer enough qualified leads, they become eligible for bonuses like a Kindle and an iPhone, in an awesome tiered system.

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3. GetResponse

Email marketing software GetResponse offers a double-sided, tiered B2B referral program. When someone refers another business that signs up for GetResponse, both the existing and new customer are rewarded with $30 in credit that can be used toward their subscription.

Best of all, when a customer makes three referrals then result in sales, they receive another high-value reward – a free Digital Marketing Certification course of their choice. These GetResponse courses are normally valued at $200, with interesting topics such as email marketing, marketing automation, landing page optimization, and inbound sales.

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4. Hilti

If your business depends on commercial tools, you may have heard of Hilti. The company’s tool tracking service, called ON!Track, comes with its own ON!Track Referral Program. We’ve chosen to highlight their program because of how well it’s designed to grow new leads and sales for such a niche service.

Hilti mobilizes B2B customers who benefit from ON!Track tool tracking by encouraging them to “share [their] positive experience” and help others “better manage their resources.” The company’s referral program rewards customers with a a free month of the service for every referral that signs up to ON!Track. These rewards encourage customers to repeat their sharing, and refer multiple other businesses that would benefit.

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5. FreeAgent

Small business accounting software FreeAgent offers a valuable referral program for its direct customers. When a FreeAgent customer refers someone who eventually becomes a paid user, both the referring customer and new customer receive a 10% discount on their subscription. A unique feature of this discount is that it lasts as long as both customers stay with the company (so a single referral can lead to a lifetime discount for both parties).

But since the referral reward is a recurring discount, how does FreeAgent encourage customers to make multiple referrals? The program allows customers to stack the discount, with an additional 10% off the customer’s subscription for every succeeding referral who stays subscribed. This means FreeAgent effectively becomes free to use for any customer who refers 10 new customers (as long as all the customers keep active subscriptions, which creates a lifetime value for the company).

With a reward like this, it’s easy to see why FreeAgent’s program made our list of the best B2B referral program examples! And the pot gets even sweeter. Once a customer makes 10 successful referrals, they are now eligible to earn commission fees for continuing to refer others. In other words, they can become an affiliate or partner of FreeAgent and get paid to continue their advocacy.

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6. DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean provides cloud, development and hosting services for businesses and developers to create powerful websites and software. Their referral program features a unique reward structure, to reward businesses when the peers they refer start to commit to the service, but motivate new B2B customers to commit earlier in the process.

If someone refers a business or decision-maker, and the referred lead adds their payment method, the lead gets a free $100, 60-day credit. (The limited time offer of credit promotes a sense of urgency). But the referring business doesn’t earn a reward until the peer they recommended spends $25 on their own. Once that happens, the referring business also earns $25 in DigitalOcean credit.

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7. Airtable

Airtable, a cloud collaboration and organizational software, has a B2B referral program example that’s unique on this list. Although Airtable offers a B2B product, the product is sold user-by-user. So, businesspeople are encouraged to recommend the SaaS to their peers at their own business, as well as other companies.

For every person they refer who signs up for Airtable, an advocate earns $10 in Airtable credits to upgrade their workspace to a premium plan. These rewards are cumulative. So, if someone refers enough peers to the premium version of Airtable (especially within their own company, where they’re trusted most), they could potentially use their own paid Airtable account for free for years.

And on Airtable’s end, this B2B referral incentive showcases the merits of paid plans. Someone who referred a few peers, and who gets free time with the paid plan, is more likely to purchase the paid version on their own after their “trial period” expires (or more likely to share with other peers to earn more time). It’s a win-win!

8. Bench

Bench is a B2B SaaS company that offers relief funding and bookkeeping services. For every referral that joins them as a new customer, the referring client receives a $150 Visa gift card and a free month of bookkeeping (a reward that ties back to the company, plus a reward they can use however they want).

There are no limits on the number of leads a customer can bring in, either. So, clients can keep sending in new B2B leads and earning funds back for their efforts. They could potentially earn a year, or more, of free services in return for referrals!

9. Gusto

Gusto is an all-in-one payroll, benefits and HR software solution that helps businesses manage their employees with ease. It simplifies the complexities of taxes, compliance and benefits so business owners can focus on running their business. As part of Gusto’s referral program, customers can earn a $300 visa gift card for every referral they bring in, and the person they refer will also get a $100 gift card.

Gusto does a great job of highlighting their referral program by including a callout in customer dashboards under “Refer & earn,” as well as in the Personal details dashboard of every account.

Key takeaways

Convinced you’ll benefit from your own business-to-business referral program? Before you start building, make sure you have a product worth sharing, a strong customer base, and ready customer support. Then, follow the 14 tips in this post, draw inspiration from some of the best B2B referral program examples, and find software that will meet your needs to get from idea to launch. You’ve got this!