Building a Community Around Your Referral Program

Hear me out...what if we started treating our partner programs less like siloed one-way biz-dev functions and more like a community? I've had a few conversations this week about how to keep momentum, how to build differently, and how to engage at scale. My response: build your program like it's a community. Bring the ALL together. Think about it. Your "ecosystem" technically is a community, it's just not CONNECTED like a community. But what would happen if it was? A lot of things will happen (I've seen it work). When you bring ALL of your partners together like a community, whether it's in one general Slack community, a community portal like Circles, or something as simple as a monthly gathering (Nick Salvatoriello ran a great monthly meeting for all partners at Drift). You start to see something of a network effect within your ecosystem. When you pull them all together, like a community, here's what happens: 🔸 They start to learn from each other, what's working, what's not. How to do more within the partnership. We would highlight one partner a month and the work they were doing to show the other partners what great looked like. 🔸 They start to get to know each other and work with each other. Agency partners start talking to your tech partners and begin providing services to those tech partners and now thinking about how those integrations work more holistically to service the customer and drive more usage with the customer versus you just thinking singularly about your product. 🔸 Value rises in what you are building in your program. You're no longer standing there with your hand out, you're standing there inviting them into a community that has the potential to become a serious revenue driver for their business, as you would ideally be teaching them how to do more for the collective customer base. Chances are you're already doing some of the same things a community offers, you're just doing them in random acts of delivery or one-offs. A community offers: 🗳 Tactical training 🗳 A resource hub 🗳 Events 🗳 An opportunity to network and work with others. At a minimum, your program should already be delivering on these things. Go treat your partner program/ecosystem as a community and watch amazing things happen. Be Great. Be Arcadia 🐻

🕸️ Your Referral Strategy Isn’t Linear—It’s Organic Hospice liaisons aren’t just “doing sales.” They’re building trust ecosystems—one quiet endorsement, one connection, one belief transfer at a time. But here’s where we go wrong: We track calls and visits like they’re fuel. (They are.) But we forget to ask—how far did the car actually go? 📉 “How many calls?” 📉 “How many drop-ins?” 📉 “How many referrals?” These matter. But they only tell part of the story. Because in hospice, access isn’t just activity—it’s: ⚡ Trust velocity 🌐 Network depth 💬 How fast belief spreads—and how deep it roots. Let me show you: 🔗 Referral Chaining → Wellness Director → NP → Palliative MD → Case Manager → Weekly Referrals Each door opens the next. Because trust travels. 🌱 Network Seeding → Weekly in-services or grief groups at ALFs → You support staff—no pitch, just wt. clinics → You’re already trusted when decline comes Because you were already there. 🔄 Trust Cascade Prospecting → SNF night nurse → weekend charge → DON → IDT invite This isn’t cold access. It’s trust-based acceleration. 🕸️ Web Expansion via Nodes → MA + NP + office manager → “Who do you know across the street?” → MA group texts dialysis center Your reputation hops facilities. That’s lateral growth through shared credibility. 📣 Access Through Advocacy → You guide a daughter through crisis → She introduces you to her mom’s PCP → That physician becomes a referrer You didn’t pitch. You earned it. 📏 How Do You Measure This? ✅ Still track: calls, drop-ins, referrals, conversions. But layer in the metrics that map trust flow: 🔄 Trust Velocity (TV) 📊 • # of unsolicited intros/week • Time: first contact → 2nd-degree intro • % of referrals from downstream staff (e.g., MA → NP) 🌐 Network Depth (ND) 📊 • Avg. # of distinct roles per source • # of departments touched (SW, MD, CM, DON) • Tier 1 = 4+ nodes | Tier 2 = 2–3 | Tier 3 = shallow access 📈 Tie to Conversions • Which roles convert most consistently? • Which access points have highest ROI? • Where does trust depth = sustainable admissions? 🎯 What Does This Mean? If you’re a liaison: You’re not chasing referrals. You’re cultivating networks. You’re planting trust that blooms when the time is right. If you’re a sales leader: 📌 Stop tracking surface metrics alone. 📌 Start measuring influence density and credibility transfer. Your territory map shouldn’t look like a funnel. It should look like a living mycelial network—rooted, expanding, and nourished by relationships. Because in hospice: We don’t sell services. We transfer belief. And belief spreads faster than any script ever could. #Hospice #LiaisonLeadership #TrustBasedOutreach #ReferralChaining #NetworkSeeding #SalesPsychology #AccessThroughAdvocacy #CompassionateSales #HospiceGrowth #PolarisSupportGlobal

Your best marketing? Satisfied customers who can’t stop talking about you. Your happiest clients are your biggest untapped sales force—and they don’t even need a commission. Think about it: → You trust a friend’s recommendation over an ad. → You check reviews before buying. → You feel more confident when someone you respect vouches for a product. That’s customer advocacy at work. And if you’re not leveraging it, you’re leaving sales on the table. How to turn clients into advocates: 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 Don’t just deliver results—celebrate them. Share case studies, testimonials, and milestones that make them look (and feel) like rockstars. 𝗔𝘀𝗸 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗮𝗹 (𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗪𝗮𝘆) Happy clients want to help—you just need to make it easy. Instead of, “𝘒𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦?”, try “𝘞𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴. 𝘞𝘩𝘰 𝘦𝘭𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵?” 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗸𝘀 VIP access, beta features, referral bonuses—when clients feel valued, they’ll gladly spread the word. 𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗼𝗹𝗱 A written quote is great, but a short video, case study, or LinkedIn shoutout carries 10x the weight. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆, 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 Give them a place to connect, share wins, and feel like they’re part of something bigger. The more invested they are, the more they’ll talk about you. People love to share wins. If your solution made them look good, helped them grow, or solved a major pain point—they’ll tell others. And when your clients sell for you, their credibility is stronger than any sales pitch. --- Follow Michael Cleary 🏳️🌈 for more tips like this. ♻️ Share with someone to help them utilize client satisfaction as marketing.