The Ins and Outs of Business Service Provider Recommendations, Part III

In my last two blog posts, I’ve talked about receiving recommendations from your network for business service providers. When you receive a recommendation, you have to think about why the person is recommending the service provider. You need to assess whether the freelancer is a good fit.

There’s a third component: the role you play in the recommendation process. You can directly affect the quality of the recommendations you receive by the way you handle business relationships. When you build strong relationships, you’ll discover people will unreservedly recommend excellent service providers to you.

How (Not) to Build Strong Business Relationships

I’ll illustrate with an example.

Jamie runs an event planning business. She needs a web designer, so she asks her bookkeeper Barb for recommendations. Barb’s response surprises her.

“I’m not recommending anyone else,” Barb says flatly.

“What?” Jamie splutters. “Why?”

“Don’t you remember what happened with that graphic designer?” the bookkeeper asks.

“Which one?” Jamie scratches her head.

“All of them.” Barb glares at her. “You went through three of them. You didn’t like anything any of them produced.”

“Nothing matched my vision,” Jamie protests.

“Did you explain to them what your vision was?” Barb asks.

“Yes.” Jamie’s tone is defensive. “Of course I did. They just didn’t listen.”

“Jamie, there’s no way three graphic designers didn’t listen. One, fine, but three? Did it ever occur to you that maybe you didn’t give them the information they needed to do their job?”

Jamie opens her mouth and closes it. No sound comes out.

Barb continues. “And let’s not even talk about your communication skills. I email you about your month-end books, and it takes a week and a half to hear back from you. But when you need something, it has to be done right away. You’re also paying net-30. Who does that? And paying by PayPal? What is this, 2009?”

“It’s easier for me,” Jamie mumbles, looking at her shoes.

“For you, maybe,” Barb retorts. “But until you change the way you do things, I’m not recommending anyone to you.”

Again, Jamie opens her mouth to say something, but no words come out.

Be Someone Worthy of Receiving Recommendations

Ask yourself: if you were a service provider, would you want to work with your business?

More specifically:

• Do you have clear processes and systems to work with service providers?

• Do you keep changing your mind about what you want?

• Do you have clear standards, timelines, and rules for working with you?

  • Are these rules reasonable? Will they allow the service provider to do their best work?

• Do you provide all the information the service provider needs up front?

• Do you communicate clearly with the service provider?

• Are you a micromanager?

• Do you ghost the service provider, ignoring them until you need something?

• Do you pay on time, and do you pay what’s owed?

• Do you make it easy for the service provider to get paid (for example, through direct deposit), or do you make them use a method that costs them money to access what they’re owed?

  
  

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good starting point. When you’re easy to work with, word will spread. Service providers will want to work with you or your company. They know they’ll be treated well and that their work will be valued. You’ll also find that people will want to recommend service providers to you.

Plus, when you do things like communicate clearly and set clear standards and timelines, you’ll find you receive better work from service providers. Why? You’re making it easier for them to do their work.

Recommendations for business service providers can sometimes go wrong. The recommender and the service provider play a role, but so do you. By being easy to work with, you can raise the chances of things going right.