A mixed membership hears the same sentence in different ways. To a twelve-person studio, "introduce your company for AI data licensing" is a pitch for something it cannot use. To a 400-person distributor, a vague item about "AI opportunities for members" is noise. Doors fix both problems without the association knowing anyone's headcount.
What members need, and where the association's part ends
Mixed networks lean small. Eurostat reports that in 2022 micro and small businesses made up 99% of the EU's enterprises while accounting for 48% of the people employed, which is to say a small number of larger firms employ about half the workforce. Your own membership may differ, but a general business network often looks like that: many small members, and a few large ones that matter most for this program.
The program's size line sits between them. Section 1 of SourceX's terms says "Introduced companies must meet the SourceX sourcing criteria, including 50 or more full-time employees at peak", and SourceX's screening page leaves contractors out of that count. So members need three things from the association: an honest signal of whether the program is built for companies like theirs, a low-pressure way in if it is, and a clear statement of what the association gains.
| The association does | The association never does |
|---|---|
| Publishes the criteria and the three doors | Collects headcounts or estimates them for members |
| Answers questions about how the program works | Tells a member it qualifies or is a fit |
| Passes on a CEO's request for an introduction | Decides for a member company, or hints that it can |
| Discloses that it could be paid | Implies that SourceX endorses the association, or the reverse |
| Keeps member details inside the association | Sends SourceX a list, a segment or a size band |
The last row is the subject of a separate guide: how to offer a referral program without selling your member list.
The size-aware relevance routing guide
Each member reads the doors and picks one by describing itself. The association's job is to write the doors well and answer the replies.
| How the member describes itself | Door | What the association offers | Words the association avoids |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Our full-time team has never reached 50" | 1. Education | A session or article on how licensing company records works | "You might qualify", or an offer to introduce |
| "We're not sure, or our count includes contractors or part-timers" | 2. Self-check | The published criteria and SourceX's company fit checker, counting full-time staff at the company's highest point | A headcount estimate made on the member's behalf |
| "We had 50 or more full-time people at our peak and are smaller now" | 3. Opt-in introduction | An introduction once the CEO asks, noting the peak year | "Too small now" |
| "We have 50 or more full-time people today" | 3. Opt-in introduction | The same, on the CEO's request | "You're a fit" or "you'll be accepted" |
| "We're a staffing firm with a small internal team and many placed workers" | 2, then 3 | Count only the firm's own full-time staff, give the placed workforce as a separate figure, and introduce the firm anyway when its records are strong | Adding placed workers to the count |
| "We're a branch or a subsidiary of a larger company" | 3, through the right CEO | The ask goes to the CEO who decides for the company: for a branch, its company's CEO; for an acquired subsidiary, the acquirer's CEO | Treating a local manager's yes as the company's |
| "We're based outside the U.S., Canada and the EU" | 2. Self-check | The location and language rule, quoted below | Assuming the answer either way |
Location matters as much as size for the third door. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 70% of the data is in English.
Door 1 is honest, not closed. SourceX's screening page says smaller specialists can still be considered, but the referral terms set the 50-at-peak bar for introductions, so the association does not introduce those members. A member that believes it is a specialist case can read the smaller-specialist route and approach SourceX on its own. When a member says "we're too small" and means something else, the guide to that conversation sorts the meanings.
Why members choose and the association does not. Dues tiers are often set by revenue or total staff, which measure something other than full-time employees at the company's peak. And a member that gave its headcount to set its dues did not give it to sort vendor offers. Self-selection needs neither. A board whose records do show full-time headcount reliably may prefer to score segments first with the member benefit scorecard; the doors are for networks that cannot see size, or choose not to look.
Method note. The doors apply SourceX's program terms and screening page, both read on 2026-10-27, and the program's settled staffing-firm rule. They do not assess records, rights, demand or payout, which only SourceX's review can do, and the routing has not been tested on a live membership; no response figures are published.
One notice with three doors
Adapt the wording to your members, and keep each door's promise intact.
An optional item: licensing company records for AI. SourceX licenses records that companies created in their own operations for AI training and evaluation, and the association has joined its referral program. Whether this is relevant starts with size, so pick your door.
Door 1. Your full-time team has never reached 50. SourceX's referral program cannot take an introduction from us for your company. Our session on {date} explains how licensing works if you are curious.
Door 2. You are not sure. Count full-time employees only, at your company's highest point, leaving out contractors and any workers placed with clients. SourceX's company fit checker gives a preliminary, non-binding read.
Door 3. Your company reached 50 or more full-time employees at its peak. If your CEO wants to talk to SourceX, reply and we will make one introduction, copying your CEO. SourceX decides fit after its own review, and you can apply directly without us.
The association may receive a referral reward from SourceX if a company it introduces completes a paid licensing deal. SourceX pays it separately, and none of it comes out of your company's compensation. We decide nothing for you and share no member details. Reply "not for us" to tell us this missed the mark.
The sample Channel Partner Agreement backs the restraint in door 3: section 4.6 bars a partner from telling a referred company that an estimate, interest, a signature or an upload assures a purchase or a reward. Where the reward sentence sits in an issue is its own question, covered in keeping referral incentives transparent in a member newsletter.
Facts that move a member between doors
- The peak year. A member that employed 80 full-time people in 2019 and 35 today belongs at door 3; the test looks at the high point.
- Contractors and seasonal crews. Only full-time employees count. A firm that swells with contractors every summer reads its full-time count, not its busiest roster.
- A sale in progress. Before closing, the member's own CEO decides; from closing, the acquirer's CEO decides, and the whole group shares one reward cap.
- Earlier contact with SourceX. A member that has already applied, holds an account or has corresponded with SourceX is reviewed as a duplicate and credited to no later partner. Suggest it carry on directly.
- Other advisers. An accountant or broker may know the same member. Only one introduction can be credited, and SourceX settles overlapping claims in its duplicate review from dated records.
Pilot one issue, and count misroutes as carefully as replies
Run the three-door notice once, in one issue or one chapter, before it becomes a standing item. Decide in advance what you will count after 60 days:
- door 3 replies, and how many came with a CEO's own request;
- members who chose door 3 and later said their count was lower than they thought;
- "not for us" replies by door, and anything a door 1 member says about how the item felt;
- unsubscribes from the issue compared with a normal one;
- any member who believed the association had judged its size or shared its details.
Write the stop rule first: one credible complaint that the association sorted or shared member details pauses the program until the cause is fixed. SourceX has not published response or conversion rates for business networks, so every count here is yours, and none is published on this page.
Five members, five routes (Illustrative)
Illustrative. Invented members; each row shows how the doors route a reply, not any outcome.
| Member | What it tells you | Door | What happens next |
|---|---|---|---|
| A 12-person design studio | Its full-time team has never passed 15 | 1 | Receives the session invitation; no introduction |
| A 70-person engineering firm | It peaked at 85 full-time in 2019, and its CEO wants to talk | 3 | One introduction, copying the CEO and noting the peak year |
| A staffing firm with 35 full-time staff of its own | About 600 placed workers; strong placement records | 2, then 3 | Both figures reported separately; introduced if the CEO asks |
| The local branch of a 2,000-person insurer | The branch manager is keen | 3, through the right CEO | Only someone who reaches the insurer's CEO can carry the ask |
| A 120-person logistics firm | It applied to SourceX last year | None | Told to continue with SourceX directly; no introduction |
Where size routing can still go wrong
- Self-reports can be wrong. Members misremember their peak or count contractors. The association records what was said; SourceX checks the facts.
- Size is a first filter, not fit. Passing the size line leaves the harder tests untouched: whether the member created its records itself and kept them for years, whether it may license them, whether its CEO wants to talk, and whether SourceX needs that kind of record now.
- Door 1 can feel like a snub. Word it with respect, and give small members something useful in the education track.
- Your own policy governs. If the association's membership or privacy policy limits how member communications may be used, it overrides anything here.
The member-side view for industry bodies is on the industry associations page, staffing members can start at the staffing firm owners page, and more partner guides sit in the guides library.
Next step
Refer a company. No cap on rewards. Default reward on a company's first qualifying transaction: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, including the USD 100,000 Minimum Transaction, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
Before the three-door notice goes out, register the association as a partner, check each door's wording against who qualifies, and keep the program terms to hand for the first member who asks how the reward works.