How to ask a client or contact to introduce you to an owner

How do you ask a client to introduce you to an owner?

Make the request small, specific and easy to forward. Name the owner you hope to reach, explain in two sentences what you want to discuss, and attach a note the contact can pass along without rewriting it. Then let the owner opt in before anything else happens.

This guide is for partners who know a company only through an intermediary: a client, a banker, an attorney, a former colleague or a fellow board member. If you already know the owner personally, you can skip to the introduction email builder. If you hold a client relationship and want to raise the idea with that client directly, read how to raise a new opportunity with a long-time client.

Who is the right person to ask?

Do not ask the person who is merely closest to you. Ask the person the owner would take a call from. Map the path before you write.

Pick one path per company. Asking three people to approach the same owner makes the request look coordinated, and it risks the credit conflict described below.

What should the forwardable note say?

The note is the real deliverable. The contact will not rewrite it, so write it to stand alone.

>

Three details do the work. The first is "I have not shared anything beyond the name," which tells the contact you are not carrying confidential information. The second is the explicit exit. The third is that the note says nothing about the owner qualifying.

How do you let the owner opt in?

The owner should say yes before you receive any contact details beyond a name. Ask the contact to forward the note rather than hand over a phone number. If the owner replies, you move to a direct thread, and from there the process follows how SourceX US company data referrals work: you make the introduction, SourceX qualifies the company, and the company decides on price and terms.

If the owner prefers to look first, send the referral link. It takes the owner to sourcex.si/apply with your referral code attached, so they can apply on their own schedule and your credit is preserved.

Who registers the introduction, and why settle it first?

Credit goes to the first valid referrer whose introduction leads to a verified company application within the attribution window. If you and the contact both think you introduced the company, only the first valid one counts, and disputes cost goodwill on both sides.

Agree before the request goes out:

• Who will register the company or use their referral link: you, the contact or neither.
• Whether the contact wants any acknowledgement, and whether their professional rules allow one. See making an introduction when you can't accept a referral fee.
• That both of you keep a dated copy of the first message.
• That nobody else is asked to approach the same owner during the same period.

Keep it light. One sentence in the note, such as "I will register the introduction on my side so there is no overlap," is enough.

What mistakes make a warm path go cold?

What can you say about rewards when the contact asks?

Keep the answer factual. Partners earn 25% of the eligible platform fees SourceX actually collects from the referred company's licensing deals, capped at $100,000 per referred company. The reward is paid only after the buyer pays and SourceX receives its fee; an introduction, meeting or signed agreement alone does not trigger payment, and no reward is guaranteed.

It is a share of SourceX's fee, so it is never deducted from what the company receives. If the contact is a licensed professional, they should check their own rules before accepting anything connected to the introduction, and you should not suggest otherwise. The introduction without endorsement guide offers neutral wording for exactly this situation.

Illustrative: a path through an outside accountant

Illustrative and fictional. A fractional CFO wants to reach the owner of a 90-person engineering services firm. She does not know him, but her former colleague is his outside accountant. She sends the accountant the note above and a one-line reply option, "Happy to forward, or not." He forwards it the same afternoon. The owner replies with two questions about exclusivity and rights. She answers briefly, shares her referral link and mentions that the owner can contact SourceX directly. The accountant never touches any records and takes nothing from the arrangement.

When should you not ask?

Do not ask when the company is under 50 full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), when you cannot name a reason the owner would care, or when the contact would be uncomfortable saying no. A weak ask wastes the relationship, and it costs more than the introduction is worth. The related question of how this affects your own client relationships is addressed in will making an introduction hurt my client relationship?.

Next step

Choose one company, map the single best path to the owner and draft the forwardable note. When the owner says yes, register as a partner and send the introduction, or have the owner apply at sourcex.si/apply using your referral link.