Most introducers already know they should disclose. The trouble is tone. The sentence comes out sounding like a compliance notice stapled to a friendly note, so people shrink it, move it down or save it for later. This page treats disclosure as a writing problem with a fixed set of facts, and gives you the words.
Four habits that make an honest disclosure sound like a confession
| Habit | How it reads to the owner | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Legal register: "Please be advised that the sender may receive compensation" | Boilerplate nobody wrote for them | First person, in the email's own voice |
| Vagueness: "I may benefit in some small way" | Something is being played down | Name who pays and what the amount depends on |
| Late placement: footer, P.S., below the signature | You hoped they would not notice | In the body, beside the ask |
| Money first: "This could be worth six figures" | The email is about the introducer | Company facts first, one disclosure later |
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance offers a useful standard here, even though it is written for advertising rather than for a private introduction. It counts a business relationship or a monetary payment as a material connection, and asks for disclosures that are clear and conspicuous: hard to miss and easy to understand. Its staff answers add that vague labels are weak and that a disclosure placed in the comments is easily avoidable. In an inbox, the footer and the P.S. are the comments section.
Your profession may ask for more than that. The program's home page tells licensed professionals to check their own rules on referral fees, and do I have to disclose a referral fee explains where those rules come from. An exit planner's version, built into engagement documents, is in exit planner referral fee disclosure.
Four facts about the company come before the sentence about you
A disclosure only sounds natural inside an email that is plainly about the recipient's company. Before you write a word about the reward, fill in four facts the owner told you or the company says in public: the record type, how many years it covers, the system it lives in and a dated event the owner mentioned. Lead with why this company works through that step in detail.
The example used on this page is Illustrative. An outsourced IT provider supports a 210-person commercial HVAC service contractor. Over the past year the owner, who is also the CEO, has mentioned three things: eleven years of dispatch tickets and technician notes sit in one field-service system, the company writes its own maintenance procedures, and it moves to a new field-service platform next spring. Those facts carry the email. The reward sentence is one line inside it.
Five plain-language disclosure variants
Each variant states the same facts at a different length: who pays (SourceX), the base (what SourceX actually pays the company), the condition, the fact that there is no cap, and that the company's own payment is untouched. Choose by relationship and by whether the email is likely to be forwarded. Bracketed parts are yours to fill.
| Variant | Use it when | Wording (Illustrative) | What it leaves for later |
|---|---|---|---|
| A. One line | A peer or long-standing contact; a short email | "Full disclosure: if this ever becomes a paid license, SourceX pays me a referral reward, and it never comes out of what they pay you." | The formula and the USD 100,000 minimum, given if asked |
| B. With the numbers | The owner likes specifics, or money has come up before | "So you know where I stand: SourceX may pay me the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of what it actually pays your company on its first qualifying transaction, with no cap, and only after you have been paid." | The other conditions behind "after you have been paid" |
| C. Adviser | You owe the recipient professional duties | "I should tell you that I have a referral agreement with SourceX and would receive a reward from them, not from you, if a license completes. My work for you does not depend on what you decide." | Nothing your own rules require you to say |
| D. Forward-safe | The owner may pass the email to a CFO or the board | "[Your name] is a SourceX referral partner and would be paid a referral reward by SourceX, never out of [company]'s payment, if a license completes." | The numbers, which belong in a direct reply |
| E. Straight answer | The owner replies "what's in it for you?" | First line of your reply: "Fair question: the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of what SourceX actually pays your company on a first qualifying transaction, with no cap, paid by SourceX after you are paid. Nothing for the introduction or a meeting." | Nothing; answer before anything else |
Three rules hold across all five.
- Numbers travel together. Never give the formula without its base, or the USD 50,000 floor without "on the first qualifying transaction". A bare "USD 50,000" reads as an estimate of what the company will receive.
- No shrinking. A reward that starts at USD 50,000 on a first qualifying transaction is not a token or a small thank-you, and calling it one misleads the owner as surely as hiding it.
- No promise rides along. Under the agreement partners sign, a purchase or reward is never to be described as guaranteed by an estimate, positive interest, a signature or a data upload, and a partner cannot commit SourceX to prices, licenses or payouts.
Placement decides whether it reads as candor or fine print
Test each position against one question: would the owner see the sentence before deciding whether to reply?
| Position | Seen before the decision? | How it reads |
|---|---|---|
| Subject line | Yes | The email is about your reward |
| Opening line | Yes | Money first, company second |
| After the company facts, before the ask | Yes | Candor at the moment it matters |
| Below the signature, or a P.S. | Often not | Fine print |
| A later email, sent only if asked | No | Something was held back |
Two checks before you send. The forward test: if the owner forwards the email to the CFO, does the disclosure still make sense to someone who missed your earlier conversations? Variant D is written for that case. The read-aloud test: say the sentence as if you were across a table from the owner. If you would not say it that way in person, rewrite it until you would.
One email to the HVAC contractor, before and after (Illustrative)
Same company, same facts, same introducer. Only the writing changes.
Before
Subject: An opportunity worth six figures?
Hi [Name], hope all is well. AI companies are paying serious money for business data and I think you could be sitting on a goldmine. I work with a company called SourceX that can help. Do you have 15 minutes this week? Review spots fill up fast.
[Signature]
P.S. In the interest of transparency, I may receive a small referral fee.
What goes wrong: the subject leads with a number nobody can know, "goldmine" claims a value before any review, the urgency is invented, and the disclosure sits under the signature and calls a reward that starts at USD 50,000 "small".
After
Subject: Your dispatch history, before the spring migration
Hi [Name], you mentioned the move to the new field-service platform next spring. Before the old system is retired, it may be worth one conversation about the eleven years of dispatch tickets and technician notes in it.
SourceX licenses business records from companies directly, for AI training and evaluation, and takes care of the agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payment. Whether any of your records fit is decided in their review, and you choose what, if anything, is licensed.
So you know where I stand: I am a SourceX referral partner. If your company licenses data through them, SourceX may pay me the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of what it actually pays you on the first qualifying transaction, with no cap. It never comes out of your payment, and nothing is owed to me for an introduction or a meeting.
If you would like a 20-minute call with them, reply and I will send a short introduction. If not, no reply is needed, and our work on the network upgrade carries on as before.
The disclosure is now the third paragraph of four: after the reason, before the ask, in the same voice as everything around it. It carries the base, the absence of a cap and the fact that the company's payment is untouched, so nothing in it can be read as an estimate.
What the email may say about SourceX and the company's side
The owner will weigh your disclosure against what the conversation offers, so that part has to be as accurate as the reward sentence. SourceX licenses business data from the company itself, only what the company approves, for use in AI training and evaluation, and acts as the company's counterparty for the agreement, rights review, data preparation, delivery and payout. The company decides whether to proceed, what to offer and which terms to accept.
Fit is decided in SourceX's review against published screening criteria: 50+ full-time employees at peak with contractors excluded, years of documented operating history, records the company has the rights to license, and a CEO who authorizes the discussion. 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. The HVAC contractor passes the size test. Whether its dispatch notes match SourceX's current data needs, and whether any customer contract limits their use, stays unknown until review.
Your part of the email stays at metadata level: record type, rough volume, years, system and who administers it. No samples, exports or logins, and nothing about the company's customers; which information should stay out of an introductory email lists the rest. Before you submit the introduction itself, you need a signed SourceX Channel Partner Agreement; if you signed it under the title it carried before, Channel Partner Non-Circumvention and Non-Disclosure Agreement, that earlier signature remains in force as signed.
The facts behind every variant come from the program terms. The reward on a company's first qualifying transaction is the greater of $50,000 plus 5% and 15% of Actual Supplier Payout, with no cap; Actual Supplier Payout means the compensation SourceX actually pays the company for a qualifying completed handoff. SourceX pays it separately, the USD 50,000 floor applies once per referred company, and further qualifying transactions first agreed within 12 months of the first Closing pay 15%. Before it is payable, the Acquisition Partner must give final written acceptance of the complete dataset, its handoff must be completed, SourceX must receive payment in cleared funds, the company's compensation must be paid, finance must approve and your tax and payment details must be on file. None of that belongs in the email. It is what makes the one sentence true.
End on a single offer the owner can ignore
Close with one step the owner can take or leave: a short call, or a two-line introduction if they reply yes. The only date in the email should be one the owner gave you, here the spring migration, because a system being retired is a real reason to talk before records are archived. A deadline of your own making undoes the trust the disclosure just earned. When the owner may want to say no, make the ask easy to decline; when the formula itself needs explaining, explaining the reward formula in an intro email takes that sentence apart in detail.
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.
Once the company facts are written and your disclosure sentence survives the forward test, create your partner account, make sure the company meets who qualifies and have the program terms beside you while you pick a variant; more message guides sit under guides.