This is for the operations lead who keeps a partner firm's referral records: the person who sees what colleagues type after a CEO says no. It codes one company's no by what it permits, not by its cause. Counting endings across a whole cohort, with reason families and denominators, is a different job, set out in declined referral analytics with minimal data; making the ask easy to refuse is covered in making a referral ask easy to decline.
Why the reason is the riskiest field in a referral record
Ask a colleague what to log after a no and the usual answer is "the reason, so we learn from it". In referral work the reason is the field most likely to hurt someone and least likely to help.
- It is often confidential. CEOs explain a no with the truth: a sale under way, a lender's covenant, layoffs, a lawsuit, a key person's health. None of it was said for your files.
- It does not change the action. Whatever the reason, a no means nobody asks again unless the CEO reopens the topic.
- It travels. CRM notes are searchable, exported into reports and inherited by whoever takes the job next.
- It invites a rebuttal. A logged objection reads like something to overcome, and the program runs the other way: the CEO decides, and SourceX lists introductions made without the decision maker's knowledge among the usual poor fits.
The FTC's guide for businesses that hold personal information states the general rule plainly: with no legitimate business need for sensitive personal information, do not keep it, and preferably do not collect it in the first place (our paraphrase of its "scale down" principle). Many decline reasons are about people; the rest are company confidences. Once the no is honored, a partner firm has no need for either. SourceX works the same way with partners: the partner agreement gives a partner what it reasonably needs to follow its own referral in generic stages or reference codes, and SourceX does not have to reveal the confidential detail behind its decisions.
What a decline record holds
Six short fields.
| Field | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Code | One of D1 to D7 below |
| Date | When the answer came, or when silence became an answer |
| Answered by | Name and role, for example "CEO" |
| Pointer | The message ID in the referral mailbox; for a spoken no, the colleague's dated note of the code and nothing more |
| Reach | Whom it binds: this ask only, or everyone at your firm |
| Hearing back | None, a date the CEO named, or "CEO will reach out" |
Code D4 adds one more field: the published fit test that failed, in the program's words.
The minimal decline reason taxonomy
| Code | Who closed it | What it allows next | May record | Never records |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1. No | The CEO, or a CEO withdrawing an earlier yes | Nobody at the firm raises it again; only the CEO can reopen | Date, role, reach | The reason given |
| D2. Not now | The CEO | One message on the date the CEO named, or nothing until the CEO writes | The date, if the CEO named one | What the company is waiting for |
| D3. Another route | The CEO, choosing to apply directly or through someone else | Stand aside; no further contact on the topic | "Other route" | Which advisor or route |
| D4. A published test fails | The CEO's own statement of a public fit fact | Revisit only if the CEO says the fact has changed | The failed test, in the program's words | The figures behind it |
| D5. Not asked | Your relationship owner chose not to ask, or the CEO could not be reached | No contact with the company | That no ask was made | Why the owner held back |
| D6. No answer | Silence 30 days after the single ask | Treat it as a no; no chasing | Ask date and close date | Guesses about why |
| D7. SourceX ended it | SourceX: not credited after duplicate review, not taken forward after its review, or a no-deal notice | Nothing to raise with the company; a credit dispute goes to SourceX with dated evidence | The dashboard label or notice date | SourceX's internal reasoning, or your guesses about it |
Three codes need a word. D4 is the only place a reason survives, because the reason is a published rule rather than a confidence: full-time headcount that never reached 50 at its peak, records that belong to the company's clients, or records already licensed for AI training, which SourceX's process asks every company to confirm has never happened. D5 is not a company decline at all, and keeping it separate stops it masquerading as one. D7 belongs to SourceX; when it is a credit question, section 7 of the terms sends disputes to SourceX with the referral details and supporting evidence, and the company is never asked to take sides. Why SourceX may not take a company forward is explained in understanding why a company referral was declined.
Translating what the CEO said into a code
| What the CEO said (Illustrative) | Code | What the record says |
|---|---|---|
| "We're in talks to sell. Ask me after it's done." | D2 | Not now; CEO will reach out |
| "Our largest customer's contract probably rules it out." | D1 | No; reach: everyone at the firm |
| "We cut a third of the team. Try me on 1 March." | D2 | Not now; hearing back 1 March |
| "Our chair won't touch anything with AI in it." | D1 | No |
| "We've never had more than 30 full-time people." | D4 | Full-time headcount never reached 50 at peak |
| "We licensed our support logs to an AI company last year." | D4 | Records already licensed for AI training |
| "Our accountant is already handling this with SourceX." | D3 | Other route |
| "My co-founder is unwell. Not this year." | D2 | Not now; CEO will reach out |
| "Talk to our new owners." | No code | Not a decline: once the sale has closed, confirm the acquirer's CEO as decider |
Two rows deserve a second look. The sale row matters, because once a sale closes the acquirer's CEO decides for the company, yet the record still says nothing about it. If the deal becomes public, update the decider from the public source with its date; until then, "CEO will reach out" is all the truth your firm needs. The licensing row is a published test, but the buyer's name and the deal's terms remain private and stay out.
When you cannot tell D1 from D2, ask one question before the conversation ends: "Shall I note that you'd rather we didn't raise this again, or that you'll come back to us?" The answer is the code. A company that asked for time on its own terms is covered further in following up after a company has asked for more time.
Who records, who reads and when a no can reopen
- The relationship owner records the code the same day. The operations lead checks it within a week and deletes any free text that crept in.
- Everyone can see the code; few can open the pointer. The code is what stops a second colleague from asking. The message behind it stays with the relationship owner and the operations lead, in line with the FTC guide's advice that people see only what their work requires.
- Reopening follows the code. D1 and D3 reopen only when the CEO raises the topic. D2 allows one message on the named date. D4 reopens when the CEO says the fact has changed. D5 reopens if the owner changes their mind. D6 and D7 never prompt contact on their own.
- A new decider is a new question. If the company is acquired, the old code stays. After closing the acquirer's CEO decides, and any ask goes to that CEO once, through a relationship owner who knows them. Because the record holds no reasons, there is nothing to quote and nothing to leak.
- If the CEO wants SourceX told why. The CEO can tell SourceX directly. You pass a reason on only when the CEO gives you the exact words to pass, and then it is the CEO's message, sent and not stored.
Declined companies also belong on your do-not-ask list; a network inventory that excludes people who declined shows how to keep that list from being reopened by accident.
What the codes teach without a single reason
Consequence codes still carry a signal. A run of D4s means colleagues raise companies before checking the published screen on who qualifies; a run of D6s means asks reach people who never wanted them; a run of D3s means companies hear about SourceX from several directions at once. None of that needs a company's name or a CEO's explanation. For cohort reporting with denominators and minimum counts, use the analytics guide linked above rather than building a second report from these records.
A month of declines, coded (Illustrative)
Illustrative. A generic advisory firm's October; invented records and dates.
| Record | Code | Reach | Hearing back | Left empty on purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| R-101 | D1 | Everyone at the firm | None | The reason |
| R-102 | D2 | This ask | 1 March | What the company is waiting for |
| R-103 | D4: full-time headcount never reached 50 | Everyone at the firm | If the CEO says it changed | The figures |
| R-104 | D3 | Everyone at the firm | None | Which route |
| R-105 | D6 | This ask | None | Why |
Each row fits on an index card, and that is the test: a decline record that needs a paragraph is holding something it should not.
Closing and keeping decline records
Once coded, the record closes. The code, dates, reach and hearing-back field stay; the message behind the pointer is deleted under your firm's policy, and every open step is cancelled. The code should outlive everything else, because its job is to stop repeat asks, and how long it lasts is your firm's retention policy to set. Where SourceX is involved (D7), keep the dated introduction evidence, since that is what a credit dispute turns on: the partner agreement's return-or-delete clause makes room for records needed for reward accounting and dispute evidence, and reasons are neither. The same keep-the-minimum logic for a yes is in recording an executive's approval without keeping extra data, and the queue the codes close out is described in the metadata-only referral queue.
A partner that declines its own reward is a different record entirely; see introducing a company when you can't take a fee.
Where a code-only record falls short
- Lost learning. You will not know why companies say no. If that matters, ask for optional, anonymous feedback about how you asked, never about the company.
- Memory leaks. Colleagues remember what they heard. The code protects the record, not the conversation, so brief the team that what a CEO says in declining is not repeated.
- Codes can be wrong. A "not now" logged as "no" shuts a door the CEO left open. The one-question check above prevents most of these.
- Free text creeps back. A notes box beside the code fills up within months. Leave no notes box.
- Untested. Whether code-only records change how often colleagues re-ask declined companies has not been measured. Count re-asks of coded companies for two quarters to find out; no figures are published yet.
Other record-keeping guides for partner firms 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 your firm's first decline arrives, register as a partner, keep the published screen on who qualifies beside code D4 and file the version of the program terms your codes refer to.