This page is for the operations lead who keeps a partner firm's referral records once a single company account has collected several contacts with different roles. It picks up after the first reply to an owner, which has its own first-response checklist, and it leaves a mid-review address change to the contact update protocol.
Six voices on one account, and the yes that counts
Accounts grow contacts quickly. The CEO agrees, copies a colleague, the colleague copies two more, and within a week five people at the company are writing to you. Each message below is typical (Illustrative); only one of them is a decision.
| Contact | What they write to you | What it means for the referral | Your move |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEO | "Yes, introduce us to SourceX" | The company's decision | Introduce; record the date and file the email |
| Finance lead | "We're in, send me the contract" | Enthusiasm, not a decision | Thank them and leave signing with the CEO |
| IT or systems lead | "I can pull a sample export tonight" | An offer you must decline | Decline; systems questions go to SourceX if the CEO names this person |
| In-house counsel | "Can you send SourceX's agreement?" | A fair request for the company's own review | Point to the public unsigned sample; offer no reading of it |
| Executive assistant | "Can you hold Thursday at ten?" | Logistics | Book it; a calendar slot is not consent |
| Outside adviser | "I raised SourceX with them in the spring" | A possible earlier introduction | Stop and tell the CEO; credit is SourceX's decision |
Anyone may help, one person decides, and a helper's no is information for the CEO rather than a closing answer for the company. SourceX's who-qualifies page lists introductions made without the decision maker's knowledge among the usual no-fit cases, so a helper's yes that never reached the CEO does not even start a referral.
What the account record holds about each contact
Every contact row answers the same six questions. The row describes a permission; it never stores what the person knows about the company's records.
| Field | What goes in it | Example (Illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Person and role | Name, title and work email | Finance director |
| Scope | What the CEO has asked or allowed this person to do in the referral | Commercial questions from SourceX, after the introduction |
| Granted by | Always the CEO, with the date and where the message is filed | CEO, email of 14 October |
| Limits | What the person may not do or be told | No contact with SourceX until the CEO says so |
| Channel | How you reach them, if at all | Only with the CEO copied |
| Review when | The event that reopens the row | Role change, departure, a new CEO, an acquisition |
Most CRMs let several contacts carry the same role label, and that flexibility is a trap on a referral account. HubSpot's default Buying Role property, for example, is a multi-select field: contacts can hold more than one role and can share a role with another contact, its example values include Decision Maker, Budget Holder and Blocker, and you can add values but not delete the defaults (HubSpot's knowledge base, paraphrased). Two Decision Makers on one account means nobody knows whose yes counts. Add your own values, such as Decides for the company (CEO) and Helps when the CEO asks, put the first on exactly one contact, and leave the default Decision Maker value unused.
HubSpotNever stored on a contact row: files, exports, screenshots or logins the person offers; figures they mention from the company's systems; views about their colleagues; and personal details that came from anyone other than the person. The personal-data guide for introduction records covers the rest of the record.
The contact-level permission matrix
Six company roles, one column that decides. Titles differ between companies; map each real person to the nearest row and write the CEO's grant on their contact record.
| Contact | Decides for the company | May help with, once the CEO asks | Talks to SourceX | What you may send them | Never ask them for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CEO | Yes, alone | Anything in the referral | Yes, directly | Your disclosure of interest, the program's public pages, the introduction | Files, samples or logins |
| Finance lead | No | Commercial and invoicing questions once SourceX raises them | Only if the CEO names them | Public pages the CEO has already seen | Payroll, revenue figures or invoices |
| IT or systems lead | No | Describing systems, years of history and rough volumes to SourceX | Only if the CEO names them | Public pages on how the process runs | Exports, samples, credentials or admin access |
| In-house counsel | No | Reviewing the company's own contracts and SourceX's agreement | Only if the CEO names them | The link to the public unsigned agreement sample | Customer contracts, or your view of what they allow |
| Executive assistant | No | Scheduling and routing messages | No | Scheduling notes | A decision relayed as if the CEO made it |
| Outside adviser | No | Advising the company on its own decision | Only as the company's adviser, if the CEO wants | Nothing the CEO has not approved | A split of any reward, or a joint introduction |
Reading the matrix. The second column holds a single Yes. Every "only if the CEO names them" is a scope the CEO grants by name and date, recorded on that person's row. The terms let SourceX communicate directly with a referred company without affecting valid attribution (section 2), so once the CEO points SourceX at the IT lead or counsel, those conversations run between the company and SourceX, without you in the thread.
Two parties outside the company. You decide nothing for anyone: you introduce, disclose that you may be paid and answer only from published pages. The unsigned sample of the Channel Partner Agreement says a partner is not SourceX's agent and may not commit SourceX to prices, licenses, payouts or other obligations (section 7.1), and gives a partner no authority to share a supplier's records or raw data or to access extraction systems (section 4.2). Nor do you act for the company. SourceX decides its own review and which partner, if any, is credited; it does not decide for the company either. SourceX's how-it-works page leaves three choices with the company: going ahead at all, the scope it puts forward and the terms it agrees to.
Least privilege, borrowed. NIST's glossary describes least privilege as giving each entity only the minimum resources and authorizations its function needs (paraphrase). Applied to a referral account: each contact receives from you only what the CEO's grant for that person covers, and nothing travels sideways from one contact to another through you.
Granting, narrowing and ending a contact's scope
- Granting. Only the CEO grants, in writing, naming the person and the task. "Help with whatever SourceX needs" is too wide to record; ask the CEO which task they mean.
- Narrowing. When the CEO pulls back, for example "keep finance out until we decide", change the row the same day and keep the earlier version with its date.
- Ending. When a person leaves, changes role or the CEO withdraws them, mark the row ended and keep its dated history. The CEO's own permission and the introduction record stay; the sample agreement says an introduction record identifies the company, domain, partner, opportunity, introduction method and timestamps, and that a dispute must not erase original evidence (section 3.3).
- A new decider. If the CEO changes, every scope granted by the former CEO is suspended until the new CEO confirms it. If the company is being acquired, its own CEO decides until closing and the acquirer's CEO decides afterward, so scopes are confirmed again with whoever decides now. For the reward, a company and its corporate group count as one referred company: the USD 50,000 floor applies once, to the first qualifying transaction, and there is no cap.
- An adviser with a claim. When several partners know one company, only one introduction can be credited, and SourceX decides overlapping cases in duplicate review. Do not negotiate with the adviser; tell the CEO, and leave the question to SourceX.
A 240-person freight broker with five helpful contacts (Illustrative)
Illustrative. A generic company, invented people and dates; nothing here describes a real referral.
| Day | What happened | Matrix answer | Rows touched |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | The CEO agrees in writing and names the CFO for SourceX's commercial questions and the IT director for its systems questions | Decision recorded; two scopes granted | CEO, CFO, IT director |
| 1 | The introduction goes out with the partner's possible reward disclosed to the CEO | The partner's active part ends here | CEO |
| 3 | The CFO writes "send me the contract to sign" | Help, not a decision; the agreement comes from SourceX and the CEO signs | CFO, note added |
| 4 | The IT director offers "a quick export so SourceX can see the data" | Declined; his scope is describing systems to SourceX | IT director: offer declined, nothing received |
| 6 | The CEO copies her assistant to set up a call with SourceX | Scheduling scope granted; no partner seat on the call | Assistant row added |
| 9 | The company's outside accountant says she raised SourceX with the CEO in the spring and is a registered partner | Possible overlap | CEO told the same day; no split discussed; SourceX decides credit |
| 12 | In-house counsel asks the partner whether a customer contract allows licensing | Not a partner's question | Counsel pointed to the company's own advisers and SourceX's rights review |
By day 12 the account has six rows and one decision on it. The CFO and IT director talk to SourceX inside the scopes the CEO gave them; the partner has received nothing from the company except the CEO's yes, and has said nothing about anyone's contracts.
Who at your firm speaks to whom, and when the operations lead steps in
| Person at your firm | Speaks to | Never | Passes to the operations lead when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Relationship owner | The CEO, and contacts the CEO named for logistics | Contacts the CEO has not named | Two contacts give conflicting instructions, or one asks you to go around the CEO |
| Operations lead | Nobody at the company; keeps the matrix | Edits a scope without a dated message from the CEO | Not applicable: this person is the step up |
| Partner of record | SourceX, about your own referral only | Asks SourceX about the company's deal | SourceX needs dated evidence for a credit question |
Conflicting instructions get one short question to the CEO, quoting both. A request to bypass the CEO is declined in writing and mentioned to the CEO. A new CEO, an acquisition or an adviser's claim goes to the operations lead the day you hear of it. The partner of record is whoever signed the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting; nobody else at the firm opens a thread with SourceX.
Keeping contact rows true until the referral closes
Once a month, read each row's review trigger against what the CEO has told you, and mark ended rows. Remove contacts who never received a scope; they were copied, not involved. Keep work contact details only. When the referral closes, freeze the rows with an end date and contact none of the helpers to explain the outcome: SourceX communicates with the company, and the company tells its own people what it wants them to know. For the questions to settle before a first call, missing permissions before a discovery call and the system ownership checklist cover the company side.
Where a contact matrix runs out
- Shared or contested control. Two equal owners in deadlock, a trustee, a receiver or a court process can mean the CEO alone may not be enough. The matrix then needs whoever controls the company, and that is a question for the company's counsel.
- Internal approvals. If the CEO consults a board or an owner group, that is the company's own business; record only what the CEO tells you.
- People you never meet. The company may involve colleagues you never hear about. That is normal and needs no row.
- No published evidence. Nobody has published how often a helper's yes is mistaken for a decision. Log your own cases; the study of introductions that reach an authorized owner sets out one way to measure it. Related operating pages 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 next account fills up with helpful contacts, register as a partner so your firm signs the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting, confirm the company against who qualifies, and read the attribution sections of the program terms that SourceX applies to every account.