People have good intentions many times when they try to recommend you to others. They may have seen a place to use your services or found someone that can really benefit from your products. We all can appreciate the benefits of having people recommend you, but if it is not done correctly you may actually be hurting the person your are recommending. Isn’t any recommendation a good recommendation?

Not really, the way you recommend someone is as important as who your recommending them too. Say the wrong things or promote the wrong service and you can actually be hurting that person you are trying to recommend. This happens to our business a lot as we do more than one type of service. For instance as a media company we have extensive knowledge in video, audio, and social media marketing, but we are also known for our caricature art. If someone is asking for social media help and you recommend our caricature services there will be a disconnect for the person receiving the information.

Similarly if you recommend services in the wrong way it can be disastrous. We recently had someone recommend us for a caricature event. Now caricature events can change in pricing based on time requested, location, services required, and more. The person recommending us was communicating with the potential client and asked how much we charged. Not knowing anything about the event we gave a general pricing. That pricing came back as too high for the client. That client will now think our pricing is high overall and we have lost them forever, a recommendation lost.

What is the best way to recommend someone?

Follow these tips the next time you recommend someone.

Never discuss pricing, leave that to the business you are recommending. They may have given you special pricing or they may have different levels of pricing based on their business.

Only recommend services that you have seen or experienced.

Offer information based on your experience only.

Never try to be a third party to the transaction. If you recommend a person or business you are doing it in good faith. If you are doing it for some kind of kick back then you are doing a disservice to the business.

Be authentic or stay silent. What you say can be hurting a business if you recommend them in the wrong way.

We all appreciate someone recommending us in-fact for some of us that is the main way we get our work. However if it is done incorrectly you could be hurting that same person you’ve been trying to help.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a media entrepreneur and consultant. He is a professional cartoonist, published author, radio and television producer, and marketing consultant. Bruce has businesses with various products and services all helping others be successful. To learn more about Bruce’s consulting services visit www.bruceoutridge.com Get Bruce’s latest book You’re Not Done Yet at www.bruceoutridge.com/yourenotdoneyet