Creating Referral Requests

During the sales process, a prospect may at times inquire about goods and/or services not directly offered by the organization but may be available from one or more partners. In this situation, an account executive can create a Referral Requests record that can automatically identify a set of suitable vendors who could provide the good or service requested by the prospect.

Follow these steps to create a referral request that automatically generates a list of qualifying vendors:

1. Open a new record from the Referral Requests service. 
   • This service is located under the Sales Force Automation application.
     
     
2. Enter the name of the company requesting the referral in the Company field.
   • This field links to the Companies service.
     
     
3. Enter the name of the contact person who is requesting the referral in the Person field.
   • This field links to the Persons service.
     
     
4. Select the status of the Referral Request from the Status drop-down list. The default is Pending for new records.
   • Standard options are Pending (referral is pending), Distributed (request has been sent to a qualified vendor), Closed (request closed), and Cancelled (request cancelled).
   • Note that when Status is Pending and Qualification Mode is Open, Aptify automatically identifies suitable vendors for the referral on the Vendors tab (as described later in these steps).
     
     
5. Specify the date on which the referral request was originally received in the Date Requested field. Today's date appears in this field by default for new records.
6. Specify the date by which the company/person requesting the referral needs a response in the Date Response Required field.
7. Select the Referral Type from the drop-down list.
   • This field links to the Referral Types service (see About the Referral Types Form). Note that at least one Referral Type must be defined to save a Referral Requests record.
     
     
8. Select the Communication Preference from the drop-down list. The standard options are Indirect, Direct, and Anonymous.
   • Indirect: The organization includes the name of person/company requesting the referral when communicating with the partner, but the partner should send responses through the organization rather than directly to the person/company.
   • Direct: The organization requests that the partner respond directly to the person/company requesting the referral.
   • Anonymous: The organization does not provide partners with contact information for the referring party. All communication goes through the organization.
     
     
9. Select the referral request's Qualification Mode from the drop-down list. The default mode for new records in Pending.
   • This field determines the method of partner selection. Available options are Open or Closed.
   • When Status is Pending and Qualification Mode is Open, then Aptify automatically identifies suitable vendors for the referral on the Vendors tab (as described later in these steps).
     
     
10. Select the Matching Mode for the referral request.
    • This field tracks the model used for matching qualified partners with a referral request when the Qualification Mode is set to Open and Status is set to Pending. If Partial is selected, a company only needs at least one matching Topic Code to the Topic Codes selected on the Referral Request. If Complete is selected, a company must match all of the Topic Codes selected for the Referral Request to qualify as a potential vendor.
      
      
11. Enter the name of the Opportunity associated with this referral request, if applicable.
12. If the referral request resulted from a marketing campaign, specify that campaign in the Campaign field.
    
    
13. Click the Request Details tab and specify information as provided by the person/company making the request.
14. Click the Comments tab and add any additional information as needed.
15. Save the Referral Requests record.
    • You cannot specify Topic Code selections to generate a vendor list until you save the record.
      
      
16. Click the Topic Codes tab.
    • This tab displays the Topic Code linked to the Referral Requests service.
      
      
17. Check the Topic Codes that apply to this referral request and which you want to use as the matching criteria to identify qualifying vendors.
    
    
18. Save the Referral Requests records. 
    • If the record's Status is Pending and Qualification Mode is Open, then Aptify automatically identifies suitable vendors for the referral on the Vendors tab by matching Topic Codes between the two records.
      
      
19. Click the Vendors tab and review the set of qualifying companies based on the Topic Code match.
    
    • If the referral request's Matching Mode is Partial, a qualifying vendor matches at least one of the referral request's Topic Codes (that is, its Companies record has at least one Topic Codes checked that is also checked on the Referral Requests record). If Matching Mode is Complete, then a qualifying vendor must match all of the referral request's Topic Codes.

    

20. Modify the Topic Codes selection or other information as necessary and then resave the Referral Requests record to regenerate the vendors list.
    
    • As long as Status is Pending and Qualification Mode is Open, Aptify will continue to automatically update the Vendors list when a user makes changes to Topic Code selections or modifies the Matching Mode. For example, in the figure Matching Mode was changed from Pending to Complete and the record was resaved. This regenerated the Vendor list with 3 results instead of the 9 that appeared when using a partial topic code match.
    • Note that by default, Aptify clears the existing vendors (those that have been added automatically, not those added manually) before generating an updated list. An administrator can modify this behavior if needed. See About the Populate Referral Request Vendors Process Flow.

    

21. Add any manual entries to the Vendors list as necessary by clicking the New icon on the Vendors tab's toolbar.
    
    • When adding manual entries, do not select the Is Generated.

    

22. When you are satisfied with the Vendor list, change the referral request's Qualification Mode to Closed to prevent further automatic updates to the Vendor list. Then, save the Referral Requests record.
23. After a vendor is selected for the referral, click the Referrals tab on the Referral Requests record and create a new Referrals record.
    
    • If you did not add a Referrals tab to the Referral Requests form (as described in Adding the Referrals Tab to Referral Requests), you can open a new referral from the Referrals service.
    • See Creating Referrals for information on creating a Referrals record.
      
      
24. After creating the referral, update the Status from Pending to Distributed and then save the Referral Requests record.
25. When the referral request is later closed or cancelled, change the record's Status to Closed or Cancelled and enter the date when the referral request was closed in the Date Closed field. Then, save and close the record.