We recently reviewed a survey by Beaton Research and Consulting, looking at relationships between Professional Service Firms and their clients.  Much of the survey splits the results by level of client – general staff, manager, CEO/CFO (“c-suite” roles), board member etc…

This led to an interesting result in one question about “Loyalty Intentions”.  To summarise the survey:  “Senior managers and board members are most likely to be loyal and refer their providers to their friends, and c-suite roles least likely.”  While the differences in responses are not massive, there is clearly a slight bias that managers and board members might be slightly more likely to refer than a CEO/GM.

I thought this was interesting empirical information about business-to-business relationship building and shows once again the importance of broadening a relationship above and below the CEO/GM.  Taking the time to ensure managers and board members are educated on your referrals might be time well spent.  There’s lots of other interesting information in this survey too, so perhaps take a few minutes to check it out.

Source:  Beaton Research and Consulting Pty Ltd 2011