The idea for BiP Referrals came about several years ago while our founder was working as a Mortgage Loan Originator. While working for the mortgage company he generated most of his business via referrals.  He quickly saw that referrals are a great source of new business, the clients have very high intent, marketing costs are very low, and there was a greater chance of converting these clients into paying customers compared to other lead generation sources. 

Pretty early on he saw there were a couple problems with the way he was getting referrals.  First was that his referral partners would send referrals in whichever way was most convenient at the time, text/email/phone/FB Messenger/LinkedIn etc. This left him having to constantly monitor every communications channel to make sure a deal didn’t slip through the cracks. 

The next and bigger problem was he noticed whenever there was a lack of “speed to lead” (how long it took to reach out) the greater the chance of losing the deal.  While he made it a priority to contact new referrals as soon as possible he found there were times that he was trapped in meetings, trainings, or somewhere else that delayed his ability to reach out.  Heaven, forbid he take a vacation, deals left for more than a couple days were almost guaranteed to be lost.

This got him dreaming of a way to have all his referral partners send new clients through the same system that also automatically engaged the clients to help established connections quickly.

After looking for a current solution and not finding any that worked, he set out to create one himself. First, he set out to tackle having all his referral partners send deals via the same system. So, he created a website with a form that his referral partners could fill out and send him deals. This was an abysmal failure. Referral partners kept sending deals but wouldn’t use the form he created.  While talking with one of his referral partners he asked what was going on.  They bluntly told him it was because he was asking for WAY too much information on the form (which he was).  He was asking for all sorts of information from where clients were looking to buy, how much they were looking to spend, if they were first time home buyers or veterans, and a ton more. The referral partner told him that if he wanted them to use the system the form had to be as simple as name and phone number or email.

After going back to the drawing board he created version 2.0 that not only included a simple form but also tackled the second problem of automating the initial client engagement.  With this if a referral partner sent a deal with a name and email the client received an automated email with instructions for getting connected. Now he found the referral partners were willing to use the system and clients were being engaged.

The next request came from a different realtor that asked if there was a way to have different professionals on the same system, this way he didn’t have to remember everyone’s “special way” to get a referral. Saying if all the professionals all have different preferences that he’d just keep sending emails and texts instead of trying to keep track of it all.

Version 3.0 saw a system where referral partners could choose which of their service providers they wanted to send a deal to, fill out the name and email, and hit send.  Now things started to pick up with several realtors asking to have a version built for them.

It was becoming pretty obvious that the problem he tried to solve for himself was experienced by a lot of professionals from all walks of life and that this idea could become a business.  He came up with the name after thinking of the famous line from the Godfather “It’s not personal, it’s strictly business” and thinking how much he disagreed with that sentiment, what could possibly be more personal than how people earn the money it takes to feed and shelter their family. He thought the opposite that “business is personal” and came up with the name BiP Referrals.

Next, he set out to see what it would take to turn this Word Press system into a streamlined web application. After raising some funds for an investor, he contracted with a development company to build the application. What he thought was a simple referral system turned out to be a very robust referral platform. After many long hours with the design and development team the BiP Referrals platform was built.  We can now help professionals, from any industry, get connected to and convert the clients their partners have referred to them.