Deal registration: why a timestamp beats a handshake
Most referral fees aren't lost because the deal fell through. They're lost because nobody wrote down who made the introduction.
The handshake problem.
A connector calls a friend who owns a practice, sets up a meeting with a vendor, and steps back. Six months later the vendor closes a $60,000 contract. The connector asks about the referral fee and hears one of three things: “we were already talking to them,” “that was a different person on our side,” or “let me check with finance.” None of those are lies, exactly. They're what happens when attribution lives in memory instead of a record.
What deal registration is.
Deal registration is a simple rule: before you make an introduction, you record it. The record captures who the contact is, who registered them, and when. That timestamp becomes the source of truth for attribution. If a dispute ever comes up, there's no argument about who was first — the record says so.
Why the conflict check matters.
Registration should also check whether the contact is already registered to someone else. That protects everyone. The first partner keeps their introduction; the second partner finds out before spending goodwill on a door someone else already opened. Without a conflict check, two people end up working the same account and the company decides who gets paid.
Registration before outreach.
The order matters. Register, then reach out. If you introduce first and register later, you've created the exact gap the system exists to close. Good programs make registration fast enough that there's no reason to skip it: a name, a company, a click.
What to look for in any referral program.
Ask four questions before you make a single introduction. Is there a written agreement that sets rates and timing before I start? Is my introduction registered with a timestamp? Is there a conflict check across all referrers? Can I see the status of every deal I've introduced without asking someone?
How Prism does it.
Every Prism partner signs a written agreement per vertical. The moment a partner registers a contact, the account becomes Prism Protected: timestamped, conflict-checked across every partner, and locked so no one else can claim it. The Prism Protected mark stays on the account in the partner dashboard, alongside the deal's stage, value, share, and payout date. That isn't a feature. It's the reason the company exists.
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