Actually, there’s quite a bit more you can expect from referrals that have been properly developed by their sources. Referrals come in several different shades. I’ve identified three types of referrals that vary in quality according to how much involvement your referral source has invested in preparing the referral for you. The more time and effort your source puts into qualifying, educating, and encouraging the prospect before you become involved, the higher the quality and level of that referral. Conversely, if your referral source only passes an interested prospect’s name to you, most of the work of converting that prospect into a customer falls on you, and the likelihood of a successful conversion diminishes significantly