The operating system for introducer-led growth

General — Frequently Asked Questions

What is RQ?

RQ is referral infrastructure for professional services. It helps firms make, manage, and track referrals in a compliant, auditable, and measurable way. **What problem does RQ solve?** Professional services firms have always exchanged referrals – accountants introducing clients to solicitors, financial advisers connecting with mortgage brokers, and so on. But these introductions typically happen through emails, phone calls, and informal conversations. That creates problems: - No clear record of who introduced whom, and when - Difficulty proving consent was obtained for introductions - No visibility into whether referrals convert to new business - Impossible to measure the commercial value of referral relationships - Compliance gaps that concern regulators like the FCA **How RQ works** RQ provides a centralised system where you can send, receive, and track every referral. When you make an introduction, RQ captures all the relevant details: who the client is, what services they need, which firm you are introducing them to, and confirmation that the client has consented to their details being shared. The receiving firm gets a notification with full context about the referral. They can accept, update progress, and close the loop when the work is complete. Both parties have visibility throughout. **Key capabilities** **Professional referrals:** Receive referrals? Transform this channel, distribute more effectively with partners, and track the results better. Typically send? Connect with other firms to exchange client introductions with full audit trails, and cases tracked end to end. **Client referrals:** Enable your existing clients to introduce friends through secure, branded links. **Compliance built-in:** Automated consent flows, due diligence, and complete audit trails. **Revenue tracking:** Link referrals to actual outcomes and calculate ROI. **Integrations:** Connect with Outlook, HubSpot, Intelliflo, Plannr, and other tools your team already uses. **Who uses RQ?** RQ is purpose-built for professional services firms including accountants, financial advisers, solicitors, corporate finance advisers, and wealth managers. Whether you are a solo practitioner or a large multi-office firm, RQ scales to fit your needs.

Who is RQ for?

RQ is designed for UK professional firms, particularly accountants, Financial Advisers, lawyers, and other regulated or compliance-led businesses where referrals are commercially important and regulator scrutiny is high.

What problem does RQ solve?

Most referrals still happen through untracked emails and conversations. This creates compliance gaps, lost revenue, slow client journeys, and no firm-wide visibility. RQ fixes this by capturing referrals as structured data, with consent, disclosures, and outcomes tracked end to end.

Is RQ a CRM?

No. RQ focuses specifically on referrals and referral relationships. It integrates with CRMs and back-office systems rather than replacing them.

Where does RQ sit in our workflow?

RQ works where professionals already operate – inside Outlook and alongside systems such as Intelliflo Office, Plannr, HubSpot, and others.

Can I use RQ with my existing CRM?

Yes. RQ is not a CRM replacement — it is a specialist referral management tool designed to work alongside your existing systems. Many firms use RQ in combination with a CRM like HubSpot, Salesforce, or a sector-specific system. The difference is that CRMs are built for managing client relationships broadly, while RQ is built specifically for managing the referral process: tracking introductions between firms, capturing client consent, recording fee disclosure, managing commercial terms, and maintaining the audit trail that regulators expect. For firms using HubSpot, RQ offers a native integration that syncs referral data with your CRM records. This means you can see referral activity within HubSpot without duplicating data entry. For firms using other CRMs, RQ can operate as a standalone system for referrals. The referral workflow in RQ is distinct from what a CRM handles — it covers the specific compliance, consent, and tracking requirements that general-purpose CRMs do not address. You do not need to replace your CRM to use RQ. Most firms find that RQ fills a gap that their CRM was never designed to cover. Spreadsheets and email are the most common tools that RQ replaces, not CRMs. If your firm is considering whether to add RQ alongside an existing CRM, the short answer is: they serve different purposes, and using both is the recommended approach.

What is referral management software?

Referral management software is a category of business tool designed to help firms manage the process of referring clients to other professionals. In the context of professional services — accountancy, financial advice, and legal — referral management software replaces the informal methods (email threads, spreadsheets, verbal agreements) that most firms currently use to track introductions between firms. A referral management system typically handles several things: recording who referred whom and when, capturing client consent for the referral, tracking the outcome (did the client engage with the receiving firm?), managing the commercial terms (any fees paid or received), and maintaining an audit trail for compliance purposes. For regulated firms, this last point is particularly important. Regulators like ICAEW, the FCA, and the SRA expect firms to evidence their referral processes. A referral management system makes this straightforward by building compliance into the workflow. It is worth distinguishing referral management software from two things it is often confused with. First, it is not a CRM. CRMs manage broad client relationships; referral management software handles the specific process of introductions between firms. Second, it is not a customer referral programme tool (the kind used by consumer businesses to offer 'refer a friend' discounts). Professional referral management deals with structured, often regulated, introductions between businesses — a fundamentally different process. RQ is an example of referral management software built specifically for UK professional services firms.

How is professional referral management different from customer referral programmes?

Professional referral management and customer referral programmes sound similar but work in fundamentally different ways. A customer referral programme (sometimes called a refer-a-friend scheme) is typically used by consumer-facing businesses. A happy customer shares a referral link, a new customer signs up, and both receive a reward — often a discount or credit. These programmes are marketing tools designed to acquire new customers at a low cost. Professional referral management is different in almost every respect. It involves structured introductions between professional firms — an accountant referring a client to a financial adviser, a solicitor referring to a mortgage broker, or an IFA referring to a will writer. These referrals involve regulated activities, sensitive client data, and commercial arrangements (fee-sharing) that must comply with regulatory requirements. The key differences are: professional referrals often involve regulated activity (requiring consent, disclosure, and audit trails), the referral is between firms rather than between consumers, the commercial terms are negotiated and documented (not a simple discount code), the client's interests must be protected throughout, and the process must be evidenced for regulatory compliance. Software designed for customer referral programmes — tools like ReferralCandy, Mention Me, or Ambassador — cannot handle these requirements. They are built for a completely different use case. Professional referral management software like RQ is designed specifically for the complexity, compliance requirements, and commercial arrangements that professional services firms deal with.

Why can't I just use a CRM or spreadsheet for referral tracking?

You can use a CRM or spreadsheet — many firms do. But they create gaps that become problems, particularly for regulated firms. A CRM is designed to manage client relationships, not to manage the specific process of referring clients between firms. CRMs do not typically capture client consent for a referral, record fee disclosure, track the commercial terms of a referral arrangement, or maintain the kind of audit trail that an ICAEW monitoring inspector or FCA supervisor would expect to see. You can build these into a CRM with custom fields and workflows, but in practice most firms do not, and the result is incomplete records. Spreadsheets are even more limited. They are static, difficult to keep up to date across a team, and offer no workflow automation. When a referral is made, someone has to remember to update the spreadsheet. Consent is captured separately (if at all). Fee tracking is manual. There is no connection between the referral record and the client file. During a compliance review, pulling together the evidence from a spreadsheet-based system is time-consuming and often incomplete. The fundamental issue is that referral management involves a workflow — a sequence of steps (introduction, consent, disclosure, tracking, outcome) that needs to happen consistently for every referral. CRMs and spreadsheets do not enforce this workflow. A dedicated referral management tool like RQ does, building compliance into the process so that the right steps happen every time without relying on individual memory or discipline.

What is introducer-led growth?

Introducer-led growth is a business development strategy where a professional services firm grows its revenue primarily through structured referral relationships with other firms. Rather than relying on advertising, cold outreach, or inbound marketing to win new clients, the firm builds a network of trusted introducers — other professionals who refer their clients when they need a service the firm provides. For example, an accountancy firm might receive client introductions from financial advisers, solicitors, and mortgage brokers. A financial advice firm might receive introductions from accountants and estate planners. A law firm might receive introductions from accountants, IFAs, and property agents. This is not a new concept — professional firms have always grown through referrals. What has changed is the expectation from regulators and clients that these relationships are managed transparently, with proper consent, disclosure, and record-keeping. Introducer-led growth works because the referral comes with built-in trust. When a client's accountant recommends a financial adviser, the client is far more likely to engage than if the adviser approached them directly. Conversion rates from professional referrals are typically much higher than from other marketing channels. The challenge is that many firms manage these relationships informally, which limits their ability to scale the approach and creates compliance risk. RQ was built to help firms turn introducer-led growth from an informal, ad-hoc process into a structured, measurable, and compliant strategy. The term describes both a growth model and a mindset: treating referral relationships as a core business development channel, not an afterthought.