COVID-19: Referral Partnerships

When new leads are down, drum up new business through partnering with other tutors

Apr 02, 2020

Looking for a tutor to refer new business to you? Let Tutor Scale quickly find you the perfect match! If you’re interested in sending your request out to over 2,500 tutors, simply reply to this email with the primary subject(s) you tutor, your hourly rate, and the one subject that your ideal partner should tutor. I’ll send your request out to the full list as part of my next post and find you the perfect referral partner in no time!

In times of uncertainty, people hit the pause button. They’re hesitant to add new things to their plate that might add chaos to their lives. Even seemingly small decisions can get put off until the dust settles.

Tutoring is no exception. For tutors who are already well accustomed to running lessons through video conferencing software, online tutoring seems like a natural solution to the problems presented by COVID-19. But put yourself in students’ and parents’ shoes! They might be thinking: what if the internet goes out? How will learning math be different on video vs. in-person? How do I show my work to the tutor if it’s written down on a piece of paper?

Even if you have answers ready for all those questions, potential students might never learn that because they don’t even reach out in the first place! Too many questions could cause them to freeze up and instead pursue the traditional methods they’ve always used: books, videos, etc.

That’s why right now, a good strategy to pick up new leads is to reach students who are already working with an online tutor. You won’t have to convince them on the viability of using video conferencing software and they’re ready to commit now.

But how do you find those students? Through referral partnerships! By referral partnerships I mean agreements with tutors in other subjects to refer students back and forth to each other.

Here are a few things to keep in mind to ensure your partnerships are a success:

Pick subjects that are a natural fit

Think about what other subjects your typical students are taking at the same time they’re tutoring with you. For example, let’s say you’re a test prep tutor, and that most of your business comes from ACT and SAT tutoring. Well then most of your students are going to be juniors in high school.

What are some common junior year classes that would make a good fit?

Physics
Chemistry
U.S. history
Spanish, French, and Italian
Psychology

On the flip side, think about which subjects don’t make sense for you to make referrals for. Assuming you tutor all sections of the ACT and SAT, you wouldn’t want to refer students looking for help with their math and English classes. That sends the message that you’re not a true expert in those subjects and will make people question how much you can help them on the test!

Use the Top Subjects report to prioritize setting up partnerships for the most in-demand subjects

You’ve compiled the list of subjects that might make sense for you. But actually setting up those partnerships takes time. You need to find the right person and work with them to agree to terms that make sense for both sides.

That’s why you should start with the subjects that will give you the most bang for your buck. Use the Tutor Scale Top Subjects report to lookup monthly traffic stats for those subjects:

Physics (395)
Chemistry (263)
Spanish (261)
AP Physics (148)
AP Chemistry (106)
Psychology (60)
French (47)
AP U.S. History (38)
Italian (21)

This list makes the priority for this hypothetical tutor clear: start by searching for a physics tutor who also tutors AP Physics.

If they are a chemistry specialist as well, even better! But I encourage you to only partner with people who are true specialists in a subject. Ask them for their total hours of tutoring experience, but more importantly, their experience in the subject you’re targeting.

Ensure there’s a financial reward for each referral to keep incentives aligned

This is where I see tutors go wrong most often. They’ll set up an informal arrangement with no incentives: I’ll send you some physics students. You send me ACT/SAT students. We both win!

Sure, in theory. But often what actually happens is one side puts more effort into the partnership than the other. You might refer 10 physics students to your partners and they still haven’t referred you a single student back.

A clear financial reward incentivizes your partners to work on your behalf to put more money in their pockets. And you don’t have to feel weird about asking for one! A handshake agreement might be easier to put in place, but a partnership with incentives is more likely to last for the long term.

What should the financial reward look like? I recommend you pay partners a one time fee equal to your hourly rate. That way if the student only sets up one hour with you, you break even. But any tutoring that happens after that first hour is pure profit for you.

That does not mean you should try to partner with tutors at rates much higher than yours in an effort to collect some hefty rewards payments. Again, think from your students’ perspective: if they’re paying you $50/hour, are they going to be able to afford a tutor at $150/hour?

Instead, shoot to partner with tutors that are within around 20% of your rate. So if you’re at $50/hour, look for tutors who are in the $40 - $60 range.