You will be able to handle referred contacts in line with the PDPA.
A happy client messages Wei Ling: "My friend Kumar just opened a clinic in Punggol. Here's his number, 9xxx xxxx, just call him and say I sent you." Wei Ling is delighted. Then she pauses. Does Kumar know his number has just been passed to a software salesperson? If she calls him out of the blue, will he be pleased, or annoyed with his friend and suspicious of her?
That pause is the right instinct. A referral involves someone else's personal data, and in Singapore that brings the Personal Data Protection Act, the PDPA, into play. This lesson covers how to handle referred contacts properly, and why doing it properly also makes the referral more likely to turn into a real conversation.
The PDPA sets out how organisations may collect, use and disclose personal data, and consent sits at its centre. When a client passes you a friend's name and number, you are collecting that friend's personal data, and the friend hasn't agreed to anything yet.
The simplest way to stay on the right side of this is to ask the client to check with their friend before passing on any contact details. Something like: "Thank you, that's kind. Could you check with Kumar first that he's happy for me to get in touch? I'd rather he hears about it from you."
This is good practice in any case. The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) publishes guidance on how consent works, including when personal data comes to you from a third party such as a client, and your employer may have its own policy on top. If you are unsure how the rules apply to your situation, read the guidance on the PDPC website or ask your compliance or data protection officer. Don't rely on what other salespeople say they do.
Checking first is good. An introduction is better. Instead of the client passing you a number, they connect the two of you directly, in a WhatsApp group, an email copying you both, or a LinkedIn message. The friend then chooses whether to reply to you.
This does two things. On the consent side, the friend is in control: they've seen who you are, they know how you got in touch, and they decide whether to continue. On the sales side, an introduction from a trusted friend lands far better than a call from a stranger who says a friend gave them your number. The friend arrives already a little warm, because someone they trust has vouched for you.
Module 6 covers introductions in detail, including the double opt-in method in lesson 6.1, The double opt-in introduction. For now, make it your default to ask for an introduction rather than a number.
Every referred contact should have two pieces of information attached in your records: where they came from, and what consent you have.
The source is the name of the client who referred them, and how. "Referred by Dr Lim, introduced by WhatsApp on 3 March." The consent is what the contact agreed to. "Agreed to be contacted about booking software" is different from "said I could add him to the monthly newsletter," and you should only do what the person agreed to.
Recording this matters for three reasons. If the contact ever asks how you got their details, you can answer straight away and accurately. If you want to contact them later for a different purpose, you can see whether you'd need to ask again. And when you review where your business comes from in module 8, the source field tells you which clients refer most.
If you text or call referred contacts about your products, Singapore's Do Not Call rules may also be relevant. Lesson 5.1 of Prospecting: build a pipeline that does not run dry, What the Do Not Call Registry covers and how to check it, explains how they work.
Some salespeople thank referrers with a gift, a voucher or a payment. In many industries that's fine. In some, it's restricted or needs to be disclosed.
Financial advice is one of these. Arjun can't simply offer clients a reward for introducing friends, because his firm has rules on gifts, referral rewards and related disclosures, and those rules reflect the regulatory requirements the firm operates under. So before offering anything, he checks with his compliance team. Many financial advisers find that a personal, non-material thank-you, covered in lesson 6.3, The thank-you that brings the next referral, works just as well. The course Selling financial advice in Singapore: needs-based and compliant covers the rules that apply to advisers.
Property, healthcare and other regulated fields have their own codes. Whatever your industry, check your employer's rules before you promise anything.
You don't need a new system for this, just two small changes. The first is a line you can say naturally when a client offers a name, asking them to check with their friend first or, better, to introduce you. Wei Ling's line: "Thank you. Could you check with him first, or even put us in touch on WhatsApp? Then he can decide if he wants to chat."
The second is a place to record source and consent. In most CRMs you can add two fields to a contact record; in a spreadsheet, two columns. The activity below asks you to write your line and add those fields.
Write the line you will use to ask a client to check with their friend first, and add a source and consent field to your CRM.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).