{"id":1143,"slug":"warm-intro-hierarchy-eight-levels-ontario-trades","title":"Warm-intro hierarchy — 8 levels from cold inbound to family-equivalent referral; closest tie ≠ best referrer unless it carries domain-competent trust","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["gc-vertical","social-network-theory","referral-mechanics"],"reference_body":"**Claim (synthesis of [[marsden-campbell-1984-closeness-best-tie-strength]] + [[levin-cross-2004-trust-mediates-tie-strength]] + in-domain practitioner record):** Operational hierarchy of warm-intro quality for Ontario trades vendor selection, weakest to strongest:\n\n1. **Cold inbound** (form fill, blind email, ad click) — no tie, no trust\n2. **Cold outbound from the vendor** — *negative* trust prior; buyer must overcome assumption of low competence/benevolence\n3. **LinkedIn second-degree connection** — marginal weak tie; useful for attention, not trust\n4. **HBA / trade-show acquaintance** — weak tie (Granovetter); bridges clusters but does not transmit benevolence-trust. Useful for novel info, not the buying decision itself\n5. **Supplier-rep or subcontractor introduction** — weak tie with structural brokerage (Burt); moderate conversion contingent on rep's competence-trust with the GC\n6. **Peer-coaching cohort member's introduction** — medium tie with high benevolence-trust (cohort has shared financial detail); structural guarantee against misrouting because referrer's cohort reputation is at stake\n7. **Close professional ally** (a GC the buyer has worked alongside for years) — strong tie with both competence- and benevolence-trust; **highest conversion + strongest expectation-set**\n8. **Family-or-equivalent reference** — strong tie that may *not* carry competence-trust about marketing specifically but carries maximal benevolence-trust. **Risk:** expectation-set may be unrealistic because the referrer cannot adequately specify what they're recommending\n\n**The non-obvious finding:** the closest tie is not always the best referrer. **The closest tie that carries domain-competent trust is.** A GC's brother who doesn't understand websites is a worse referrer than a peer-coaching cohort member who does.\n\n**Confidence:** Applied inference, theory-consistent; not in-domain empirically measured.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"research-brief-trust-networks-in-group-reputation-may-2026","title":"Research brief: trust, referral networks, and in-group reputation in Ontario's trades economy (May 2026 — Foundation Brief #3)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"marsden-campbell-1984-closeness-best-tie-strength","title":"Marsden & Campbell 1984 (Social Forces) — closeness is the best tie-strength indicator, NOT frequency or duration","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"levin-cross-2004-trust-mediates-tie-strength","title":"Levin & Cross 2004 (Mgmt Sci) — competence- and benevolence-based trust mediate tie-strength → useful knowledge transfer; once trust is controlled for, weak ties re-emerge as valuable","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[]},"created_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.157Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T13:34:11.157Z"}