Hi everyone - I am new to this workspace. I am here because I want to set up a robust customer referral program for my company, but what seemed simple is turning out to be very complicated. So I would love any and all advice.

For a bit of background: We are a SaaS company that mainly serves midsize businesses in the USA. Our target audience consists of the decision makers in the finance department and the accounts receivable business function. Some examples of titles we target include CFO, Controller, Accounts Receivable Manager. We have a pretty strict ICP, so we will have to have pretty strict rules on who can qualify for a referral (company size, industry, job title etc…).

I have a few questions that I would love answers to:

1) When should we offer incentives? I was thinking a large payout once a customer signs would be the way to go, but my boss thinks it might be more effective to offer an incentive for referring someone to a demo. He is also worried about causing tax problems for our customers with large payouts.
2) How do you prevent fraud? Specifically someone posing as a qualified prospect just to get the incentive.
3) What is the best way to streamline and automate this process? For now I can be hands on, but it would be great if there was a way to automatically send incentives as meetings happen, customers are signed etc…

Looking forward to the advice.