Leadership

Over the next few weeks, your chapter will be creating a new Leadership Team to take over chapter management at the end of this tenure on April 1, 2013.

Managing a successful BNI chapter takes input and participation from everyone. Although your President, Vice President and Secretary/Treasurer are the folks at the front of the room, they can’t run everything without your help. In BNI, the management roles are designed so that with a little extra effort for each role, all the roles combine to run a profitable, successful referral chapter.

Which means everyone takes a role – even if it’s a role without title. Like any team, we’re all responsible for our chapter’s success.

Our most successful and profitable chapters have effective Presidents, Vice Presidents and Secretary/Treasurers, it’s true, but additional roles are equally important to a chapter’s success.

Active and visible Visitor Hosts are a crucial role in all chapters. When visitors have a positive experience they do business with BNI members and may even become a member themselves. A fully functioning Membership Committee supports chapter productivity for everyone. There are 4-5 active roles on every Membership Committee and they exist to help you get the greatest Return on Investment from your BNI participation.

A well-prepared Education Coordinator ensures that member’s receive ongoing BNI referral education which increases referral value. Our Event Coordinator ensures we have fun together making for stronger relationships. Our chapter Mentors help our new, and experienced, members get the most, and more, from their BNI membership.

Please take a few minutes to think about which leadership/management role you would like to take for 2013; especially if you haven’t yet had the opportunity to take an official role.

A successful team takes all of us.

Get Free from the Feast or Famine Cycle

How to find time to network when you are busy.
From BNI SuccessNet, by Richard White – BNI Cathedral chapter, Guildford UK

It was a Catch 22 of sorts: I would network like crazy when I needed more work; then when things picked up and client work started to flow the very thing that brought in the work—networking—I would cut back on.

The trouble with networking like this is you end up getting caught in the “feast or famine cycle” – I bet you know what I am talking about! One minute you are maxed out and dreaming of having more time to yourself, and the next minute you are wishing you were really busy again.

Riding this rollercoaster a few times, I finally realized I could not afford to stop networking during busy times. I began to look for ways to ensure that the sales leads would keep coming in during those busy times. Here are five strategies I now use to network, even if I am ridiculously busy with client work.

Click here for Richard’s advice.

Richard White is a sales consultant and trainer. He specializes in helping IT consultants win more sales through effective networking. Richard is the author of ‘The Accidental Salesman Networking Survival Guide’ and is a highly sought after speaker on the subjects of networking and soft selling.

Get a GRIP on Inviting to your Referral Network

It strikes me that the best way to encourage inviting to your chapter meeting is to make it as easy, and simple, as possible. And the best way to accomplish ease and simplicity is to know what you’re going to say when you invite.

Here’s a simple, easy script (I know, I know, you don’t like scripts…trust me this one is goodJ)

It’s based GRIP; which stands for Grow, Referrals, Introduce,  and Place. And the script goes something like this:

Scene: Networking Event. Enter Christel and event attendee.

Christel: So how’s business going for you?

Attendee: Pretty well.

Christel: Are you looking to grow your business this year?

Attendee: Yes!

Christel: Would more referrals help?

Attendee: Yes!

Christel: May I introduce you to a group of business associates who, over time, would like to give you referrals?

Attendee: Yes!

Christel: Terrific, we meet every Friday morning at Gerta’s Pancake House (place) at 7:00 am. Would this Friday work for you…….?

G = Grow

R = Referrals

I = Introduction

P = Place.

It couldn’t be simpler. To see Eric, the inventor of GRIP, share the script, click here. It’s worth a watch.

Why BNI?

Some very interesting stats from an article Dr. Misner wrote for SuccessNet a few months ago. BNI Merseyside in the UK hired an independent firm (Murray Consulting) to conduct a survey on the value of BNI membership.

Here are the results of the 2012 survey.

• The average amount of business gained from BNI referrals in the last 12 months was £23,700 (or $37,055).
• When asked about further orders they had received as the multiplier effect of BNI referrals, BNI members were able to think of, on average, an additional £11,300 (or $17,668) per year of membership.
• Combining closed business in the last 12 months with the average value of 2^nd/ 3^rd generation referrals in a year gives a true value of a BNI seat of £35,000 (or $54,720) per year.
• On average, members who were involved in BNI for 7 years generated £245,000 (or $383,038) since they joined, thereby underpinning the lifetime value of BNI.
• Value to the total membership in the region equaled £16 million or $25 million per year with over £300,000 or $469,000 per week for a single region of 500 members.
• BNI Merseyside created six millionaires.
• Members who attended training saw their business increase 58% compared to those who did not attend training programs.

The dollar values are shown in US dollars, but currently the Canadian and US dollars are virtually par.

A Very Unique Networking Event

I’ve been invited to participate in what I think is going to be an incredibly unique networking event.

It’s happening on Thursday January 20^th at Glen Abbey Golf Club in Oakville. I’ve attended a lot of networking events over the years. I’ve even hosted a few, so I know that sometimes they sound terrific, but on the actual day they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.

I think this one will be different. It’s being hosted by corporate level B2B members of the referral network BNI.

In the essence of total transparency, I confess that I am an Executive Director with BNI. But this wasn’t my idea. It was the idea of a corporate BNI member named Judi Johnstone. Judi’s thought was - there are so many interesting businesses in BNI, wouldn’t it be fascinating to put them all together under one roof to showcase themselves, their businesses and BNI.  Not only that, but encourage them to invite all their contacts to attend the event.

That’s how BNI Showcase 2011 was born. From the initial idea, Judi contacted B2B/corporate chapter members and invited them to participate. Boy, have they. There are 60+ exhibitors committed to the event and about 10 exhibitors will actually be offering educational presentations throughout the day.

The BNI corporate philosophy is Givers Gain. BNI members believe in the concept of “what goes around comes around”. By giving business to others, they’ll get business in return. Since BNI members across Canada have given each other $91,295,615 in closed business so far this year, it looks like it’s working.

When we share the people we know with each other – the potential for opportunity is unlimited. You never know who someone knows and we’re all just a couple of introductions away from our next extraordinary opportunity.

Here’s what I think is going to make this Showcase a one of a kind networking event. The hosts believe in Givers Gain, so their approach will be connecting people who can help each other. Which means for guests; you could be introduced to your next extraordinary opportunity.

Not a bad way to start 2011.

Oh, by the way. The price for you to attend and mix and mingle with some of the most well-connected businesses in the Golden Horseshoe?

Zilch……zero…….nothing. It’s free.

You can register for this event at http://www.bnicorporateconnections.com/ or http://www.bnigh.com/ under Events.

Hope I see you there.