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.

“I had no idea how to network”

I’ve heard that comment from a couple of people this week and when I hear it, it always reminds me that effective networking is a business skill.

I sometimes lose sight of this because networking and referral generation are my business, so I assume everyone knows what to do. Not true.

In both cases, the above comment was made by women who had started their businesses within the past 3 years.  They’re both organized, realistic business women, who made a solid plan to start and manage their businesses. They both felt they had to network (mainly because other successful business people said they should), but they had no idea where to begin and how to network.

That’s a huge challenge for all business people – everyone says “Ya gotta network!” but no one says “Here’s how you do it.”

I’m here to help – here’s how you do it.

The first step is to decide what you’d like your networking activities to bring to your business. “New clients” is usually the response I get to this question. Which brings up the first challenge; believe it or not, networking events are not where you will find new clients. (It’s a shocking mythJ.) The good news is that at networking events you will find contacts that will lead you to new clients.

Understanding this helps make networking activities more productive.

Which leads to step 2: what would you like to accomplish with your networking activities?

If your answer is “Make meaningful connections” then you’re on the right track. The best approach, in my experience, is to decide who you’d like to be connected to before you attend the event. Then, at the event, look to connect with those people.

And, this approach works best when you are NOT looking for new clients. BNI Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner tells a story about an event where he was the keynote speaker. The audience was about 500 people. He asked the question: “How many of you came here today looking for new business?” Most of the hands went up. Then he asked, “How many of you came here to buy something today?” ZERO hands went up.  That’s a perfect example of the networking conundrum.

So, when you attend a networking event look for people, not clients. People who can help you with something; people you can help with something; and people who would be great connections for your clients. When you attend a networking event with a “How can I help you?” attitude, everyone wants to be connected to you.

And those people know the people who want to be your next, best, new clients.

Give it a try at the next networking event you attend.

Truly Effective Business Building Interviews (BBIs)

The biggest challenge with Business Building Interviews (besides actually getting both parties to show upJ) is the length of time they can take. I’ve heard stories about BBIs that have lasted 2 and 3 hours. No matter how enjoyable they may have been – that’s just too long. Let me explain.

BBIs are meant to be business meetings, but because BNIers know and like each other, BBIs can become very social. Social is fine, as long as the business aspect is dealt with because the business side is where you’ll find the referral opportunities.

There are a number of great guidelines for BBIs. I’ll share a few here.

If you’re having your first BBI with a BNI colleague, I recommend using:

1. the GAINS Profile and One-to-one BBI Worksheet (pgs. 15 and 16 in the MSP manual).
2. Also, the BBI guidelines, on page 13 of the MSP manual, offer terrific suggestions.
3. In preparation for the BBI ask your partner to bring her GAINS profile and BBI worksheet as well.

Using these tools makes it easier for you to stay on track and begin to get the information you need to recognize referrals.

If you’ve already had one BBI with a BNI colleague are you finished?

No. One BBI isn’t enough to learn what you need to know.

The BBI worksheet is an excellent tool for continuous BBIs.

In my opinion every BNI member should have at least one completed BBI worksheet for every one of their members. And that worksheet should be updated regularly. The only goal for BBIs is to find out how you can give referrals to your fellow member and vice versa. BBIs are where the referrals are. If you’re feeling that you’re not getting enough business, check out your BBI activity (you can track it easily online at http://www.bnigh.com/).

Another suggestion about BBIs. I’ve heard that sometimes it’s difficult to book BBIs with certain members. Either they won’t commit to a time and date, or when they do, they don’t show up. My advice is to give it a second chance (there may have been an acceptable reason) and if the same thing happens again – move on. I don’t have time to chase people in order to help them. If one person doesn’t want my help and support I move on to find someone who does. Don’t let one negative experience stop you from creating successful referral relationships

One last thought about BBIs – you’ll only remember to schedule them regularly if you make it a habit. The easiest way to make it a habit is to book one every week during the Open Networking part of the BNI meeting. You have 15 minutes every week to coordinate a one-to-one BBI with at least one member. You don’t have to book it for the next week, you can book it 2 to 3 weeks out – but at least you’ve got it on your calendar.

Start your new habit this week. And share some of your best BBI tips here.