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.