28/1/12
Standing out from your competition is so very important to the success of your business. And to that end companies and their marketing agencies spend a great deal of time and money trying to do just that. There are some great examples around; I expect that we have all seen the Virgin James Bond parody, but sadly we don’t all have the budget of Virgin to do that sort of thing ourselves. On a more modest amount of money I think the Entrepreneur’s Circle video is good – it’s simple but different.
However, in our BNI chapter it is made easy for us as there is no competition for our services in the room, but, and it is a big but, we still need to stand out. We need to be visible; we need to be remembered. And, one of the best ways to do this is to have a great 60 Seconds.
I was at the Tudor Chapter (Teddington) recently where there were three stand-out 60 seconds. The first was from a new member, Alex Mason, a graphic designer: she stood on her chair and put on a t-shirt. On it were the words, “You’re not normal”. Obviously everyone laughed but she then explained that one of the members had told her that her designs weren’t normal and that was her point – what was the point of being the same as everyone else? You have to be different!
Then there was Nikki Keeler of Essential Admin. She asked who had a ‘To Do List’. Most people put up a hand. She then asked if it looked like this, and held up a toilet roll and let it fall to the floor holding the first sheet. It said, ‘Things To Do’ and all of the other sheets were numbered. She then told us how to prioritise our lists. Number three was jobs that anyone could do: yes, you’ve guessed it – out-sourced to her.
But best was Mike Deasy, the Chapter’s dentist. He explained how we would all have better dental hygiene if we flossed every day. But people have no time is the excuse he hears constantly: it’s too hard. With that he took a box of dental floss from his pocket, cut a length, and flossed all of his teeth in front of us. Yes, in under a minute! He even stopped for time checks every few teeth. That was pretty impressive and no one could leave that room with an excuse not to floss.
So, what’s my point? Well, they were all different, they all stood out, and none cost much money. Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, and anyone can do it, you just have to be creative. Then more people will remember you, talk about you, resulting in more business.
What’s more you are now reading about them.How good is that? All because they were different.
Saturday, 28 January 2012
Thursday, 5 January 2012
Who do you watch?
5/1/12
Lee Evans? Michael McIntyre? Gabby Logan? Sir Richard Branson? Jack Dee? Russell Brand? Tina Fey? Kelly Holmes? Jimmy Carr?
Whoever it is you can learn a great deal about presenting by watching them closely. Think about who you like to watch. What is it that they do? How do they use their voice? What expressions do they make? How do they use their body? Do they have props? It may be just a glass of water.
You can learn a lot by turning the sound right down so that you can’t hear them and just watching. Can you still understand the story that they are telling? How do they stand? What do they do with their hands?
What makes each different? Why is it that you like them so much? It certainly won’t be just what they are saying!
Watch closely and study what they do and then incorporate it into the way you present. Little things can make a big difference. But you aren’t looking to do an impression: you are looking to learn the skills of presenting and improve what you do.
Have fun. And, maybe even do an impression. A 60 Seconds in the style of Lee Evans!
NOTE: I must give credit to Phil Berg my Managing Area Director for this idea.
Lee Evans? Michael McIntyre? Gabby Logan? Sir Richard Branson? Jack Dee? Russell Brand? Tina Fey? Kelly Holmes? Jimmy Carr?
Whoever it is you can learn a great deal about presenting by watching them closely. Think about who you like to watch. What is it that they do? How do they use their voice? What expressions do they make? How do they use their body? Do they have props? It may be just a glass of water.
You can learn a lot by turning the sound right down so that you can’t hear them and just watching. Can you still understand the story that they are telling? How do they stand? What do they do with their hands?
What makes each different? Why is it that you like them so much? It certainly won’t be just what they are saying!
Watch closely and study what they do and then incorporate it into the way you present. Little things can make a big difference. But you aren’t looking to do an impression: you are looking to learn the skills of presenting and improve what you do.
Have fun. And, maybe even do an impression. A 60 Seconds in the style of Lee Evans!
NOTE: I must give credit to Phil Berg my Managing Area Director for this idea.
Wednesday, 4 January 2012
A BRILLIANT One2One!
4/1/12
This blog only needs one line - please watch this brilliant video - A Cup of Tea!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmYXv1n6-KA
This blog only needs one line - please watch this brilliant video - A Cup of Tea!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmYXv1n6-KA
Monday, 5 December 2011
Who’s in your car?
5/12/11
Bit personal I know but this occurred to me only the other day while I was standing outside a training venue watching members arrive: almost every single person was the only person in their car.
Now I’m not suggesting the following on environmental grounds or even to save congestion, although both would be a great idea, but rather to make better use of our time.
Wouldn’t it be great to come to a workshop with a car full of people? Why? Because you could have a One2One. Even a group One2One. Now I’m not talking about just having someone to chat to on the journey but a real One2One. With a structure. No radio or CD, just a good conversation focusing on business and getting to know the other person. And, as you not only have to get to training but you also have to get home again, one person can be the focal point of each trip.
There is an even better reason to share a car! I often hear members complain about the distance to some of our workshops; but wouldn’t a forty-five minute journey be worth it if at the same time you had a really worthwhile One2One? In fact I think it would make going to the more distant workshops even more valuable: and not just because you meet different people.
Two weeks ago I went to Solihull with two other people in the car for a workshop. Not only was the event really useful to my business, but the three of us are now much closer as friends and know a great deal more about each others' businesses and goals. The benefit of which is that we can now help each other, and want to help each other, more than we did before our day out.
Now I’m not suggesting that every time you go to a workshop it will be convenient to fill your car, but how much more business do you think that you would do if someone went with you more often than not?
Bit personal I know but this occurred to me only the other day while I was standing outside a training venue watching members arrive: almost every single person was the only person in their car.
Now I’m not suggesting the following on environmental grounds or even to save congestion, although both would be a great idea, but rather to make better use of our time.
Wouldn’t it be great to come to a workshop with a car full of people? Why? Because you could have a One2One. Even a group One2One. Now I’m not talking about just having someone to chat to on the journey but a real One2One. With a structure. No radio or CD, just a good conversation focusing on business and getting to know the other person. And, as you not only have to get to training but you also have to get home again, one person can be the focal point of each trip.
There is an even better reason to share a car! I often hear members complain about the distance to some of our workshops; but wouldn’t a forty-five minute journey be worth it if at the same time you had a really worthwhile One2One? In fact I think it would make going to the more distant workshops even more valuable: and not just because you meet different people.
Two weeks ago I went to Solihull with two other people in the car for a workshop. Not only was the event really useful to my business, but the three of us are now much closer as friends and know a great deal more about each others' businesses and goals. The benefit of which is that we can now help each other, and want to help each other, more than we did before our day out.
Now I’m not suggesting that every time you go to a workshop it will be convenient to fill your car, but how much more business do you think that you would do if someone went with you more often than not?
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
70% of members!
29/11/11
I was one of the members attending a workshop recently and just out of interest counted how many of us were in the room. In total we were fifty-nine, most of whom I didn’t know.
Part way through the workshop we were asked how many of us had ever got business from a workshop and a fair number of hands went up. I was busy counting again. I’m just like that! There were forty-one hands being held aloft. I wrote the number on my pad and put a circle around it, adding ‘number of members who have got business from attending a workshop’. I have to confess that the number even surprised me, and as a matter of interest I worked out the percentage when I arrived home - it was 70%.
Now workshops are always worth attending for what you learn, be it to help you in your chapter, your business, or even you privately. But if there is a 70% chance of picking up business as well I have to wonder if there are many better ways of getting new business. It’s certainly far better than most of the ways that I know of to find more customers. Far higher than at your average networking event.
So, with five workshops (in my region) and MSP (Member Success Programme) there is every reason to attend on a regular basis.
But please don’t go to a workshop and expect to find a new customer there and then. Like everything, it’s about building a relationship. You might even have to attend a few workshops, but what’s the worst that can happen? You improve in what you are doing!
I was one of the members attending a workshop recently and just out of interest counted how many of us were in the room. In total we were fifty-nine, most of whom I didn’t know.
Part way through the workshop we were asked how many of us had ever got business from a workshop and a fair number of hands went up. I was busy counting again. I’m just like that! There were forty-one hands being held aloft. I wrote the number on my pad and put a circle around it, adding ‘number of members who have got business from attending a workshop’. I have to confess that the number even surprised me, and as a matter of interest I worked out the percentage when I arrived home - it was 70%.
Now workshops are always worth attending for what you learn, be it to help you in your chapter, your business, or even you privately. But if there is a 70% chance of picking up business as well I have to wonder if there are many better ways of getting new business. It’s certainly far better than most of the ways that I know of to find more customers. Far higher than at your average networking event.
So, with five workshops (in my region) and MSP (Member Success Programme) there is every reason to attend on a regular basis.
But please don’t go to a workshop and expect to find a new customer there and then. Like everything, it’s about building a relationship. You might even have to attend a few workshops, but what’s the worst that can happen? You improve in what you are doing!
Monday, 21 November 2011
A sad day!
21/11/11
A chapter closed in my region this week. At the last meeting ten members were present, two substitutes, one visitor, and only a hand-full of referrals were passed. It couldn’t go on!
They had been trying to escape for months what now had always seemed inevitable because, put simply, not enough eligible visitors had attended their meetings. Not every member had done their part. For a chapter to grow it must have, on average, at least three eligible visitors every week. Every week - not every so often.
There had been a Chapter Development workshop the month before they closed: only three members attended. To most of the members it just wasn’t important enough. Some of the members had tried really hard to find visitors and I feel sorry for them. But it wasn’t the last few weeks that did the damage, it was the months before. Most members just didn’t invite often enough.
The saddest thing was a comment by one of the members. They said that growing chapters was just about making BNI more money. I guess that says it all! Growing chapters has nothing to do with making money for BNI (obviously they make money if chapters are larger but then that’s their business). It’s all about making more money for its members.
This chapter passed about ten referrals a week, another local chapter with 31 members passed 46 referrals that same week. Do you think they care that BNI are making money?
So, if you have a zero for visitors against your name on your chapter's PALMS Report, please invite someone this week, and next week, and the week after that. Because it is a very sad day when a chapter has to close!
A chapter closed in my region this week. At the last meeting ten members were present, two substitutes, one visitor, and only a hand-full of referrals were passed. It couldn’t go on!
They had been trying to escape for months what now had always seemed inevitable because, put simply, not enough eligible visitors had attended their meetings. Not every member had done their part. For a chapter to grow it must have, on average, at least three eligible visitors every week. Every week - not every so often.
There had been a Chapter Development workshop the month before they closed: only three members attended. To most of the members it just wasn’t important enough. Some of the members had tried really hard to find visitors and I feel sorry for them. But it wasn’t the last few weeks that did the damage, it was the months before. Most members just didn’t invite often enough.
The saddest thing was a comment by one of the members. They said that growing chapters was just about making BNI more money. I guess that says it all! Growing chapters has nothing to do with making money for BNI (obviously they make money if chapters are larger but then that’s their business). It’s all about making more money for its members.
This chapter passed about ten referrals a week, another local chapter with 31 members passed 46 referrals that same week. Do you think they care that BNI are making money?
So, if you have a zero for visitors against your name on your chapter's PALMS Report, please invite someone this week, and next week, and the week after that. Because it is a very sad day when a chapter has to close!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
25% of my business
13/11/11
Last week, I was at a Regional Director/Ambassador information meeting and got talking to one of the members there.
I asked how long he had been a member and as he was just coming to the end of his first year, naturally I enquired how things were going and if he was going to renew. He said very well, as he was getting 25% of his business from BNI. Now there is nothing unusual in that as many members get far more than that from their BNI membership; it was what he added next that really got me.
The other 75% of his business took him six years to build! He said 25% had been gained in one year, whereas the other 75% took six. If only he had found BNI earlier! As a locksmith he had worried if BNI would work for him so he was really pleased with the way things were going. There was no chance of him not renewing.
I wanted to know why he thought things were going so well - other than running a good business, of course. His answer was pretty straight forward – he had taken advantage of everything that was offered by his chapter and BNI and got involved.
He was attending the information meeting, not so much because he wanted to be a director, but because he wanted to find out more about BNI. Then of course he was mixing with 60 other top BNI members, Regional Directors, Area Directors and an Executive Director.
What’s my point? He was getting a great deal out of BNI and his chapter. Why? I wouldn’t mind betting because he was putting a lot in. So, if you aren’t getting as much out of your chapter as you would like, ask yourself how much are you putting in? You might just find that it’s not as much as you think.
Last week, I was at a Regional Director/Ambassador information meeting and got talking to one of the members there.
I asked how long he had been a member and as he was just coming to the end of his first year, naturally I enquired how things were going and if he was going to renew. He said very well, as he was getting 25% of his business from BNI. Now there is nothing unusual in that as many members get far more than that from their BNI membership; it was what he added next that really got me.
The other 75% of his business took him six years to build! He said 25% had been gained in one year, whereas the other 75% took six. If only he had found BNI earlier! As a locksmith he had worried if BNI would work for him so he was really pleased with the way things were going. There was no chance of him not renewing.
I wanted to know why he thought things were going so well - other than running a good business, of course. His answer was pretty straight forward – he had taken advantage of everything that was offered by his chapter and BNI and got involved.
He was attending the information meeting, not so much because he wanted to be a director, but because he wanted to find out more about BNI. Then of course he was mixing with 60 other top BNI members, Regional Directors, Area Directors and an Executive Director.
What’s my point? He was getting a great deal out of BNI and his chapter. Why? I wouldn’t mind betting because he was putting a lot in. So, if you aren’t getting as much out of your chapter as you would like, ask yourself how much are you putting in? You might just find that it’s not as much as you think.
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