Three visitors!

7/6/12

I’m sure that we all know that if, on average, we have three visitors a week our chapters will be growing, two visitors and we may just stay static, and with only an average of one visitor per week our chapter will be shrinking in number.


But, it’s not as simple as that! Those three visitors have to be eligible visitors, open to and able to apply to join the chapter.

I’ve often been told by a Leadership Team that they have, on average, the required number of visitors to grow but that they just don’t seem able to do so. And, on the face of it, they do have enough visitors. The problem is that when you analyse the visitors you discover that not all the visitors are eligible; the answer, most often, being that all visitors are potential customers and that is what being a member of BNI is all about: more business.

Now, I totally agree with this. However, and this is key, to grow your chapter you need three eligible visitors. Not three visitors! What this means is that any ‘potential customer’ visitors need to be extra to those three eligible visitors.

To illustrate my point I’ll be a bit extreme.

Say that your chapter has thirty members, and that on average you have three visitors a week, all potential customers but not a single one eligible. Now add to that say, on average, one member leaves each month. Nothing wrong with your chapter, they just do, we have all seen it: change of job, moving house, family problems, having a baby, a million and one reasons.

The result? In under 18 months the chapter would not exist!

Now as I say that’s an extreme example but it’s really important to understand that if we want to grow our chapters we must have the right visitors and not be fooled into thinking that any visitor will do, however good they may be for business.