Now I’m sure you know that as a BNI member you
should have a positive contribution to give at your chapter meeting every week,
but I also wouldn’t mind betting that, like me, you have seen a member get up
and say, “Sorry no referrals this week”.
In fact I was told by a member that this happened in their chapter just
this week. What’s more, by three members
in a row!
But that’s not why I am writing this particular
blog. What really gets me is that I’ve
never heard anyone ever say, “Sorry. No Visitors this week”. Why is that?
Well I have a theory and it goes something like
this. It’s all about the bigger picture;
about thinking. The BNI philosophy is
‘Givers Gain’ and those members who succeed as BNI members truly embrace this;
they have a contribution every week (their mindset is about giving). But then
there are those members who in truth only belong to their chapters to get
business and therefore see the Referral as the only thing that matters. Hence the “Sorry, no referrals’. they don’t
see the long term benefit of visitors, so visitors don’t enter into their
minds. There is no direct correlation
between a visitor and the referrals that they are looking for; well not in
their minds anyway. They can’t see the
bigger picture. No thought is given to a
month, six months, a year, down the line.
In truth they are more hunter than farmer; or just people that don’t
think.
Put simply, they don’t see that the member giving
them a referral was once a visitor. That
in fact they, like every other member in the room, were once visitors. And, what’s more, that even if a visitor
became only an average member they would be giving 50 referrals a year. But of course that’s in the future, and
that’s not referrals for them; it’s where ‘bigger picture’ thinking has to come
in.
So, how about this as an idea? Should you ever find yourself in the position
of not having a contribution, instead of saying, “Sorry No Referrals…”, how
about instead saying, “Sorry No Visitors this week”. You never know visitors may just become as
important as referrals seem to be. And,
guess what? There would be more
referrals given; just what was wanted in the first place!
But, better still, really get ‘Givers Gain’ and
ensure that you have a positive contribution every week.
