Sorry No Visitors this week!

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.