Have you a spare minute?

That’s all – no longer.

Many BNI members are so busy that they find it hard to find any real time to work on their BNI membership and so find true success hard to come by.

But, I imagine that your answer to my question is a ‘Yes. Of course, maybe even a little longer.’ However, a minute is all you need.

So, now you have a question, what for? The answer is, to help you grow your business.

Most of us joined our BNI Chapter to build our business, by receiving referrals (recommendations) from other members, that get to know, like and trust us, over and over again.

And, visitors are very important to this, as they build your number of contacts, help grow your Power Team, which in turn will enhance your level of achievement.

Imagine if your chapter had three visitors every week. In a year that would make 150 prospective new customers; all whom you would meet and who would listen to your sales pitch.

It doesn’t matter if they join your chapter; the most important thing is that you get to meet them and grow your possible connections.

The fundamental thing is that they come to one meeting; that’s all. Of course, if they like what they see, they will come again; maybe even apply to join. However, just coming once, is what means the most to your chapter.

Anyway back to the one minute.

It will take one minute to invite a visitor.

Do that every day and you invite five people a week. Do it for 46 weeks (I’m allowing for holidays here) that will mean you will have invited 230 people in a year.

Even if only one person in 30 comes that will mean you will have eight visitors.

For a minute think about how long it takes you to speak to eight prospective new customers a year? Longer than 230 minutes I bet.

One last thing before you get going, as I know you will. Start first with the people you know, as far more will support you.

And, this could be a surprise; it was to me. One of my best customers became one of our best chapter members! Plus, I doubled my sales with them.

Good luck and enjoy.

Have you invited a visitor this week?

It’s a simple question, and if you haven’t, why not?

Inviting visitors is probably the easiest thing that you can do in BNI; not just for BNI but, more importantly, for you; as the result is more business being passed.

So, the question is, why don’t you invite more people?

Now an answer I’m often given is because it’s hard. But, believe me, it’s not. In fact it’s so easy, I’m surprised you don’t do it every day.

But, BNI members have excuses for not inviting (some have not had a visitor for a year or more) and two reasons tend to be mentioned often.

One is that they don’t know if BNI will be good enough for them. Well there are many answers to this, but there are two very important ones. First, you joined BNI because you saw it as very promising, and second, it is up for your contact to decide; not for you to decide for them.

So, invite your contacts along.

Reason number two is often that you don’t know someone who would want to join your BNI chapter. And the answer here is very simple. You don’t need to. As all you are looking for are business people, who want more business, and can come to one meeting. That’s it, nothing more at all.

So again, invite your contacts along.

Inviting is simple, can lead to lots more business, and often comes with a BIG thank you.

I know that you could invite someone this week. So, why not do it right now? Use a text, email or phone call.

It will take you just 30 seconds.

7 Weeks!

 The start of the New Year and the beginning of your businesses extended future plan; where you hope to be in the years to come.

As with all plans, however distant they are, there are things that must be done today, if you are going to succeed.

And, a seven-week plan, for your BNI success, is a great way to start, not only for your BNI Chapter but also for you.

Often your chapter will have a goal and all the members will be given targets to meet. New targets (plans) are essential to your success, as otherwise, if you keep doing the same things, you will just get the same results.

Now chapter plans are sometimes difficult for some members and easy for others. For example, as a member you are asked to bring along five new members a year. If on average you invite 11 a year (and they attend) it’s very easy, but if last year you didn’t have one visitor, then it could be very hard.

And, that’s why I love the ‘7 Week Resolution’. It’s your commitment to your chapter, chosen by you. Signed and sealed! But, there is one condition; your commitment has to be better than your normal activity; based only on your actions.

The things to cover are: visitors, referrals, One2Ones and workshops.

So, if in seven weeks you would on average have three One2Ones, then in the next seven weeks you would commit to having, say five. With workshops you might not often attend, so your commitment would be to attend one. Referrals you might give 10, so you could commit to giving 12. And, with visitors, you may not have had one for months, so you would commit to bring one. But, if normally, you might bring two visitors, then you would commit to bringing three.

What’s great about the ‘7 Week Resolution’ is that is what you choose and commit to doing, and when every chapter member commits to doing this the results are often outstanding.

But, the best thing is that it’s part of your future business success. So, if you are truly serious about your future, then the BNI ‘7 Week Resolution’, is a must do.

Note: If you would like a '7 Week Resolution' form then let me know or ask your BNI Director.

First Aid

I meant to write this blog in March, as I had noticed a photo on Facebook, which when I read about it, I found very interesting and motivational. The photo is of a present given to David Husband of BNI Dylan, in Swansea.

David has been a member for around 18 months, which most of, due to Covid, has been online, and, as he has said to me, that has meant that we have all had to learn to adapt how we work, meet and communicate. And for some of us this has been very difficult; getting used to break-out rooms, not just chatting, not meeting people to invite, no business cards, less work; and some people lost their motivation.

David had his Feature Presentation, which he made interactive (with new Zoom skills). He also did an Education Slot (interactive) and encouraged members to use Zoom before and after their meetings. This then led to social media, working with the chapter's IT company, on to a members list that could be downloaded, that included lots of information about each member, Power Teams, plus much more.

This has led to a great feeling in BNI Dylan and, in return for all of his amazing ideas and work, the chapter gave David a food hamper from the chapter's butcher.

I think that we can all learn a great deal from David’s thinking; not just for now, but for years to come.

I titled this blog ‘First Aid’ because that is what David does; Dewi Development, First Aid Training. He provides First Aid training, coaching and mental health consultation.

If you like the sound of this why not give him a call?

What a mess!

Now before you start thinking that this is about something bad, let me explain.

I visited, by Zoom, the Hawke Chapter in Bristol recently, and the Featured Presentation was one of the best that I’ve seen in a long time. I’ve told lots of people about it and, via me, the company has already received more business.

The presentation started as normal and the person put on a white lab coat but was then handed a small pot of baked beans. Interesting, I thought! Then the lady talked about the various types of dirt and mess they came across. At exactly the same time (now with goggles added) pots of the stuff, including the baked beans, were poured over her head. I’d never seen such a mess of gunge.

Well, this was the type of mess (although rather extreme) that Claudia and her company - A Cleaning Service – cleaned for people and extremely well.

I loved the presentation and, as I have already said, I’ve told lots of people about it, and she has already received a referral via me.

So, what’s your next Featured Presentation going to be like?

I also liked the meeting overall. There were a few small unusual things: the Leadership Team waved as they were introduced, a great countdown clock on screen during the 60 Seconds (although only 30 seconds this day), and two Awards. The Pink Croc Award was an extra.

This meeting was rather special for two reasons; a visitors day (29 visitors, I think), plus the last meeting of the current Leadership Team, which included Matt Richardson, who had been the President for the past three years. Now he was brilliant (he also plays the Bass guitar).

The meeting was fun, well run and the Chapter is passing a very good amount of business. If I lived in Bristol, I would love to attend the meeting in future.

The Hawke Chapter really made me feel that I would love to be a part of it.

Special note: I was invited to attend by Cathy Provenzano, a rather good Lettings Agent in Bristol.

150 Prospective Customers!

 I was talking to a friend of mine recently about them finding new customers and I asked them what it would take to find 150 to talk to. How long it would take, how much effort it would be and how much it would cost them? Not just money but the time lost, doing what they liked best, working on the good parts of their business.

The answer was that they didn’t know and, in fact, that they doubted that it would ever happen.

But, by being a member of BNI, meeting 150 new prospective customers every year is easy; well it can be!

Just imagine what 150 different people listening to you about your business every year might do for your business. I know many people where the results for them have been outstanding.

So, why does this often not happen? The answer is, not having three visitors at your chapter every week; because in a year, if the chapter did, that would be 150 prospective new customers.

Now I know chapters that often don’t have any visitors in a week. I also know members that have not brought a visitor in over a year. I find both of these things hard to understand.

And, I’ll tell you why. Most of us have a business to grow; we are members of BNI to help us grow our business. We are asked by BNI to bring visitors and they give us training to help us. But many members still don’t bring visitors.

Here is a little bit of maths for you. If you are in a chapter of 38 members and each member brings four visitors a year, the chapter will get 150 visitors per year.

Now, as an individual member, you find four prospective new customers, but if every member does it, you get to sell to 150 prospective new customers.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I want to grow my business, and finding four prospective new customers is far easier that finding 150 myself.

So, who are you going to invite this week? You will get more new customers and more referrals if you do. Make it fun.

Over nine months!

Early in my BNI Membership I met a member, in another chapter, who was in the same category that I was in. The only difference was that he received ten times as much business than I did. I was more than happy with the amount I received but asked him how he achieved so much; just out of interest.

Like me he received referrals that weren’t really ideal (lots of them); wrong type of job, wrong sort of price, sadly a delivery he couldn’t make and more. So I asked him what he did to improve the situation.

His answer: a 60 Seconds where he advised all of his fellow members exactly the sort of work he didn’t want. The list was long; in fact so long (after all I ran the same type of business) that I didn’t know what was left. So I asked him. He told me and I have to say that I was amazed! What happened I asked? Well for over nine months he didn’t get a single referral. Not one!

My next question was so, what did you do?

His answer was: he attended every week, bought along visitors, went to workshops and gave over, on average, a referral every week. He also had regular 1-2-1s (a Green Member).

But what he worked on the hardest was educating the members, of his chapter, into the actual work he wanted. What it was, how it was made, the sort of business that used it, the person that would oversee the buying of it and how to talk about the work on his behalf. And, most importantly, the benefits of the person talked to, speaking to him about their next project.

It took over nine months but then he received an incredible referral that became a very good job. And, as they say, the rest is history.

So my thought is this. Do you receive exactly the sort of work, and the amount, that you are looking for? If your answer is ‘I would like more’, then I recommend that things could improve if you follow some, even if not all, of what my friend did. It certainly helped me.

What if your dream client were in the room?

Sometimes I meet people and I wonder would they dress as they do, say what they do, act as they do, if their dream client were in the room.

Now I’m not saying that we shouldn’t ever relax, or spend our whole lives pretending, but when we are working we are – well working!  And, if we are working, shouldn’t we doing our best all of the time and not just when in sight of our best client, or prospective best client?

It’s pretty much the same in all sorts of things. Just think of all the effort we all put into a first date!  We shower, brush our hair, wear our best clothes, arrive early, and, of course, are on our best behaviour.  But, can we say the same a few months down the line?  What’s more, it’s just the same when we go to an important meeting: our heart beats just as fast as on that first date.

When we get a new car, we lovingly wash and wax it, take care where we park it, don’t let our children eat in it.  But, a few months down the road …

It’s just human nature.  But, if we want to meet your dream client, and more importantly to do business with them, we need to be thinking about them all of the time.

Now often when networking, some of the people I meet haven’t considered that they might just meet their dream client.  Worse, that if they did, they might just miss the opportunity because they weren’t prepared; they hadn’t made the effort to be at their best.

So, next time you go to a networking event, to a business breakfast, to a business meeting, in fact just to work, prepare as if you are going to meet your dream client.  If you do, you never know, you might just meet them!

Wish You Were Here!

We are running a visitor inviting campaign at BNI Elmbridge at the moment which involves every member bringing in five postcards. For our chapter of 36 members, 180 postcards will be sent out inviting business people to our meeting. That just has to be good.

Now there’s a poor way of doing postcards and a good way of doing them but what I like about the ‘five postcards’ is that every member can take part and, even with the little extra time needed to do them correctly, they will only take about 30 minutes to put together.

So, I guess what you are thinking is, how do you do them correctly?

The answer to that is simple – they need to be addressed to a named person; so not ‘The Manager’ or similar, not just the company name, but, for example, to ‘Steve Smith’. The other thing that needs to be done is to record their phone number and/or their email address so that the postcards can be followed up. By simply contacting the person invited a few days after your postcards are delivered will massively increase the results of the campaign.

Another great thing about postcard inviting is that BNI supply the postcards and your chapter will even stick the stamps on for you. How good is that!

Okay, now we get to the big one. Who to invite?

This is something that really stresses a lot of members but I can never understand why. Ask me to find a referral or someone to invite to Elmbridge and I would go for the visitor every single time. Why? Because I can control who I invite but I can’t always find a referral.

So, who do I invite? Well, I guess they fall into three groups; people I know (a good place to look for these people are in your mobile - these will give you your best success rate), names from business cards that I have collected in my travels and, if all else fails, Google.

Google is the least successful but can get you some great visitors (and members). Remember you need to find a name, so here are a few tips to help make things easier for you.

First, choose a category to invite; a good starting point is a business you would like in your Power Team. Then search whatever that business is and your chapter’s location. For example in my case it might be – bookkeeper Hersham.

The contact details, address, phone and email are usually pretty simple to find, as most sites have a ‘Contact Us’ page. But if I can’t find this information in a couple of clicks I move on to the next possible business.

A name can be more difficult to find, and this is where you will spend the most time, but can usually be found in either the ‘About Us’, ‘History’, ‘Staff’, ‘Testimonial’ pages or of course in the name of the company. Another place to check is in the blog if they write one.

Some types of business, as a whole, seem to hide the names of their people while others are very open. So, if you have chosen a category where after a few different sites you’ve not found a person’s name move on to another category.

The other great thing about Google is that you can search for people to invite, anytime, anyplace, anywhere. I once put together a list of people to invite when I had a few minutes spare on a trip in Japan.

In all you shouldn’t have to spend more than about 30 minutes writing your five postcards and it’s a great contribution to your chapter.

The main thing is not to see inviting as a chore but more a way of increasing your business.

Watching the kettle boil!

Finding a little time for BNI is a challenge for many BNI members. I can understand that because I can remember a time when, as I was that busy, it was difficult to find even a couple of minutes to go to the loo. That may sound crazy, but it’s true. However, I soon sorted out how to prioritise and, in fact, now help a lot of my clients use their time much more effectively.

The thing is, as I’ve written before, just a few minutes a day spent on BNI activities would make a big difference to your rewards as a member. So how about this for an idea?

If you are anything like me, a couple of times a day you make myself a cup of coffee (I have tea in the afternoon) and, again if you are like me, while the kettle is boiling you sort out your cup, put in some milk and a spoon of coffee (and maybe sugar). Then you watch the kettle boil; it’s a couple of minutes when nothing much happens. Your world is in a sort of limbo.

But actually it’s the perfect time for a little BNI activity. You have time to send a few texts, maybe an email or two, even to make a quick phone call. The great thing about this idea is that you don’t need any more time to get this stuff done.
Just imagine if all you managed to do was to send was a couple of texts a day but that you did it every day. That would be 10 texts a week and 40 texts over the course of a month. Now that has to be worthwhile!

I’d like to introduce…

If your chapter doesn’t get its members to introduce their visitors it is missing a trick; a very large trick!

You see there are three great reasons why a member should introduce the person they have invited to your chapter.

1)    It gives added importance to bringing a visitor and also gives the visitor a lovely introduction.

2)    It gives special recognition to the member who has brought the visitor along in front of the chapter.

3)    And, this is really important, it has a hidden element to it.

What’s this hidden element?

Well let’s consider two possible introductions of the visitor. The first, ‘I would like to introduce Sarah, we met in the pub last night and as she is looking for more business, I suggested she came along this morning.’ And second, ‘I would like to introduce Sarah, we have been friends for over 10 years now, and I’ve lost count of the number of times she has helped me and my business.’

These introductions are valuable for two reasons and both are useful for the members and Membership Committee alike. The first tells everyone that you know nothing about Sarah, so you know nothing about her or how well she runs her business. Whereas the second is a wonderful reference and your members know that they would be safe in using her services.

The introductions are also extremely useful to the Membership Committee should she apply to join your chapter as, in the first example, they would have to spend more time following up on references and researching her business details.

So, I strongly recommend that if your chapter doesn’t already let members introduce their visitors that they do so very soon.

What’s up your sleeve?

Recently I was at a meeting when a member gave five referrals, read out a testimonial and had also brought along a visitor. It was great. And they received, a deserved, standing ovation.

It reminded me of an occasion in my own chapter a few years ago when one of our members did a similar thing. However, there was a big difference between the two members. You see for our member it was pretty much a one-off event as they were often short of a weekly contribution (a member in the red), whereas for this recent member it was common place, they are amongst the best ‘givers’ in their chapter; always at the top of the green in the traffic lights.

A weekly contribution is key to your success in your chapter as members tend to forget the great one-off contribution but they remember someone who gives every week. And that is very important to you (being remembered for giving every week) if you are going to get the best from your chapter. It will mean more referrals.

Now, as you will know if you regularly read my blog, I don’t think members bring enough visitors to their meetings but the other thing they don’t do is give as many testimonials as they could. Now I’m not talking rubbish testimonials here (Fred did a great job), but really useful feedback on work done. Testimonials that truly build the credibility of the member (receiving it), in the minds of everyone who hears it.

The reason I don’t think enough testimonials are given is because every good referral given could lead to a useful testimonial. And more testimonials would lead to more business for every member, due to increased credibility, not only for the person receiving it, but also the member giving it.
And the great thing is that there is no real time pressure on a testimonial. So if you struggle a little for a weekly contribution why not keep a good (written) testimonial ‘up your sleeve’ for a week when you have nothing else to give.

I’ve not got a referral yet!

It’s not something you want to ever hear from a member, unless of course they have only been a member for few weeks, but I have to say that I was stunned this week when I heard the words.

You see I was visiting a chapter and sitting in on the Visitor Orientation. So was one of the substitutes that day, and it was the substitute who chipped in with ‘Well, I’ve not got a referral yet’.

It soon became clear that out of the five people sitting around the table only one was a true visitor. There were two ‘visitors’ who had been a number of times before and were never going to apply to join (I asked them), and two substitutes, one an ex-member, and one, the person without a referral, who subbed so often that they were in effect getting free membership.

There are a couple of important lessons that can be learnt here:

1) A visitor may attend a meeting up to two times but obviously if it is clear that they are not going to apply on their first visit then there is no second visit.

Personally I don’t have a problem with a visitor attending for a third time as long as they are coming with a completed application form.

But have you ever wondered why we have this policy? There are in fact a number of reasons and two that are key, which would have avoided the situation at Visitor Orientation, are first that they are not going to see or hear anything different the third or fourth time but can be a negative influence and second, are most likely only attending in the hope of getting some business. Neither of these things benefit the chapter or its members.

2) Likewise the Substitutes. A substitute really shouldn’t come to a meeting more than twice and certainly not more than twice within a six month period. And to be attending so regularly that they expect referrals is a definite sign that something is very wrong.

Again I can see why you might think differently about this; in fact in my own chapter we had a police officer who came along a few times for a member.

But there were a couple of important factors here which you could argue make it different. He didn’t become the ‘chapter's sub’ and also he didn’t have his own business to promote.

A substitute who is eligible to apply (and doesn’t) and attends so often that they are getting, in effect, free membership (not even paying for their own breakfast), is totally different and again of little benefit to the chapter and again can be a negative influence, as this one was.

Substitutes on occasion can be hard to find but if you put in the effort to find them you will see the rewards and your chapter will be the better for it.

This blog might help you - http://bnigivers.blogspot.co.uk/2008/02/death-and-taxes-only-certainties.html

Have you done it today?

No, I don’t mean what some of you might be thinking, but I do mean the most important thing that you can do for your chapter and yourself.

The answer, of course, is invited someone to your chapter meeting.

Visitors, and in turn new members, are the life blood of every chapter because without them a chapter will at some point die. That may seem overly dramatic, but it’s true.

Many members invite, at best, occasionally. Or maybe when their chapter has a visitor drive on. But I believe, as members, we should invite someone every single day. I’ve always done this for two reasons; one, I’m a bit lazy (don’t like hard work) and two, every visitor is a potential customer for me whatever happens.

Now you might be thinking that inviting someone every day sounds like a lot of hard work but, I promise, it really isn’t.

Think about it this way. Your chapter has a visitor drive on and you need to bring a visitor for a particular date. Firstly, you are under pressure from the start. Then you have to build a list of people to invite and then you have to invite them. Plus, of course, you are not practiced at inviting people. I’m sure this is why many people don’t like inviting people; they don’t do it often enough.

Then think about what I call ‘continuous inviting’. Invite someone every day. There’s no pressure. The person can come to any meeting. And, it can take just seconds to do – in fact at times I hardly notice that I’m inviting people.

The best part is that if you do this, after a while, you will have a continuous ‘pipe-line’ of visitors coming to your chapter.

So where do you find these people to invite? Simple answer – everywhere. Doesn’t matter what you are doing or where you are. I was taking part in a kart race and found someone to invite. This very week I have someone coming to my meeting whose business card I picked up in a coffee shop last week.

How to invite? Whatever is convenient at the time. In person, on the phone, by text, letter, Linkedin, Facebook, postcard or email. Anything will do – as long as you do it.

On some days I might invite a few people, I’ve also been known to invite 20 or 30 at a time (again easy). But the most important thing is to invite one person.

Do you know that if you invited just one person a day (week days), for 46 weeks of the year, that you would invite a total of 230 people to your chapter by the year end. And the best part? Many will come along and some will become members.

So you may have not done ‘it’ today but how about getting started tomorrow? I think you will be surprised at the results.

Hawaii Five-0

The man sitting opposite me was dressed in white Chinos and a very bright bold patterned short sleeved shirt. I wasn’t in Hawaii or on the film set of Hawaii Five-0. I was at a BNI meeting, and before you ask, no there wasn’t anything special happening at the chapter that morning.

However, what I did know was that this particular member wasn’t getting many referrals. I listened to his 60 Seconds and I have to admit that it was very good; even had a great memory hook. So what might his problem be?

Now many of us spend a fair amount of time working on what we are going to say but do we spend as much time, proportionally, on how we will say those words and how we will look while presenting them? Now there have been many studies on this sort of thing (Albert Mehrabian 7% mentioned in our workshops) and I think that image is part of this member’s problem. You see he is an IFA, and, like it or not, we all have an impression of what, we think, an IFA should look like. To most an IFA should be suited and booted.

Now I know this member is great at his job but, because of the way he chooses to dress, he doesn’t get as many opportunities as he should do to prove it. An IFA should be serious - not a fun, relaxed type of guy!

So, how much time to you spend thinking about how you look? Do you even think about how you look?

Think of your BNI chapter as your biggest client. How would you look if you were meeting your best client (it should be the same for all of your clients)? This is how you should look at every chapter meeting.

Okay now you have some great words to say and you look the part. Now – how are you going to say them?

Fun Free Tombola

I attended a meeting last week where a member organised a Fun Free Tombola. Laid out on a table were all of the prizes, nicely wrapped, with a ticket number taped on top. There were enough prizes for every member, plus five extras.

Then as each member (and visitor) signed in, they drew a ticket from a hat, and claimed their prize. Now, as I say it was a fun tombola, so half the prizes were a Mars Bar, while the other half were more valuable. There were things like: high-lighter pens, Thank You cards, CDs, books, a dinner for two and vouchers for the member’s services.

It really was good fun and as usual got me thinking.

How about this for an idea?

A Free Tombola for (eligible) visitor bringing. You could run the tombola in exactly the same way, and depending on your chapter’s funds, you could run it for just a month, or two months, or even three months.

Let’s assume your chapter has the funds to run the tombola for a month. From your Palms Report find out what your average monthly visitors are. Then add, say, 20% to the number and that’s how many prizes you will need. Now you need to buy the prizes and/or get them donated. Remember half will be just Mars Bars (or similar) and you need a few really good prizes.

Wrap and number them all and put the counterpart number into a hat. Now you are ready to play!

Each week anyone who brings a visitor picks a tombola ticket and collects their prizes from the prize table. And of course they get a ticket for each visitor they bring.

Of course the better your ‘Star’ prize is the more incentive there will be for members to bring visitors. An iPad maybe? With this in mind a shorter time with better prizes may work best.

I think this could be great fun (who doesn’t like a draw?) and help grow your chapter.

If you do try this please let me know how you get on.

NOTE: If you do run a tombola please email me first for one last piece of advice.

Across the dance floor!

Don't know about you, but when I was in my early twenties it took a great deal of courage to cross a dance floor and ask a beautiful girl if she would like a dance.

Again, if you were anything like me the answer was a curt "No thanks", and you had to make the return trip to your starting point - knowing that everyone watching knew exactly what had just happened. I would imagine those gifted at asking a girl to dance feeling pity for me, while those more timid than I just thanked their lucky stars that it wasn't them doing the walk of shame and took another sip of their beer.

But if not that night, another night, I would try again and I kept on trying, as I expect you did, until a lovely girl said yes.

Well that was a long time ago, but the experience is still very valid today.

You see when I ask members if they have tried inviting visitors by letter, or postcard, by email, by text, or even asking people they know if they could suggest someone, I more often than not get the reply, "Oh. I tried that once and it didn't work".

Can you imagine the number of unmarried men there would be around if they had used this same principle when asking a girl for a dance, or even a date? She said 'No'. I'm not trying that again!

So, why is it that those very same people only try inviting a visitor once?

I guess it comes down to a combination of fear, ambition, priorities and even credibility.

There was a lot of fear in asking the girl of your dreams for a date. However, for most men to have a beautiful loving girlfriend was something they dreamed about. And other than football on Saturday, it was their only priority. There was of course credibility at stake, as no-one wanted to be the only person without a girlfriend.

So, if you find it hard to get visitors along to your chapter, cast your mind back to those days on the dance floor; for some of you it may have been just last week!

And instead of trying to find a visitor using one particular method just the once, keep trying until you succeed. After all, you know that if you keep trying you will succeed.

And ladies, this doesn't let you off the hook, as I'm sure you have your own example!

Good Luck.

BNI Game a waste of time!

I visited a chapter recently in London who were taking part in the BNI Game and one of the members complained to me that it was a complete waste of time, as it encouraged members to just make things up.

The BNI Game, as I explained to the member, can be an outstanding building block for a chapter. But it does depend on the ground rules set out by the Leadership Team and a strong, but fair, game co-ordinator. In addition, strong members will not take ‘advantage’ of the game to score points.

So, what can the organiser of the game do to ensure that every member plays to the spirit of what is being done for their benefit?

Well, with regard to visitors, this is an easy one to answer, and just a few basic guidelines are needed. First, if someone has come as a visitor within the previous six months they can’t come again as a visitor during the game, unless it’s with an application form. A visitor won’t count if it’s the same person a member ‘wheels out’ every time there is a membership drive.  An eligible visitor is only anyone that could apply to join the chapter.

Then there are referrals - always a difficult one! Well, again this is easy to deal with. It’s why there is a Referral Reality Check. If there is a doubt over the validity of a referral it can ‘randomly’ be picked during the referral part of the meeting.

Testimonials, workshops and 1-2-1s are all often part of a BNI Game and if more of these are done, even if a few are not as good as they could be, it can only be good for the chapter. As are the wearing of a badge, BNI Pin and getting to the chapter early.

The only item that is difficult to ‘police’ is the Thank You for the Business, but even here an astute Membership Co-ordinator can usually spot the odd anomaly.

Now I’m not naive enough to think that a little ‘embellishment’ of the truth doesn’t take place. But given the amount of extra business the BNI Game produces for the members of a chapter, I suppose the odd duff contribution is a price worth paying.

And in any case, certainly where I was concerned, if I knew that another member was bending the rules it damaged their credibility, and long term that member lost out.

The BNI Game is a brilliant incentive for any chapter. Just make sure that it’s not you who is taking ‘advantage’ of the spirit of the game.

90 Day Challenge

It seems that wherever you turn there’s a new 90 Day Challenge being made. It’s all over Facebook and the leader of the pack seems to be ‘The Body by Vi Challenge’. The idea is that you set a goal, video it, and then ‘Go Public’ with it; on Facebook, Twitter, just about everywhere.

There’s nothing new in this idea, I have written blogs about making goals public and there’s even a chapter in my new book ‘The 10 YearBreakfast’ on the subject. But, being challenged by a friend, and making the goal public, really seems to have caught on.

So, how about this for an idea?

Challenge your best mate in your chapter to a goal: to bring a certain number of visitors to your chapter in the next 90 days, or a certain number of referrals. The bigger the challenge the better! Then make a video (including your chapter name of course) and go public with it.

I think this would be a great deal of fun and I’m sure you could think of a prize or two. Maybe if enough members in your chapter took part, all of the winners' names, could be put into a hat for a special prize from the chapter?

Maybe even a BNI Director would like to challenge a member or two!

Do you know, I’m pretty excited about this idea! What do you think?

Now who shall I pick…

What’s in it for me?

Very few members bring a reasonable (in my mind ‘reasonable’ equals between six and twelve visitors each year) number of visitors to their chapter. I have covered the possible reasons as to why this might be the case before, but I now have, what I think, is the true reason.

Because, let’s face it, there cannot be a single member who doesn’t know that we need to grow our chapters and why - more business for all. The trouble is that ‘more business for all’ is too generic. What members really want to know is ‘What’s in it for me?’ Now obviously the easy answer is – more business. But as I say, that’s too abstract.

The real reason, I believe, is that most members don’t really know what they want. Therefore, they have no need to try and get it. So, it’s about having a target; or in this case not having a target. Because if you don’t have one. How can you aim for it?

You see most members, I know, are just happy to get whatever value of business that comes their way each year. But how different would it be if they had a (real) target?

Say it was something pretty low like £12,000 a year (£1,000 per month). What would they need to do in order to get that level of business? Simple answer – get a certain number of referrals. Now what’s the best way of getting lots of referrals? Answer: having lots of members. And how do you get lots of members? By having lots of visitors.

So, if every member had a target for the amount of business they wanted from their chapter each year, and had a plan for getting it (number of referrals needed), visitors would become important to them, and they would invite more.

The “What’s in it for me?” question would be answered, as visitors are the best way of reaching your business target – if you have one!

So, if your chapter is looking for more members, why not have a session (maybe the 10 Minutes) on setting a business target for every member of the chapter?

Please let me know what you think and how you get on.