Communication…

 …well lack of it!

Two members that I have contacted, for the first time over three weeks ago, so far have not sent me any type of reply. And I’m not talking about just sending an email here.

I have sent them a number of emails, text messages and a phone message.

Now it might be that they don’t think a reply is required, they have no time, or that they just aren’t interested enough.

There could be many reasons as to why I haven’t heard a thing from them. It’s even possible that you can think of a good reason yourself.

But, have you, and more importantly have they, thought about the comeback of no reply more deeply?

What does no response really mean?

Does it even matter?

Well the BIG answer is – yes it does!

When I say, yes it does, the reason is massive. But, it’s to them, not me.

As, long term, they will get fewer referrals.

But why, you may be thinking.

Know, Like and Trust.

If you are going to be referred confidently, your fellow members need to: Know you, Like you, and to Trust you.

What no communication means is that they don’t know if you will contact the person that they could refer to you.

They have no evidence that they can trust you to do so.

So, they don’t (refer you).

Which means for the best results, and the most referrals that you will receive, you need to communicate on every single occasion and without any delay.

Even if you are busy or because what you have been asked is not really for you, you must reply.

But, be careful, as to what you say.

And, here are a couple of examples: ‘I’m too busy’, could simply mean I’ve no time for any more work. The result could be fewer referrals. ‘Not my sort of job’, can mean other referrals lost; unless you explain why and do your best to help them with their referral. Recommend someone good who could do it.

Good communication is essential to build Know, Like and Trust with your fellow BNI members and have your referral rate grow and be better.

Who should you reply to today?

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.

A Shed-Load of Money!

2022 is coming - in fact fast!

And, I would imagine, as a good business person that you are well into planning your New Year. What you would personally like and what your business has to do to achieve it. If not, maybe we should have a chat.

Now I would certainly think that the amount of money you receive will be important, but even more significant than that, is the amount of profit you will actually make.

After all you have lots of bills to pay like gas, insurance, mortgage, school fees, car costs; I could go on and on. And, of course, there are other things you would like as well, holidays, nights-out, karting, golf; again the list will be long.

Certainly it was what I always had planned into my business plan, for example; skiing, sailing, classic Mustang, school fees; to name just a few.

So, to help you, Surrey BNI has an amazing workshop coming up, on Tuesday 25^th January, at Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking.

It’s going to be very special, as the host is Phil Berg and, he is more than good, because he gets it (I've worked and listened to him for a long time), and he will help you achieve your goal. Helping you get what you want.

Whatever your plan, however far you have already got with it, I promise you that meeting Phil will help you succeed; and on so much more than just your Surrey BNI membership.

2022 could be an attractive year for you and Phil’s workshop could truly help you, so please don’t miss the chance of attending. 

You can book here:

HOW TO MAKE A SHED-LOAD OF MONEYFROM BNI – hosted by Phil Berg

Tuesday 25th January 2022 4pm – 8pm

Woodlands Park Hotel, Cobham KT11 3QB

90 Minutes!

 

I had a One-2-One with a member this week which was very interesting.

During BNI training it is suggested that we all put in our diary one hour for BNI every week with the focus solely on BNI activity. Sadly for them, many members don’t have an extra hour free, so lose out on what they could gain.

At the moment most of our meetings are via Zoom, which means that there are some disadvantages but also some advantages. In fact, in the future there may be some Zoom-only Chapters formed.

Anyway, back to the lady that I was having a One-2-One with. One comment she made during our conversation, was that one thing a Zoom meeting achieved, was saving her 90 minutes getting to and returning from the meeting. There were a number of things that she really missed from a usual meeting but, there was also one large thing that she gained. And that was 90 minutes.

Now I’m not talking of time for her to rest! What she had gained, was not one hour for BNI activity, but 90 minutes instead. This led her to spending more time looking for referrals for fellow members (in a difficult time), having more useful One-2-Ones, and spending time, and learning, on the BNI U. And, all of this has led to her having more success in BNI than ever. I think you will agree that it’s not only very valuable but also rather wonderful.

And it got me thinking about things which I feel are very interesting and could make a big difference for all of us. First, use your saved travel time on BNI activity. What a great way of having more time to work for your BNI success and your fellow members' success. Second, if you think you don’t have the time for 1 hour of BNI activity a week, this has proved that you should make it, because it will lead to more success for you. More business, which I’m guessing means more profit.

So, how are you using your saved travel time? Sleeping?

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.

Four Referrals…

 I was asked by a new member recently how many referrals they should hope to receive in the coming year.

The first thing I said was ‘…have you time for a coffee?’ And, they replied, ‘Of course, but why?’

Well, this is part of what we talked about.

How many referrals would they need to get? But, as important, even more important, was how many referrals they were going to give? Givers Gain, BNI’s core value, is giving to others, before expecting anything from others. Giving first and getting second.

But, let’s get back to what they wanted to know. How many referrals would be a good return? The answer is pretty simple to work out but many members have never done the maths.

The first thing to do is to work out how much business you would like? This should be based on your money invested: BNI membership, venue costs, transport costs, etc. and, of course, time. As an example, let’s say £15,000.

Next we need the average value of your orders. If you don’t know that, just divide your turnover (no VAT) in a year by the number of invoices sent. Again, for example, let’s say £68,000 divided by 120 invoices; answer £568.00.

Okay, now divide the £15,000 by £568.00; answer 26. So, you need 26 jobs to make your £15,000. But, that’s not referrals; because now, you need your conversion rate. How many estimates do you give to receive a job? Let’s say it’s three. Therefore, 26 times three equals 78; which means you need 78 referrals per year to reach your £15,000. That’s 6.5 referrals each month.

The new member and I worked this out for him and, oddly, the number we worked out for him was the same number I have. One referral needed each week to reach our goals.

So, do you know the number of, qualified, referrals you need? If not, why not work it out? I promise you it could be very worthwhile.

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.

Code of Ethics 6

I wonder do you know the 6th BNI Code of Ethics without looking it up? For those of you who aren’t too sure, this is it: Number 6 - I will display a positive and supportive attitude with BNI members. It’s pretty simple but I’m always amazed at how many members fall short of this, especially when you consider that just about everything in BNI is about helping its members give and receive more referrals. And I have a couple of recent examples that illustrate what I mean.

During a 1-2-1 with a member it became clear that they were a little upset because a fellow chapter member had unsubscribed from their eNewsletter. Now I’m not suggesting that you subscribe to every eNewsletter going, although as a marketer I do because you never know where you might pick up the next great idea, but in this case it is very different.

So, what does this member unsubscribing actually mean and say? Well for openers that you are not interested in the member concerned. But it goes much deeper than that, because by reading the newsletter this member would have learnt things that would help them refer in the future. It would also have been supportive of the member concerned and certainly not upset them. In turn this may have led to getting more referrals, whereas now the likelihood is that it will lead to fewer referrals. After all, would you give referrals to someone who didn’t care about you?

My second example is of a member who wanted to be involved in what their chapter was doing but was clearly told that it was nothing to do with them. They were attempting to be supportive to the chapter but it certainly wasn’t received with any positivity. Again what does this say? Is there a clique in place? Was it just a jobsworth devoid of any common sense? That the chapter isn’t inclusive? That the chapter has so much help they don’t need anymore? (somehow I doubt this option). But again, going deeper, what is the likely outcome of this event? Again, fewer referrals being passed between the members concerned.

As if you needed any more proof, only last week I didn’t pass a referral I could have done. Why? Because the member concerned has absolutely no interest in me and little for their chapter as a whole.
So, if you would like to give and receive more referrals spend a few moments and consider how positive and supportive you are to your fellow members.

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’ll see you at the match…

Imagine the scene the Real Madrid team are getting off the team coach, having just beaten Barcelona 4 – 0, Cristiano Ronaldo having scored a hat-trick turns to his team mates and says, “I’ll see you at the match next week”, smiles and walks away.

 Now of course this would never happen, even for the best player in the world (some say second best), because he would report for training along with the rest of the team the next day. He may be the best, done it all before, scored more goals than any other player, won more awards, but like every other member of the team he will attend training. I’ve also read that often he is the first player to arrive and the last to leave.

So why does he put in all of this effort when he is already one of the very best? I’m sure there are many reasons but three instantly come to mind. He wants to stay one of the very best, he is part of a team and he is a leader. Thought of a fourth. He wants his name to be the first on the team sheet for every game.

Now what has Cristiano Ronaldo got to do with BNI you are probably thinking?

Well that’s easy!

Very soon the new team to run your chapter will be picked and after that team training will be held.

Over the years I’ve heard many excuses for not attending this training, with the most common reason being ‘I’ve done it before.’ Well don’t you think Cristiano Ronaldo has been to training before?

However good a member you are, however many times you have done the training before, you will always learn something. And even if you don’t you will be meeting new people (networking), but even more important than that is that you are part of a team and a team works best when they train together.

I said earlier that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to be the first name on the team sheet. Have you ever wondered what it says about you if you aren’t asked to be part of your chapter team? I know members that breathe a sigh of relief when they aren’t asked but what they don’t consider is that maybe they weren’t thought good enough to help run their chapter.

So, teams are currently being put together and I hope that your name is on the ‘Team Sheet’ and that you already have your chapter training date in your diary just in case.

Sharpen your Axe

I was taking a tree root out of my garden recently; you can certainly wear yourself out swinging an axe. And what I discovered is that the job is so much easier and more effectively done if you use a sharp axe. Strangely, I would never think to prepare food in my kitchen without first sharpening my kitchen knives.

So what’s my tree root cutting skills (or lack of), and my cooking skills, got to do with you and your BNI chapter? Well, as it turns out, a fair amount. You see, I purchased my axe some years ago and have been using it, off and on, ever since. I swing it at mostly tree roots, now working up a good healthy sweat, as I’m having to use more and more effort, all because my axe was blunt.

And, I’ve noticed that, this is a lot like many BNI members. They attended the Member Success workshop as a new member and then maybe another skills workshop or two and that is it, they never go again. Done that!

But, like my axe, our business skills and our networking skills get ‘blunt’. We forget some of the things we know; while others we just stop doing and we don’t actually even know why.

So if you haven’t attended a workshop recently, say in the past three months, certainly if not in the past six months, I highly recommend that you attended a workshop soon. Doesn’t matter how many times you have completed the workshop before, just go along and sharpen your skills.

Because if you hone your skills, your results will improve, seemingly, without any extra effort.