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?

No time for 30 minutes.

I was talking to a member this morning that had just had a One-2-One cancelled on him for the third time. He added that the time before he was just leaving his office when the person concerned rang to say he was too busy and couldn’t make the appointment.

But there was still worse to come. The person concerned had that very morning asked the member I was talking to if they could introduce him to one of his clients.

‘Absolutely no chance’, the member told me.

Although I already knew the answer I asked the member why. His answer was simple. He’s unreliable and, I knew what was coming, if he can’t be bother to have a meeting with me and find out what I do, why should I help him? And, he added, I’m not even going to try and arrange another meeting with him; that’s it.

A relationship smashed all because someone couldn’t see the value of a One-2-One.

This very same thing happened to me once but the relationship was saved, and in fact grew to be rather special, because a good friend of mine went to the person concerned and explained how they were making a big mistake by not having a One-2-One with me.

So before you let someone down, or ask for something before giving first, think carefully about how what you are doing will be viewed by the other person. In fact, think about how you would feel if the same thing were done to you.

Building great relationships are vastly important in business, but even more important in your BNI chapter.

Thank You

On Friday I subbed for a very good friend of mine, KeithSpillett, at Isis in Ealing; Isis is a chapter of over 40 members.

It was great to go back to Isis as they were one of the chapters that I used to look after, as an Area Director, for London North West. But what made my visit even more special was what Charles Scholefield said during the contribution part of the meeting. He said that they missed my experience and support; I have to admit that it made me feel rather good. He also bought a copy of my new book, ‘The 10 Year Breakfast’, as did many of the other members of the chapter. It was a very good morning!

However, it was one of the testimonials given that really caught my attention. It was from Mathieu Rossano to Olivera Babic of BabicInteriors (interior designer). Olivera had designed the layout and colours for Mathieu’s new clinic and his testimonial not only explained how great Olivera was at her job but also how good the layout and colours made his patients feel. A good testimonial. But then he presented her with a bottle of Champagne. What a great way to say ‘Thank You’, and what a wonderful testimonial.

Being successful has a great deal about being different, about standing out from those around you. And I think that both Mathieu and Olivera have achieved that here.

So, next time you have something to do, what can you do to make it that extra bit special?

Just One Estimate!

I’m guessing that if your business only did one estimate a week it wouldn’t be in a great position; under normal circumstances that is.  You might price the job more keenly in order to give yourself a better chance of winning the work.  You would be hanging by the phone willing it to ring, desperate to get the job.

Now just think what better and more marketing could do for your business.  More estimates to do.  Which would mean that you could charge more.  You could pick and choose what jobs you did.  You would have less stress.  Make more profit.  And, maybe, even have better holidays.

Well, at the recent Leadership Team Trainings for our new chapter teams, according to Phil Berg, this is exactly what having just the odd visitor to your chapter meetings is like.  Read one estimate as one visitor.

Why?  Well, with one visitor, you are desperate for them to apply (dare I say join) and at almost at any cost.  If they have a heart beat they are in.  And, I can assure you, that isn’t the best way to grow a strong and profitable chapter.  Whereas, with lots of visitors, and many more applications, a chapter has a choice of whom they accept into their chapter.  There is less pressure to take on just anyone.  The long term result of which is more and better business.

And the real benefit of having more visitors?  You will be able say goodbye to that One Estimate.  Because more visitors, means more and stronger members, which means more referrals, and that means more estimates!

Mr. Berg certainly got me thinking.  What about you?