Lost business

Sometimes I wonder if all BNI members actually want more business.

Why?

Well, this week I meet a member whom I had never met before, and asked if I could have their business card. Not that they knew, but I needed someone who did what they said they were brilliant at. But all I received in reply was ‘No.’

And, as it turned out, by the time they left that was all I got from them in total.

I couldn’t believe it, but far worse, I will never use them or refer them.

To start with I have three reasons;

1.    They could have written down their number,

2.    They could have asked for my business card instead,

3.    They could have asked me how they could help me.

And, of course, there are other things they could have asked or said. But, what did I get? Not a thing.

So, any possible business for them was gone in that moment. They had no idea who I was.

Plus, and I don’t think I need to explain why, I couldn’t refer them based on that type of action.

How you react is very important for future work and referrals, so please make sure that you always connect really well with the people you meet.

Got your business cards on you?!

Five Referrals!

 A good friend of mine (he does plumbing and heating) is not only a very good BNI referral giver, but he also receives a very good number of referrals himself from members of his chapter.

He has been a member for many years and a few years ago he did some maths, which led to him getting even more referrals. Now I know that you can do the numbers, but you will require some information, and there are three things you will need on record. First, the number of referrals you give each year, second, the number of referrals that you receive each year, and third, the amount of business you receive from those referrals each year. That’s it!

Okay, so firstly, divide the amount of business you received by the number of referrals you were given. For example: you get £16,000 of work, from eight referrals, which makes each referral worth £2,000.

Then secondly, work out how many referrals you give in order to receive the number of referrals you are given.

My friend worked out that for every five referrals he gave he received one £2,000 (roughly) referral in exchange.

To drive him, he worked out that for every referral he gave it was, in effect, worth £400. But, this is the part that impressed me, he passed more and more referrals, and for every five he passed, he received about £2,000 in return!

So, if you did your maths, could you increase the number of good referrals you receive? All I can say is it’s worth a try – because it certainly worked for me!

One-2-One in Mumbai

 Over the years I’ve been in BNI, since 2003 in fact, it has proved very worthwhile for me, not just for referrals, but for many other reasons; obviously most often from my own chapter but also around the country.

Right now, I can remember needing beautiful flowers in Oxford and a plumber in Southsea; very good reliable companies. I’ve also recently had members supporting my new children’s book and a few years ago helping me with a wonderful trip to Australia.

Well this week, I’ve had a One-2-One with a member in Mumbai. It was early morning for me, afternoon for them and the best part was seeing each other via Zoom. It’s such a great device to use today.

We had a very good and interesting meeting and I was also lucky enough to see their full 10 Minute PowerPoint Presentation – which was very distinct and beautiful.

Anjali Vhatkar is the founder and CEO of the Elaura Art Gallery and their work is amazing. If I had rooms large enough, there was art I saw that I would love to have, but sadly I don’t have walls that big!

However, what I can do is to speak to the architects and interior designers, and even hotel owners, I know, to see if they would like to know more about Elaura Art and how they could own one of these beautiful pieces.

But, what I like best is that I love the products (the art) and I find Anjali very distinctive, which means that I will talk about the Elaura Art Gallery to my friends, and in the past I’ve often found that this often leads to my friends asking me about the person I’m chatting about (how good they are?) and then to them later receiving referrals.

So, have you a great story to tell, that your fellow members will want to convey to their friends? Because, if you do, you might just find your referral number increases afterwards.

10 Minutes of Fun!

 Sounds good doesn’t it, but it does involve a little hard, physical work.

I was chatting recently with a Personal Trainer, who’s pretty much closed for business at the moment. But, she is doing lots to make sure that her business is not only better, but ready for training sessions when the lights go green and lockdown ends!

One thing she is doing is making a 10-minute training video. It’s aimed to not only keep people fit but also for them to have some fun. A real bounce! She suggests that you do it every day because it will relax you and help make the whole day better. One of my other friends actually works out, at 8.30 every morning, and it energises their day.

But, as far as her business goes, it’s even better than that, because it will be sent to every one of her customers and friends. Many of whom I’m sure will thank her for it. But, also she is going to ask them, if they enjoy the workout, if they would send it to three of their friends.

I asked her how many people she was sending it to and her answer was 43. Now not only is that fun for them but business-wise it could be a real winner. Imagine if people that are not already one of her customers, really find it stimulating; maybe they will become a new customer? But imagine if those 43 people each sent it to three of their friends; that would be another 129 people.

Now that really makes you think about the possible number of prospective customers she could have when the lights go green!

So, what could you make a 10 minute video about? Why not do it today!

A Beachball!

 In 2008, I met Andy Bounds for the first time, at the BNI Directors European Conference in Dublin. He was a main speaker and I loved what he told us. I also got a copy of his new book (at the time), The Jelly Effect.

The Jelly Effect is a brilliant book all about communication skills. Your business could improve a great deal if you get this right and Andy will help you do so.

Here’s an illustration Andy gives; it’s a great way for improving your sales. And, it’s about a beachball.

As I expect you know, a beachball has six coloured segments. They might be red, white, blue, yellow, green and orange. If you and a friend hold the ball between yourselves, the ball might look red, white and blue to you. However, from your friend’s side, they would think it was green, yellow and orange.

The same beachball looks completely different from different perspectives. The great thing to do is add the beachball view to your own business.

You look at your business – the beachball – from a certain point of view. You think of lots of selling points and you focus on these.

A possible prospective customer hears what you say, they’re looking at your company – the same beachball – but, maybe from a different point of view. What they want to hear, and see, is evidence that you can provide the ‘Afters’ that they are looking for.

Are you selling what they want? Will they receive what they want? Because at this moment that’s all that really matters. If they are not sure, then they have a reason to look elsewhere.

Here is a suggested example for you. ‘A building you are proud of, that meets your needs.’ This would lead to better and more results than, ‘I am an architect with three qualified staff.’

So, have a look at your communication. What do you open with? Is it who you are and what you do, or, is it what you give your customers and what they want?

The key, for real success, is to start with the end result first (The Afters). So, what are your customers looking for?

All Zoomed!

We have now had a couple of months on Zoom and at BNI Elmbridge we have a fully attended meeting every week, plus some really amazing Feature Presentations.

I find it interesting as you see partners, children and many pets, especially lots of happy, friendly dogs. Drinks come and go (well mine do). Clothing is a ‘little’ different to that worn at actual meetings! And, chosen locations are very different and fun. For a few weeks we had someone attending on their exercise bike.

The education slots have been very useful for help in the current situation and the new Leadership Team are doing a lot of extra work, as are our website and social media team.

What I like the best is that our BNI group is keeping everyone active, whatever the status of the business at the moment. Many are using their time to plan the future, organise how they operate and improve their marketing; plus how to give better customer support.

Many of us are now getting back to ‘actual’ work. I think that if we are using this time in a positive way our businesses will be much stronger in the future.

Have useful BNI meetings, make sure you attend, and use your time, and help others, to plan a great future success.

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!

Have you let anyone down recently?

Trust is a major factor when it comes to people recommending you. Let’s face it, however good you think a company’s service is, would you easily recommend them if you couldn’t completely trust them?

I’m guessing that the answer is probably no – certainly I know that I would think twice.

It’s really important that we don’t raise people’s hopes by making a promise only to dash them by breaking that promise.  It wrecks our credibility and therefore any trust that person has in us and our company.

Now I not talking big events here, it’s the build up of those small broken promises that do the real damage.

For example, have you ever said to someone, ‘I’ll call you in the morning’ and not done so?  Or, ‘I’ll pop it in the post’ and forgotten?  Maybe, ‘How about coffee on Thursday?’ and totally forgotten about it.  Even, set a date for a meeting, ‘No fail’ you said, and then changed it.

The list may seem unimportant, but each is a broken promise.  Sooner or later people will stop believing you and with that goes your credibility.  And, after that goes the trust a person had in you.

The result of all these broken promises is fewer recommendations.

A client asked me recently how they could improve their image and by doing so get more recommendations and my answer was easy.  I replied, keep your promises. Only that very week I knew they had forgotten to call someone and the person concerned had stayed in all morning waiting for their call.

Okay, life happens, we all know that.  So, how can we avoid these little ‘killer’ things happening?  Here are my five top tips:

1)      Immediately make a note of anything agreed.  Put dates in your diary.  2) If it is possible, do whatever it is there and then.  3) Once a date is set, don’t break it.  What makes one meeting more important than the one you have already?  What does it say about the way you feel about the person that you are happy to break an appointment with?  4)  If you know that you are going to be pushed, don’t set a definite time.  Rather than saying 11.00am tomorrow, just say sometime tomorrow (but make sure it is tomorrow.  5)  If you do need to let someone down, because it will happen, let them know as soon as possible, don’t leave them guessing.

Follow these simple tips and you will find your credibility increases, the trust grows, and recommendations follow.

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.

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.

Vote Wakeham

Last Thursday I subbed for Peter Voice of PHP Heating & Plumbing at BNI Guildford. It was my first visit to the chapter and I have to say it was great. Forty people in the room, some very good 60 Seconds and I even sold a couple of my books.

The best part of the meeting? The 60 Second round. There were some brilliant 60 Seconds but one stood out above the others: the member getting a spontaneous round of applause and later winning the Best 60 Second award.

So what made it so good? Well, pretty much everything. It was of the moment, the acting was superb, it was very clever, included humour, and told us exactly what the member did, how they helped people and the sort of business they were looking for.

The opening line was (pretty much) – “Ladies and Gentlemen – I stand before you as the BEL Letting Party – your lettings candidate and current member for Guildford.”

Glenn Wakeham is the owner of Belvoir, Sales and Lettings, and the way he stood, spoke and moved would have been up there with the very best politicians.

Glenn then went on to tell us about his achievements over the past five years.

Job Creation: up 500%.

Wealth and Opportunities.

I liked this line, “The NHS – our health service – our excellent record will continue to ensure doctors and nurses live in affordable houses near Royal Surrey.”

Welfare.

Immigration.

Housing had another wonderful line, “Others may speak of ‘Right to Buy’ but we say ‘Right to Buy to Let.”

Everything was covered and he ended with “Vote Belvoir, for five more years of a better Guildford.”

What made Glenn’s 60 Seconds so good? Well, as I’ve said before, he became the story. A story that others would tell their friends and contacts about; exactly what I’m doing right here.

Glenn Wakeham certainly gets my vote!

When you say the right thing!

I'm having some work done on my new home at the moment. This includes making new doorways and bricking up other doorways so that the layout of the house is just the way we want it.

Doing part of the work is a builder, a good friend of mine, and during one of his tea breaks we were deliberating on Arsenal (there's no need to comment!) and life in general, which of course included our respective families.

David Wimblett watching Arsenal at the Emirates

My children are all now grown up but my friend has a son who is making his GCSE choices this year. I asked if his son had any idea as to a career, as at his age I hadn't had any idea, and to my surprise he said, 'Yes. A sports lawyer'.

I have to say I was impressed, not just because he had an idea of what he wanted to do, but more so because he knew exactly what he was going to do. My friend added that the only problem was that he didn't know how to advise him as neither he, nor his son's school, had any experience of how you become a sports lawyer.

And that's when there was a 'click' in my head; I know a sports lawyer. In fact this person had been involved in some Arsenal transfers. I told my friend that I couldn't promise anything, but that I would see if my contact could give him some pointers.

Well, to cut a long story short, my friend's son has now met the sports lawyer on three occasions, been to a seminar that he was speaking at, and had lunch with him. All in all, pretty amazing.

So, why am I telling you this story? Well, if my friend had just said that his son wanted to be a lawyer that probably would have been it. I know lots of lawyers and solicitors but it was the 'sports' that was the trigger.

And it's exactly the same when you are asking for referrals, or giving a 60 Seconds; for the best results you must be specific. Because just by adding one word, as in this case, can make all the difference.

Being general, trying to cover everything you do, simply doesn't work; well, not if you want great results.

So how about this for an idea? A New Year's Resolution that not only can you keep but that will also help 2015 be a great year for you too. Be specific.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

The Expert

Recently I saw a 10 Minute which I thought was brilliant and which turned out to be very effective.

It was by a video company. There was no personal stuff, no qualifications or how long they had been in business, no 'what makes a great referral', no request for target clients, no selling and no questions. Not even a memory hook.

The person concerned didn't even show any of his company's own videos!

The title of the presentation was 'What makes a winning video'.

We were educated on what makes a great video: from why a business needed a video, to planning, scripting, location, shooting, lighting, sound (very important), titles and length. At each stage we were shown videos (short clips) which demonstrated the points being made.

As I say it was a great 10 Minutes: very professional, well planned, well scripted and executed. What came across was that this man knew his business; he was an expert in his field.

He did get one quick question at the end, from a visitor, 'Do you make videos?' His simple answer was 'Yes'.

During the referral part of the meeting he received three referrals: one from the visitor, who had asked the question, and two from members who wanted a video shot for their own business.

Now I'm not suggesting that you go out and do a similar 10 Minute next week, and I know you shouldn't sell to the room (he did no selling), but

I do think that if you get seen as an expert in your field you will get many more referrals. So it's worth considering how you can use this idea not only in a 10 Minute presentation but in everything you do.

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.

My mobile rings during a meeting!

There’s nothing worse than a mobile going off in a chapter meeting – well, other than someone texting during a meeting that is. And that’s why, at every meeting, the Chapter Director reminds us to turn our mobiles off.

So, why was my mobile switched on and, more importantly, why did it ring? Well you will be pleased to hear that it was all pre-arranged; part of a very clever 60 Seconds by one of the members of the chapter. Yaro Kowalczyk of, IT company, Compcontrol Ltd. This is what happened.

As Yaro stood to do his 60 Seconds my phone rang. I answered with a “Hello”. Yaro was on the other side of the room on his mobile, he also said “Hello”. I couldn’t hear anything coming from my phone, so I tried another, “Hello”. It seemed that Yaro also couldn’t hear anything his end so he to tried another “Hello”. Still no sound my end, so I tried yet another “Hello”. We both hung up.

Yaro went on to explain that what we had just experienced on our mobiles, a bad connection, was just like having a bad computer network. And that a bad network meant that computers and peripherals had difficulty ‘talking’ to one another, leading to all sorts of problems, amongst them lost tempers and lost money.

Yaro explained that his company, Compcontrol, supplied unrivalled network services, and that if anyone in the room knew someone having a problem with their computer network it would be a perfect referral for him.

I have to say that I thought it was a brilliant way of demonstrating what Compcontrol did and because of that will forgive a  mobile being used during a meeting.

Note: Please don’t all start ringing each other at your next meeting!

The 10 Year Breakfast…

Is the title of my second book due for publication in April. My first, in case you missed it, was ‘BNI: One Bite at aTime’.

The 10 Year Breakfast is the result of me eating nine hundred and eighty seven breakfasts (mainly Full English) over the past ten years. My book is about business; it is about what I have learnt about business whilst networking, in the main as a long-time member, and director, of BNI.

This is what Executive Director Colin Read says about my book: "David has the ability to observe everyday networking situations with an extremely dry sense of humour that is rarely found before lunchtime, let alone breakfast. 

In a nutshell, 'He adds the brown sauce to your full English!'  A must read..."

And this is part of the foreword by Nigel Botterill of the Entrepreneur’s Circle, “What’s more, by his own admission, he wasn’t very good at this ‘networking thing’ when he first started and that makes him even more interesting and fascinating to me, because he’s come from a position of incompetence and poor results, to master what he does.

Critically, his success as a networker isn’t innate which has helped him to teach and share his lessons along the way in a very accessible style.”

I’ve learnt a great deal from BNI over the last ten years and so I would like to give you, the readers of my blog, a special Pre-Publication Offer as a Thank You.

My book has a cover price of £11.95, but buy it before publication, before the 11th April, and you can get your copy (maybe even copies) for just £5.00 (plus £1 toward P&P).

All you need to do is click here to order.

Thank you.

Would you buy your own 60 Seconds?

If you could be another you, exactly, and be at your next chapter meeting and watch and listen to you giving your 60 Seconds, would you be tempted to buy?

It’s a serious question.  How good do you really think your 60 Seconds is?  How enthusiastic are you in the delivery?  What do you look like?

Okay, let’s run through your 60 Seconds.

It’s a bit of a struggle getting to your feet.  You’re not exactly looking happy to be there and you haven’t smiled yet.  Shirt looks like it missed the iron that morning.  Still, here we go.  “Morning” you mutter; obviously you had a late night.  It’s going to be a challenge this one.  Well guess what? You tell us exactly the same as you did last week.  You’re looking for anything really.  You can do most things, just about anywhere.  So if we know anyone, well that would be a great referral for you.  And we don’t catch the last part as you were already back in your seat.  Oh. Well, there’s always next week.

So, what did you think?  Would you buy you?  I’m guessing maybe not.  So, why would anyone else?

Well that’s what a great many 60 Seconds are like.  Don’t believe me?  Well really listen at your next meeting.

I really can’t stress enough how important your 60 seconds is to the level of success you will achieve in your chapter.  In fact, in many ways, to the success of your whole business.

You see your 60 seconds encapsulates everything there is about you and your business.  Your attitude.  Your enthusiasm for what you do.  The way you look and prepare yourself.  Your target market.  Your message.  Your credibility.  What you have to offer.  How you can help people.  It’s all there.  Everything that will bring you more, and better, business.

So, if you are looking for more referrals, more business, there’s no better place to start than by giving a great 60 Seconds every week.

Look at your numbers!

Every successful entrepreneur, in fact person in business, knows that knowing their numbers is a key component to their success.  And, as both a member and as a chapter, in BNI we are fortunate to be supplied with some great data (numbers); to name just two, our PALMS report and the Traffic Lights.

But, we have to be careful that we don’t become too ‘number’ led. What I mean is that thinking the PALMS report and the Traffic Lights are the only things that matter. BNI is a people business and we must always remember that.

Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that a member’s PALMS report and Traffic Light score shouldn’t be good; of course it should.  For one thing I believe that all members should be ‘Green’.  But, that’s not my point.

My point is that we shouldn’t just get caught up in the numbers; we must be careful that the numbers don’t become all-consuming.  The numbers should be the result of our actions.  In my opinion it’s far better to be in the green because you are a good member, than to be in the green because you are ‘encouraged’ to do the right things.  It’s a slight difference but, to my mind, a very important distinction.

In one of his books, Steve Jobs explains that he didn’t set out to be super-rich, he set out to change the world. He just got super-rich doing it.  And that’s what I think a BNI member should be like and encouraged to be like.  We should all want to be great members, because that’s how we benefit most from our membership.  And the result will be great PALMS data and ‘green’ in the Traffic Lights.

So, what do you want to change that will make a difference to your BNI membership?  It might not have the same effect that Steve Jobs did, but you might just find it improves your numbers.

What’s the point of email?

I sometimes wonder why some members have an email address.  After all, what is the point of having an email address if you aren’t going to check it or, worse still, answer it.

Now as a business mentor I’m the first to say that you mustn’t be ruled by your email, but there is a big difference to being a slave to your email box and not looking at it at all.

Over the last two days I have sent three emails to three different members with the potential of work.  One is a definite job.  But I’ve not heard back from any of them.

Now it’s possible that an email hasn’t been delivered; but all three?  And of course I could pick up the phone and call them.  Often far better than an email or text in fact.  But that’s not the point.  Especially when I’ve been told by someone who knows one of the members that he never answers his emails.

So I guess that’s my point.  If you don’t want to communicate by email, don’t publish your email address.  And, if you do publish your email address, you have to appreciate that people will use it, and you will need to check your inbox and answer any emails.  Because, believe me, you will be losing business and maybe, in the long term, even customers.

Rant over.  I’m going to check my inbox!

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?