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.

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?

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.

£1,790 lost business!

Recently I have had lost communication from three BNI members. It has varied from coming to my home to look at a job - but nothing more, to one with no interest in finding out about the work, and the other, after getting a positive response to their quote, not coming back in any speed as to when the job could be done. When they finally responded the option was many weeks away – far past my requested date.

As it so happens, none of this turned out as a problem for me, as I received great work from other businesses, one of which was even at a better price.

But, that’s not my apprehension here; it’s not even that the people concerned may have been too busy, didn’t really want the work, or had no anxiety about losing money.

My worry for them is long-term because how can I refer them if that is the level of service I received? I wouldn’t risk it on the people I have a trusted relationship with. They could in fact be going to lose thousands of pounds of possible business. But, it might be worse than that. Because, is it just how they react in BNI (to me) or is it the way they run their business day-to-day? Since if it’s how they generally run their businesses then, again long-term, they could lose tens of thousands of pounds of work and many customers. Even worse, maybe they could lose their business; I know people that this has actually happened to.

So, to help you and your business really succeed, then please follow up on all the referrals and enquires that you receive. As long-term it will help you get ahead, prosper and enjoy what you do.

Phil Berg!

 I’ve known Mr Berg for many years; in fact I worked in his team as a BNI Director, when I was part of the director’s team working from Head Office, in Rickmansworth. I had some wonderful years and miss many of the things we did (even losing to Charlie Lawson at Scalextric!). In case you are wondering why I left Head Office, my family and I moved to Surrey.

Anyway, why am I talking about Phil Berg? Well, it’s because if you haven’t met him I really suggest you do your best to do so, because he will help make BNI work for you. Might mean some hard work, the right work, but your likelihood of success will really improve, leading to more referrals and therefore better business.

I know what you have thought. How am I going to meet Mr Phil Berg? That’s possible, although he does visit most countries, but what you can certainly do is watch (and listen) to him on our BNI University. And I guess that is why I writing this, because I watched him yesterday.

I watched a One-2-One Skills Workshop, presented by him and Brian Gates, on the 2^nd June this year. It’s about how to have very useful One-2-Ones: when, where and what to cover and how to help the person you are working with (having the One-2-One with). But, one of the parts I like best is that he, and Brian, talk about how things have worked for them. Not to make them look good but to give you an idea of the sort of things that you can cover and that will certainly help you.

So, I highly recommend that you go and watch Mr Berg; I promise that you will learn a great deal.

Just enjoy.

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!