No Questions!

The other day I was asked by a member if I could give them an outline as to how they should plan their upcoming 10 Minutes.

One of the things I suggested was to allow one minute (included within the ten) for questions. In the end, whilst going with most of my outline, the member decided to allow two minutes for any questions.

I sent him a text message shortly after his meeting to see how he had got on. His reply was that he thought it had gone well but he was a little disappointed as he hadn't got a single question. And it had left him wondering if in fact his presentation had been poor. He sounded pretty down.

Now, as with most things in life, there are two sides to every story. In this case, his 10 Minutes may have answered every question that might have been asked: everything being clearly explained, with no loose ends. On the other hand, maybe his presentation had lacked any real interest, so no one was that involved. Knowing the person concerned I doubt that the latter was the reason.

However, there is a third possibility. This member's business is very technical and the content may have been above the understanding of many of the members in the room. If this was the case, the lack of questions, could have been down to people not wanting to seem daft by asking a dumb question.

Now this is where the Leadership Team comes in. One of the team should always have a question ready for the 10 Minutes Speaker and there are, at least, two good reasons for this.

First, it means that no member, having done their 10 Minutes, leaves the meeting feeling flat and worried that they did a bad job, and second, one question usually leads to a lot more. It just takes that first hand to go up to get the ball rolling; it gives others the confidence, the permission, to ask their question.

So when the 10 Minutes Speaker is presenting, think of a great question to ask. And consider this: there are no stupid questions, other than the one you never ask. The best thing is that your question could mean the difference between a member feeling great or not. And maybe it might even lead to extra referrals for the member. How? Because your question leads to a point of confusion, to all, being made clear, or expands on a point already made that leads to other opportunities.

There really is no downside to asking a question when the Chapter Director says, "Any questions?" So, make sure your hand is the first to go up at your next chapter meeting.

Welcome to Bristol Cook

On the 20th August (I went on holiday the next day) I visited Bristol Cook, a lunchtime chapter, pretty much in the centre of Bristol.

The chapter launched in January and is already thirty strong and it's easy to see why. Led by Sarah Owen, a good friend of mine, and Area Director, the chapter has a real sense of togetherness and everyone seems to like each other. I love their 'Good Egg of the Month' award.

But what I really like is their 'Referral to look for' sheet. The front is fairly standard, other than it is colour coded into Power Groups; what a great idea. However, it's the reverse of the sheet that is really impressive. It's all there.

Leadership Team, 10 Minute Speaker, 60 Second guide and the month's Network Leaders. But it goes much further than that. It then covers the Top 5 Business Givers, the Top 5 Referral Givers and the Top 5 Visitor Inviters. Each has a total: 198 visitors this year. No wonder Bristol Cook is already a 30-strong chapter.

However, once again, there is more. Bar Charts for the Business Givers, Referral Givers and Visitor Inviters. The visuals are so much better than just plain figures.

So, why do I think this is so good? Well, it's simple. The members of Bristol Cook have been accountable from 'Day One', every week they can see their Network Leaders and how well they, as a chapter, are doing. It's just brilliant. What's even better is that the chapter has a good spread of Network Leaders; a sure sign that every member is playing their part in the success of the chapter.

If your chapter doesn't present your chapter figures, at least monthly, with the aid of great visuals you, as a member, are really missing out.

Every business must know its 'numbers' for real success and your BNI chapter is no different.

I look forward to visiting Bristol Cook again and I am positive that when I do it will be a massive success and a Flagship Chapter.

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!

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?

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…

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.