After being in BNI for over 8 years and being both an assistant director and my own chapters education coordinator for 3 years, I have found that there was no real place to find education moments that were relevant and new and easy to find. So being the web developer that I am, I started a new website named BNIEducationMoments. This is where I hope to collect all of the education moments I have done and written over the years along with collecting others as well. I feel pretty confident, due to the comments on this blog, that there are a number of others out there that are finding the same problem, along with those of you that have collected and written your own. Go to the website and register for free then submit those that you have. I hope this will be a great place to share education moments world wide. Remember as always “GIVERS GAIN!”

As a director for BNI and visiting a large number of different chapters, I find one thing that seems to stand out with members and their ‘Sales Manager Moment’. What I find is most members ask for referrals in the shotgun method. They want to be as general as possible so to not miss any potential referrals.

Now there is nothing terribly wrong with this method except when you ask members about their referrals, they don’t seem to be extremely happy with the amount they receive. The reason is being too general in what they ask for. Here are 2 different examples, one being a shot gun and the second being a sniper;

1. A photographer stands up during their Sales Manager’s Moment and states “a good referral for me is anyone that needs their picture took.”
2. The same photographer stands up and states “a good referral for me is someone you know that has just gotten engaged or found out they are pregnant.”

Now which one makes you think? The second one does! When the first one is done it does not make you think of anything in general. When the second one is done, you are going through you mind and trying to think of someone that might fit the description.

Another, more effective, way is by asking for a personal introduction to someone specific. A good example would be a computer tech stands and states “I would like a personal introduction to John Doe at ABC Company.” Now there are times when no one in your group will know this person, but maybe they know someone else in that same company. Or maybe they know someone in a competitive company that does the same thing. You never know who someone knows until you ask for someone specific.

I can’t tell you how many times I have told someone to be specific about what they want and who they want to meet, and when the referral time came around, someone said they are best friends with that person, or an old fraternity brother with them, or something just like that. This is from people that you might have known for some time but the name had never come up in conversation.

The point is by being a “Shotgun” you really don’t make anyone think. By being a “Sniper” you will at least get members thinking about what you want.

Who knows, you might just get what you ask for.

BE SPECIFIC, BE TERRIFIC!

This summer, our family took a multi-day, small-ship tour of the Great Barrier Reef near Australia. The first night we noticed that the anchor being used to secure our small ship in the middle of the oral Sea was quite small compared to the size of the ship. 

The second night we were anchored off Hope Island, very strong winds came up. Our captain started the engines and backed the ship up, letting out more length of chain to the anchor. Curious (and I must admit, a bit concerned), I asked him how it was possible for such a small anchor to hold the ship in place with the winds blowing against it so strongly.

“It is the chain that is holding the ship, not the anchor,” he informed me. After the anchor is lowered, the captain looks to the first mate who signals from the prow which direction the chain is laying on the bottom of the sea. The captain can then maneuver into the right position and let out the necessary amount of chain to hold the ship in the particular conditions at that time.

This particular night, with the winds growing stronger, he recognized that he needed to let out more chain.

Well, I began to see how this dynamic was relevant to networking. An anchor in any good networking program is the system, the process of doing business through relationships. But it’s not the system or the process that has the strength at all! It is the length of the chain holding the networking program in place! 

As you take a look at the networking groups you may be participating in, think about the links or relationships, you have formed with the individual members. How many links does your chain have? Do you have strong relationships with many of the other members of the group, or are you closely linked with some, but disconnected and detached from others for whatever reason?

So how do you go about letting out more chain during times when the economic winds have strengthened against our businesses? I submit that it’s time to get serious about developing stronger relationships with each and every member of the networking groups you participate in, even with the people you don’t think have the contacts you might want or perhaps are in a business that is not exactly symbiotic with yours. 

Have you done one-to-ones with those people as well? Spending the time to do one-to-ones with each and every active member of your network helps you develop a longer and stronger chain. Each person in your network is one of the links that lengthens that chain. 

The wisdom of laying down a longer chain to strengthen the ability of the anchor to hold strong is critical for the success of your personal network.

Another aspect of this anchoring process is watching the first mate. Look for networking organizations that have leaders who are qualified to signal the direction the chain is lying as the dynamic in your group changes. Watch for guidance in what adjustments to make to ensure that your network is pointed in the right direction. At one point in our anchoring process while at sea, the first mate literally dove into the water to loosen the chain where it had become hooked on a coral formation. You need qualified people in your personal network who are willing to dive in to help lead a network in the right direction. 

So starting this week, try making your main focus to develop your “relationship  chain” within your personal network.  I guarantee it will be what anchors your business and your networking efforts for longevity, despite economic fluctuations. The old adage that a chain is as strong as its weakest link is true for a ship as well as a network.

Here are the ingredients needed for making money.

Begin with a large membership of trusted business leaders who eagerly recommend other members products or services to their clients. This will be the “Givers“.

Add an organized weekly meeting of “Givers” sharing their requests for new customers and building business relationships. The “Givers” will then pass out new business referrals. This will be the “Gain“.

The resulting product will be the easiest method for obtaining new business opportunities and all members enjoy a huge portion of “Givers Gain“.

I extend to you an invitation to a Business Networking Event with a difference! Be a part of the Trussville Chapter of BNI Visitor’s Day.

 Date:  Friday, January 30, 2009 

Time:  7:00 am – 9:00 a.m.

Place:  St. Vincent’s East, 50 Medical Center Dr, Birmingham, AL 35235 – Main Entrance – 2nd Floor – Conference area adjacent to cafeteria.

Consider having exclusive access to being referred by our many members because filling the open category will lock out your competition.  So, now is the time to visit the BNI Trussville Chapter!

I personally want to introduce you to my colleagues who have already given me more business! The informational meeting will enable you to accurately assess this opportunity of establishing a steady source of referral business and to learn a little more about BNI and why it is so successful it helping businesses grow their client base.

The meeting is free to visit. Please call George Barnett, Chapter Vice-President, 205-856-1720, if you have any questions.  Remember to bring at least 200 business cards to pass around, as you will meet many local business professionals!  

Please feel free to bring others with you who may also be interested in finding out how to generate more business through “word-of-mouth” referrals.  This is a really exciting opportunity for any individual or organization to increase their business!

RSVP – Please RSVP by Tuesday morning to ensure available space.

To make your reservations and directions, you can email me bnitrussville@yahoo.com or call me at (205) 856-1720.

This event is open to all businesses in Jefferson County and surrounding areas including Birmingham, Pinson, Clay, Gardendale, Tarrant City, Irondale, Leeds, Moody, Springville, and others.

“How’s business?” one attendee asked another at a networking event.

“This economy is killing me. We’ve got people canceling right and left and trying to get prospects to buy anything isn’t happening — things better turn around fast.”

The above exchange was real. Although we can probably all agree with the sentiments of the salesperson — fuel prices through the roof, unemployment creeping up and low consumer confidence — talking about these facts can make your personal economy worse. The person who asked, “How’s business?” very likely could have been a prospect. Ouch!

So what’s wrong with telling the truth? A lot! No one (I repeat no one) wants to hear doom and gloom — especially not someone who might want to do business with you.

Could there be anyone worse to share the misery with than a potential prospect? Well you might think your manager or boss tops the list, and you’re right to think they don’t want to hear this bad news (and by the way, they already know about these conditions). What they want to hear is that although times are challenging, you will prevail. They want to hear that you’re doing things to produce the results they pay you for. But the person who is most adversely impacted by this negative nay saying is you!

By even thinking negative thoughts, forget saying them, you put yourself in a mental state of failure. You subconsciously tell yourself the odds are against you, and you are doomed to fail. I’m sure you know that both positive and negative energy are contagious. Your actions reflect your thoughts and people will consciously or unconsciously detect your outlook. Ask yourself would you rather buy from someone who acts desperately to stay afloat or from someone who is convinced of the benefits of his product? From someone who complains about the economy or from someone who makes any economy work for him and his clients?

People want to do business with winners. The average person, including businesspeople, takes great security in doing business with successful businesses. If you’ve ever purchased something from a person or company that has gone out of business, you know what a pain that can be. Minimally it’s going to cost you extra time calling or physically running around to find another service agent. Worse is when you find out that the product can’t be supported at all. There are two simple yet powerful ways that you communicate that you’re a winner or not, that you’re thriving or struggling in this economy: verbally –your choice of words and nonverbally – your choice of dress.

So, better ways to answer “How’s business?”:

“Our new marketing campaign is really taking off” or “Our new marketing campaign is bringing us lots of new customers.” (You don’t have to mention that your “new marketing campaign” is you making dozens of cold calls each day.)

“We’re growing market share?”

“Even with rising costs, we’ve been able to maintain our current pricing.”

Hopefully you can also say, “Customers are raving about our new product.” If you can’t, assuming your product is a good one, solicit positive responses from your customers. This can be done early in the manufacturing process, even before your product has been officially released with a small focus group. It can also be done after your customers have enjoyed and benefited from your product. Once you have obtained these glowing kudos, share them on a regular and consistent basis with customers and prospects.

Why go through this bother? Because people are innately followers. Prospects are drawn to successful businesses and typically follow the positive experiences of others. Successful businesspeople take responsibility for obtaining positive messages and passing them along.

These positive messages will also cheer you up and help you create your own economic boom.

Power Teams?

Why would I want to be in a power team if I am already in BNI?

Why should I meet with my power team if I see them at my BNI meeting?

If you ever grasp the idea of what a power team is and how it works, you will understand the importance it to your  business. It is the heart of each BNI chapter and the source of referrals for everyone in the group.

Source? Yes SOURCE!

Let’s look at what power teams are in your chapter. Every chapter is made up of 5 different power teams;

1. Home services.
   This is real estate, mortgage, home inspections, landscaper, remodeling, HVAC, pest control, or any other category that has to do anything with a home. Most every chapter is strong with this power team.
2. Financial.
   This team includes CPA’s, Financial Advisors, Banks, estate attorney, and anyone else that has something to do with handling money.
3. Personal.
   This team is tougher to build in a chapter. This one includes cosmetics sales, body shops, mechanic shops, auto sales, apparel sales, interior designer, life coach, photographer, and so on.
4. Health and Wellness.
   This group includes most anyone that has to do with health. Chiropractor, cosmetic sales, dentist, fitness trainer, eye doctor, etc.
5. Business Services.
   This final group is the ones that do business with businesses like CPA’s, Banks, computer sales, payroll services, printers, promotional services, business coach, etc.

Now, if you look close you will notice a couple of things. First, each group is doing business with the same type, if not the same, customers. By that I mean the Realtor is doing business with the new home buyer and so can the mortgage person, the home inspector, and so on. This is how the teams are divided up. Second, each member often are in more than one power team, i.e. CPA’s are in both Financial and Business Services.

Everyone has a primary power team, which is where your focus is in business, and most have a secondary power team.

Now here is where the “Power” in power team comes in – 70% of your referrals will naturally come from within your power team! This makes sense since when a house sells, the mortgage person and the home inspector and the real estate appraiser and the closing attorney has a high potential to get a referral, but the auto mechanic and payroll service probably will not. Since this is a fact then it would be beneficial to you to not only build strong relationships within your power team, but also invite people from open categories that would be in your power team. The more in your power team, the more referrals you will get.

This is one important part of networking and building a referral base. BNI power teams are the base of any chapter. The stronger your teams, the stronger your chapter will be.

(The More YOU Give, The More YOU Get!)

1) Your business card holder: don’t leave home without it. Keep it current with cards and referral slips; place the cards of notable networkers in the first and second slots.

2) Wear your name badge one entire day a week (people will ask you about it). Share any results you receive with your chapter and encourage others to do the same.

3) Put up a card holder with each of your chapter members’ cards in your office. Spread the word.

4) Send a follow up letter to everyone that you have been able to refer, and thank everyone (also a subtle way to promote yourself).

5) Hand out your chapter roster to all people you do business with, showing them graphically the variety of services you can refer to them. Teach them that there is more than one reason they should call you.

6) Don’t be a hermit; practice the three-foot rule! In other words, start a conversation with anyone within three feet of you.

7) Get yourself an extra set of eyes and ears! Give your spouse or significant other a set of cards from your chapter.

Whenever you write up a sale, give your BNI cardholder to the client to browse through while you do the paperwork. The client will be drawn to the business cards like a magnet and will ask you about the people and services represented. This gives you a chance to brush up on giving someone else’s presentation.

9) Do a seven-minute phone call to one other member each week and concentrate on getting a referral for that member.

10) Pick one business card each week from the business card holder

11) Make other people in your office, home, and neighborhood aware of how to generate referrals, and keep them informed about members in your chapter.

12) Review your cardholder each morning before your day begins to keep members in mind when speaking to others.

13) When sitting across from clients actually remove the cards from your cardholder and lay them down. Then ask the clients to take any they may be interested in. They are more likely to take the cards if they are out of the cardholder.

14) Power Teams Unite! Team up with another member of your chapter who is in your sphere of interest and take a day off to spend going on calls with the other person. Introduce each other to your clients and offer your services as a team.

One Hour and One Lunch
One week to better business through BNI

SATURDAY
Spend ten minutes working on your tag line. Make it memorable, highlight the needs you fill, and have it recall your brand name.

SUNDAY
Spend ten minutes working on your 60-second presentation. Make sure you include your name, the location of your office, the types of business you want including your 70/20/10 percent activities, and highlight the benefits your service provides and close with your tag line.

MONDAY
Spend ten minutes thinking about which businesses or professionals could refer business to you. If those people are in your group, think about how to strengthen your relationships. If they aren’t, add them to your invite list.

TUESDAY
Pick a member of your chapter and, for ten minutes, think of what you could do to generate more referrals for her. The less you have in common with the member, the better.

WEDNESDAY
Have lunch with one member of your chapter. Meet in one of your offices, not a restaurant.

THURSDAY
Spend ten minutes talking to a non-member about your chapter of BNI—whether she is a potential new member or not. When she has a need, she’ll remember that you are a resource.

FRIDAY
Get to your BNI meeting ten minutes earlier or stay ten minutes later than you planned. If you can’t do that, pick up the phone during the day and spend ten minutes talking to another member about the meeting.

Really: The Referral Process Is Not Difficult to Measure!
By Dr. Ivan MisnerMost everyone who has ever tried to keep a truly accurate count of how many “cold calls” led to actual cash-in-your-pocket sales knows that this is not an easy task.The good news: It is actually quite easy to measure success from referrals! We know this because we’ve designed a networking scorecard for tracking referrals and the business that results from them. You might want to develop a similar one for your own use.On this card you record the nature and source of each referral, how you followed up on it, how you handled it, how you conducted your networking activities (i.e., Did you provide your referral source or contact an article of interest? A thank-you note? A phone call? Lunch? Business?) as well as the end result of these activities. It’s not that hard to analyze what you did and how successful you were in getting business from your referrals!The referral process is about committing to a series of actions designed to create a result (not only for you, but for the other people involved) and then measuring it and improving the system. As long as you track your activities, it’s not that hard to measure the results.The Tipping Point
There’s a concept we use that’s related to the “tipping point” idea for referrals. What’s the difference between 211 and 212? At first glance, you might think, Not much. But there is actually a huge difference: At 211, you just have some hot water … but at 212, you have boiling water.

What can you do with 211-degree water other than make bad coffee and warm up a hot dog? Not too much else. But with 212-degree water, you can make great coffee, sterilize dishes, and start the Industrial Revolution!

Can you feel the difference between 211-degree and 212-degree water by sticking your finger in them? Probably not. But one degree makes a world of difference.

A lot of networkers spend a lot of time “warming up” their referral sources, but since they can’t tell the difference between someone who is and is not quite ready to refer, they waste time and energy on the wrong person. This is why it is extremely important to have a system in place for measuring actions and their results.

How do you know when you’ve done enough to get a referral from a potential source? When you track the results, in many instances you will be able to tell what specific action of yours “tipped the scales” from a potential sale or client to real results. Maybe it was your last thank-you note that made a solid referral source out of your contact. Or maybe it was that tip on a special deal she could get from a new vendor.

You can’t measure feelings per se, but you can discover what made the difference between zero and success. Armed with this knowledge, you can replicate your success at other times and in other settings. In networking, of course, people are different and situations change, but if you track the results under different conditions, you’ll begin to see patterns that will show you how to handle your network.

No Tracking System, No Control
If you choose not to track your results, or perhaps do not track them consistently, you’re essentially giving up control of your referral networking—which is okay if what you’re interested in is shrugging off your own responsibility and finding other people to blame for your failures.

If you can’t connect success or failure to your own activities, it’s easy to say, “This would have worked if my referral source had prepared the prospect!” Or “The reason I failed is that nobody told me what I needed to know!” In reality, your failure to adequately train your referral partners and gather the information you needed to know is directly tied to your failure to set up a way to measure results.

Good referral networking is a lot like luck. As most people realize over time (some sooner than others), “good luck” happens to those who have worked hard to prepare for it. If something happens “by chance,” such as a good referral, go back and track it. There was probably some series of events (over which you either did or could have had control) that brought you the “good luck.”

Even though we admit that, every now and then, for reasons you can’t document, you’ll get some business out of the blue—even a blind squirrel can find a nut sometimes—it’s hard to write a business plan around that. (“I’ve got this great business, doing millions of dollars. How do I do it? I don’t know. Want to do business with me?”) Don’t be blind to your referral marketing; make sure to plan this part of your business.

The networking scorecard mentioned in this article is part of the Certified Networker Program offered by The Referral Institute. For more information, visit www.referralinstitute.com. For more information on “the tipping point” and the difference one degree can make, read Malcom Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point.Called the father of modern networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the founder and chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest “New York Times” best selling book, Masters of Sales, can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.