Commercials vs. Infomercials

In MSP training, we talk about the difference between Tier 1 referrals (self to member; member to self) and Tier 2 referrals (outside contacts). Tier 1 referrals are finite and limited to the number of people in the chapter, yet doing business with other members of the chapter is one of the most important ways of building trust.

Tier 2 referrals are infinite. Your ability to access the rolodex of your members and visitors depends partly on the trust they have in you. As members demonstrate during MSP, gaining access can be accelerated with a specific infomercial that actually targets key contacts and challenges members to think about who they know. This is the primary difference between an infomercial and a commercial, which simply advertises a product or service.

Think about how we are conditioned to tune commercials out. When we are watching TV, do we give commercials our full attention, or do we flip to one of 1,000 other channels available? Or perhaps we switch to a movie channel that has no commercials? Getting people’s attention is hard enough. When we sound like a commercial, we are fighting an uphill battle.

A strong infomercial is the member’s primary opportunity to target and cultivate more Tier 2 referrals. Why, then, do so many members settle for delivering a commercial instead of an infomercial?

Five reasons come to mind:

1) Commercials are right-handed activities (I say this because I am right-handed). They come easily, thoughtlessly, like our signature on a piece of paper. An infomercial is a left-handed activity. We have to stop, think about it, even struggle a little….just enough to keep people from working at it. When something natural is available, we gravitate toward that. Ironically, results do not even come into play.

2) Commercials produce results…sometimes. But the results are based on luck, and luck runs out. If you sell commercial insurance, and you stand up every week to tell people you sell commercial insurance, sooner or later a member will be in a position to refer business to you. But if you take a more proactive approach and request to meet the owner of XYZ restaurant, you take responsibility for targeting the kind of prospects you want to do business with. Even if you miss, you have used your time more wisely.

3) Members don’t know the difference. Intellectually members understand the concept of infomercials versus commercials, but not experientially. In other words, until they do it and get results, they will never experience the power of a different strategy. After MSP training, members are rarely challenged to embrace or practice these principles. Many revert to their natural right-handed activities.

4) Members don’t have time to prepare an infomercial. As busy as we are, we tend to have time for things that are most important. When we take a proactive approach to building our network and targeting customers, we get better results. Making time to get better results is true in just about any discipline, and it is certainly true in BNI. Referrals don’t just happen. We either learn to make them happen, or we don’t.

5) Members would rather do what everyone else is doing. In small groups, we have a natural tendency to conform. In one chapter, every member ends their infomercial by giving their business phone number. My guess is that one person did it, and soon everyone else followed along. Which would you rather have: a referral and no phone number (which you can easily find) or a phone number and no referral? Rather than rock the boat, new members eager to "fit in" judge the rules of proper conduct more by what they “see” than by what they have been told at MSP. And the cycle of ineffectiveness continues.

When members leave BNI, a common parting thought they share with me is “I’m not making any money.” A strong infomercial is where Tier 2 referrals and the money-making begin. It takes time and effort, but so does everything else we value.