Halloween Meeting Stimulant

A common BNI meeting stimulant involves having members do the infomercial of another member.

The Belleville chapter took that concept to another level.

Since their meeting day fell on Halloween, members were asked to actually BE another member. We’re talking dress like them, talk like them, act like them, and do their infomercial. President Andy Toennies actually ran the meeting, but seated next to him was a team of officers dressed up to impersonate the actual officers.
What followed was a gut-busting version of a BNI meeting, delivered by men in wigs, women with beards, and just enough inside jokes to keep everyone in stitches. Who said BNI can't be fun?

Oh yeah...the chapter passed more than 300 referrals and closed more than $275,000 in business in October. I'd say they were dressed for success.

For more pictures, click here.

Show Me the Money 06-07

Which chapters has the highest Show Me the Money totals from Oct. 2006 to Sept. 2007?

Check out this link to see the Top 10 list.

Does your chapter have a goal for 2007-2008?

Master of Sales Hits #12

Check out The Business Week Monthly Paperback Best Sellers list!!!

5 Steps for Receiving Referrals Properly

Bill Cates has some great things to say about trust and giving/getting referrals. Check out his story below:

How you receive the referrals people give you makes a huge difference in whether they will give you referrals again, and again, and again. I've been writing a lot about your "client experiences" lately. The same goes for how you receive their referrals. If the experience of giving you referrals is a pleasant one - one that they can trust - then they'll do it again.

Here's an easy way to remember these 5 steps in gaining Referral Trust:

T - Treat the new prospect with incredible importance and care. This should go without saying.
The goal is to provide such a great experience for this new prospect, that it reflects well on your referral source. Even if the prospect chooses not to go with you, they should still have great things to say about how you treated them, educated them, verified their previous decisions, etc.

R - Respond immediately. Referrals can have a short shelf life. Do not sit on your referrals.
Once you have an actionable referral - act! If you do not act on your referrals quickly, you run the risk of burning your referral bridge with your client as well as missing an opportunity with the new prospect.

U - Update the referral source on your progress. Keep them involved.
Your referral source wants to know that you followed up. They gave you one or more referrals to either help a friend, help you, or both. They need to know you're moving forward with it. When you make contact with the prospect, let the source know. After you meet with them, tell the source. If the prospect becomes a client, get permission from the new client to tell the source. If you have trouble reaching the new prospect, call the source sooner not later. They will often come to your aid.

S - Send a personal note of thanks along with a small gift.
I've seen 2 studies that demonstrate the value of sending a small thank-you gift to the referral source. Reward the behavior of giving referrals. Don't wait to see if the prospect becomes a client or not. This is not about the money you spend. It's the thoughtful gesture. Just pick something appropriate and not tacky.

T - (new clients) Thank the referral source. When the new client thanks the referral source,
you become more referable. It validates the action of giving referrals and stimulates more referrals. Simply ask the new client to thank the old client (or Center of Influence). Or, you can take both of them out to lunch to celebrate the new relationship.

Top 10 Ways to Say "I Have"

We call the referral part of the meeting the "I Have" part of the meeting because it focuses on positive actions and contributions to the chapter. Of all the things you could possibly say, "I have no referrals today" is not among the top 10.

But here are 10 ideas that could work for you:

1. I have a referral today for __________________________.
2. I have converted a referral to a sale.
3. I have a testimonial for __________________________.
4. I have a written testimonial for __________________________.
5. I have brought a visitor today.
6. I have two addressed invitation postcards that I’m sending to_______________.
7. I have had a MOM with another member.
8. I have scheduled a MOM with another member.
9. I have been to a workshop.
10. I have a networking meeting scheduled for _______________________.

Tracking Your Speaker Rotation

Once your chapter grows to more than 30 members, tracking the little things demands better organizational skills.

This is the form that Chris Baron from the St. Clair County chapter uses to track his speaker rotation. As you can see, their chapter usually does one 10-minute presentation and one or two 3-minute presentations.

On other days, an entire contact sphere is responsible for the speaking time. In addition, that same contact sphere drives visitors to the chapter and explains during their presentation how the visitors make up a valuable but missing link in the chain of services provided. Powerful stuff.

Any system that works is a good one. If you do not have a speaker rotation tracking system in place that is flexible and easy to follow, feel free to copy this document and make it your own.

How Many MOM's Should Our Chapter Be Doing?

Our monthly production reports illustrate two things: 1) many chapters dramatically under report the number of MOM's their members actually do; and 2) many members don't make enough time for MOM's.

Both of which contribute to the myth that you can be successful in BNI without actually building depth to your relationships.

There is a word for people who are looking for the shortcut to building relationships...I call them "ex-BNI members", and if they are not, they will be. The shortcut doesn't exist. MOM's are the absolute minimum essential cost of doing business via relationships.

In terms of chapter production, nothing drives the mechanism for achieving results better than getting your members invested in each other's lives. The simple truth is...

1) If you want to generate more referrals for your members, do more MOM's.
2) If you want to get more referrals, do more MOM's.
3) If you want to get a faster return on your BNI investment, do more MOM's.
4) If you want to build trust with your members, do more MOM's.
5) If you want your networking activity to become more efficient, do more MOM's.

There is just no getting around it.

As leadership teams begin the process of setting goals for the 2007-2008 year, it would be wise to consider the chapter's past performance in terms of the number of MOM's reported each month. Use the "green activity sheet" for recording purposes, and encourage people to participate in the reporting process.

Based on our reports, chapters whose MOM's for the month approach or exceed four times the number of members are bound to be among the most productive. It makes sense, because it means that members are taking the time to learn more about how to help each other. They are taking a proactive approach to finding referrals instead of waiting for referrals to happen...which of course, rarely happens.

How many MOM's should your chapter try to do each month? It depends on what level of performance you are trying to achieve. Do you want your chapter to be average, below average, or a top performer? Use this form to plan your chapter MOM production, and watch all the other performance indicators improve as well. Challenge members to improve this one part of their BNI game plan, and everything else takes care of itself.

Many chapters are setting Show Me the Money Goals for the year...I've heard some as high as $8 million. To the extent that those chapters recognize that MOM's are the gateway to better and more profitable relationships, I have no doubt they can reach those goals.

Masters of Sales Continues to Climb

On Saturday, September 29th, Masters of Sales hit #6 on The New York Times Book Review!

Now, in addition to gaining status as a #1 bestseller on both the Amazon.com bestseller list and the Wall Street Journal’s bestselling book list, and making it into the USA Today list of bestsellers, Masters of Sales has hit the big time as a New York Times bestseller!

Click here to see Masters of Sales in the #6 Best Selling paperback spot on the New York Times Book Review.

Profile of a Top-Producing Chapter

If you are wondering what a top producing chapter looks like, you can look at our monthly production report for September 2007 and draw some general conclusions.

But what if we looked at the 12-month period from Oct. 06 - Sept. 07, isolated the top-producing chapter in each of those months, and then averaged their results to create a real-time profile of what it takes to be a top-producing chapter.

As you set your chapter goals for 2007-2008, keep these numbers in mind:

Chapter size:
Average chapter size - 29.9
Highest -Belleville (42, Feb. 07)
Lowest - Leaders Council (22, Dec. 06)

Referrals:
Average: 185
Highest - Belleville (329, Oct. 06)
Lowest - Leaders Council (93, Dec. 06)

Referral per Member (per week)
Average: 1.6
Highest - Metro East (2.50, April 07)
Lowest - Bigger Net Income (.74, March 07)

Attendance Percentage
Average: 96%
Highest - Springfield Business Connections (100%, June 07)
Lowest - Bigger Net Income (92%, March 07)

MOMs
Average: 142
Highest - Springfield Business Connections (415, June 07)
Lowest - Leaders Council (13, Dec. 06)

Show Me the Money
Average: $466,000
Highest - Metro East ($3 million, Aug 07)
Lowest - Glen Ed ($10,435, Nov. 06)

Visitors
Average: 19.5
Highest - Springfield Business Connections (38, June 07)
Lowest - Leaders Council (3, Dec. 06)

New Members
Average: 2.4
Highest - Bigger Net Income (5, March 07)
Lowest - four chapters tied with 1

Word-of-Mouth = Most Trusted Form of Advertising

A recent survey of nearly 27,000 internet users in global markets asked consumers on their attitudes toward 13 types of advertising - from conventional newspaper and television ads to branded web sites and consumer-generated content.

When asked to what extent the participants trusted different forms of advertising, 78% said that consumer recommendations were the most credible form of advertising.

Word of mouth marketing is a worldwide phenomenon!

Word of mouth, for example, generates considerable levels of trust across much of Asia Pacific. Seven of the top ten markets that rely most on "recommendations from consumers" are in this region, including Hong Kong (93%), Taiwan (91%) and Indonesia (89%). At the other end of the global spectrum, Europeans, generally, are least likely to trust what they hear from other consumers, particularly in Denmark (62%) and Italy (64%).

For more information on the study, click here.

Never Underestimate the Power of DAD

I know, I know, I know...we are not a social organization. The business of BNI is business.

But small groups that are cohesive tend to be more productive than those that are not. One way to build cohesiveness is to share social activities with members of your group.

We joke around and call them DAD's, an acronym that stands for "drink-after-drink" and often carries a negative connotation. But the truth is that members in my most productive chapters find time to invest in EACH OTHER...as well as their friends, spouses, and contacts.

Julie Lohman, the current Vice President of the Belleville chapter, sums it up this way: “No one bothered to mention that it is truly the personal relationships in our chapter that make us strong. Regardless of personality differences, there is not one person in our chapter that I couldn't sit down and have dinner with and thoroughly enjoy myself. We might not have a social agenda at our meeting, but we are a social organization as well as a business referral group.”

Members of the Business Builders Central chapter might agree. These pictures show one of their most recent DAD's, with members enjoying the company of other members in a much more relaxed and informal setting. According to Vice President Tina Marie Jung, scheduling and attending DAD's has not only helped recruit new members, but it has also pushed current members to budget time for networking activities that raise everyone's comfort level for doing business with each other.

"You talk about things that don't come out in a BNI meeting," said Tina Marie. "We talk so much in BNI about how it TAKES time to build relationshhips, but it is easy to forget that we have to MAKE time for relationships to deepen. Our chapter is stronger because of activities like these."

Some chapters have gone so far as to rename the acronym to mean "Deal-after-Deal," which tells you two things: 1) Drinks are optional, and 2) Business is being done.

What does your chapter do to promote goodwill among the members?