Slot 13: Potential

We are just about half way through the current BNI term so there is a chance that the group might be getting used to your presentations. Its time to start upping the ante a little. On a presentation skills course I attended years ago I was told that a visual prop is one of the most powerful ways of being remembered. Since I can't remember anything else from the course I assume it to be correct. It might take a bit of effort -- but try and get your hands on a lump or iron or metal to bring to this weeks presentation.

I have here before me a lumb of iron. Can anyone tell me how much it might be worth?

Its probably worth about ten euro. Has anyone any idea as to how we could make more money out of this lump of iron?

Well we could melt it down and turn it into horse shoes. It might double in value. Can anyone think of how we could make more money out of it? Maybe turn it into screw drivers its worth 250 euro. Go again - melt it down and turn it into needles and it is worth more than 3,000 euro. Think we could make more out of it?

How about we turn it into balance springs for watches and it becomes worth more than 250,000 euro.

Can anyone think of anything else that has potential to generate 250,000 euro worth of business?

[wait for someone to suggest their BNI membership ]

Thats right. But is everyone's BNI membership worth 250,000 euro? No. Some people's is worth 10 euro. The only problem is - you pay more than 60 times that to have it. In other words - your BNI membership has potential - it is up to you how much you make of that potential.

Slot 12: Know, Like, Trust

I wish there was an easier way to break this to you. The BNI is a bit of a sham. Unfortunatly - many of you may have been under false impressions. Perhaps you thought that the little brown referral slips were part of the secret to getting more business by word of mouth. Perhaps you thought it was the business card folder that made sure new clients came your way. You might even have thought that your lapel badge was the secret to networking success.

In reality - none of that is true. You see - people are people and all the BNI does is to put some structure around what happens 'in the wild' naturally. In truth, we all get referrals every day and we pass them on to people who wouldn't know a BNI meeting if it hit them in the face. So lets think about how referrals work 'au natural'.

1) You get to know someone in a pub, playing sport or just through friends. They seem like an amiable type and after a few more meetings you start to ...
2) ... like them. You organise a few social events together. Hang out or maybe just go for a coffee. After some time you eventually get to ...
3) ... trust them. They seem like a decent type. They turn up to the match on time, know how to play super mario cart on the hardest setting. You have the measure of them.

It is only then that you feel like you can recommend them to someone else. You wouldn't recommend someone you did not know. You wouldn't even recommend someone you did not like. You certainly wouldn't recommend someone you did not trust.

The same is true for the our merry little band. We all know each other because we turn up every week. Ask yourself this question though - how many people in this room do I actually like? More than that - how many people do I trust?

How do you get to like and trust someone? By getting to know them. That is easily done but takes some effort Thankfully this doesn't need to be a chore. A one-2-one is a great way to get going. Better again, when we do organise a social event for the chapter - make the effort to get along so that you can learn to like and trust the members in the group. That can only happen to a certain point stuck behind a table at 7am in the morning. Interaction outside of the room is the real key to generating real referral work in the chapter.

Slot 12: Test and Measure

We are deep into the midst of the BNI season now and there is some chance that the members have become used to your presentation style. They have mine - so it is time to spice things up a little by bringing in some help. I have enlisted a trusty member to help me out. I start a lot of my education slots with questions. This one will be no different except I have primed Dave to stand up and give a full explanation of his answer complete with hand hand gesticulations.

James: Has anyone heard of the term test and measure?
Dave: I have James. It refers to a commonly used marketing practice aimed at improving business processes.
James: What does that mean?
Dave: Well, sometimes, when successful it can be hard to know what you did right. Trying this and that randomly can make it hard to figure out what tactics are successful and which ones should be binned. By testing a strategy to generate more business and then measuring the results you can decide whether or not you should keep up with it.
James: So give me an example.
Dave: Well a good example might be how we have been sending out letters to invite visitors along.

Now it is time to flip back to Everybody has a Number and step through the process of sending out a letter. You should have had a few people try the technique and now is a good time to ask how they got on. How successful was it. What made it work for some and not for others etc. At the end - you can decide whether or not to keep going with it - or ditch it.

Slot 11: Strength vs Weakness

In any group of people there is bound to be some friction. This is also true for a BNI group but sometimes it is just down to perception.

Can you give me a couple of the duties and responsibilities. Can you suggest a few of them.

You will get some of the following:

• Turn up on time
• Give referrals
• Bring visitors
• etc

Who in the room is left handed? [wait]. Now I am right handed and I'd like to challenge you to a right handed arm wrestle. Sound fair?

Of course it is not. I am comparing my strength - (my right hand) with his weakness (his right hand). In a similar way - it is worth remembering that before getting annoyed with other members for not bringing referrals or visitors - to consider what strength they do have. Everyone brings something to the table.

Slot 9: Networking Four Letter Words

This education slot doesn't take itself too seriously and can be a good way to raise a smile or two.  You will need a white-board or flip chart and a marker.  Before the meeting starts, draw out in four lines, four 'hangman' style spaces.  Each is going to represent a four letter word.

Good morning chapter.  I'm going to talk about sweaing this morning.  Its not appropriate in a business settings and there and there has been far too much of it in the 60 second presentations around the table these days so I thought that it would be worth while going over some of the networking 'four letter words' that you should never use in your presentation. 

Stride up to the board and take out a pen.  Then ask 

Can anyone tell me the first four letter word?

Whatever you do - don't let anyone answer.  Instead, write up on the board 'AN' 'Y' 'BO' 'DY' - in each of the spaces where one letter should go.  

Asking a referral from 'anybody who ....' is a sure fired way of blending into the background.  We meet anybody's every day of the week and 'anybodies' never remind of us our referral partners.  Instead we need to be far more specific.

'SO' 'M' 'BO' 'DY" - just as bad as anybody - somebody is equally bland and banal.  Instantly forgettable and won't help generate business for you.

'N' 'O' [you will have to make it stretch across the spaces.  We don't want to know about what you don't have.  It is just as bad as another four letter word 'NO' 'TH' I' 'NG'.  This is the 'I have ...' part of the meeting.  I have no doubt that you have contributed towards the chapter in some way this week - so now is a good time to focus on it.

So lets cut out the swearing in our 60 presentation today.

Slot 8: Attention Please!

Last week we went through how to break down your contacts into groups of people who could find you most work. We're going to figure out how we can best serve our 'A' listers with a simple tip.

So last week we learned how to break down our contact lists into A, B's, C's and D's.

Did anyone go through the exercise? Well - whether you have or not - I want you to write down on a sheet of paper at least a preliminary 'A' list. Just come up with 5 - 15 names of people you think are in the best position to refer work to you. Some of the people on your list will be sitting here right now in this room. Some will not.

No we know that the best way to stimulate and motivate these people to find work for us - is to find work for them. How do we do that? There are several ways. This week I'm going to show you just one.

[Now for this part of the demonstration I am going to use a youtube video. The video demonstrates how important it is to focus on what you are looking for. You can see the video at http://www.dothetest.co.uk/].

[Alternatly you can write this text up on the flip chart before the slot. Make sure it is covered by another sheet of paper. You will ask the audience to count the number of times they see the word success in the text . Uncover the text and then cover it again.

"There once was a time when people of the business network were sad. No mattter what they tried, they were never able to get the things they really wanted. Then one day they learned the secrets of success and the sale of Prozac and Zoloft came to a stand still"

Once covered- ask the room how many times the letter t was used. Few will get this right.]

Now what does all this tell us about finding work for our 'A' list referrers? It tells us that if we truely want to grow our business, and truely want to help doing this by finding work for our best referrers - we need to come up with a way of placing focus on them.

Now - lets brainstorm three ways you can place attention on your best customers EVERY DAY to start finding more work for them.

1.
2.
3.

Slot 7: The A, B, C and D's of networking

Networking like a maniac? Not getting the rewards - lets look at what might be going wrong and see how we can stop being so manic and more strategic about our networking activities.

At the begining of this BNI term I sent out a survey asking you what you would like to learn about. Second on the list, aside from how to invite more visitors, was "how do I get more referrals?". You guys all obviously get networking. You have a strong contact group here who can act as a core part of your networking strategy. You may be attending other networking events and be going hell for leather. Unfortunatly - its not just about paying up, turning up and sending out invoies. You need a strategy for networking - just like you would need a strategy for any marketing activity. I'm going to give you the strategy.

1. It all starts with a list. List out all of your contacts. You might have 100 or 250 of these. Where can you find them?
1. Your invoicing software
2. Your address book
3. Your social club
4. Your networking organisation
2. Don't stop until you have at least 100 names. In know you didn't do step 1 properly so go back and check out
   
1. Your mobile phone
2. Your phone bills (for numbers)
3. Your chamber of commerce
3. Now that you have your names we are going to prioritise them into A, B, C and D lists. Can anyone tell me what these lists are? [Wait for someone to claim they should be ordered by how much money they spend with you - then tell them they are wrong - aren't you so smart ;)]. We order them by their ability to pass referrals.
4. The A list are the top 10% (10 - 15 names) by their ability to pass you referrals. These guys are likely to pass you six referrals in a year. (one every two months).
   
5. The B list are the next 20 - 25% who have an ability to pass you one lead a year.
6. The C list is the remaining 50%. These guys you need to market to. They don't deserve your face to face contact but they do deserve some general marketing attention.
7. The remaining 10%-20% are wasting your time. FIRE THEM.

When you have a clear idea of who your top networkers are - you are in a position to spend your time more wisely. There should proabably by up to 5 of your A list in this room today. Maybe its only 1 but there should be at least 1. Then look after that A list. Focus on them. How do we do that?

By finding THEM business.

Givers gain.

Slot 6: Who to invite?

It can be difficult to come up with a list of names of people you should invite along to a BNI meeting. Pre-qualifiying people out of the loop can rule potentially great visitors before they even have a chance to come along and have a look.

As I mentioned previously - I've been using a sheet to track my success in inviting visitors along. At the moment my sheeet looks pretty empty and it started me wondering who I could possibly invite. A few names popped into my mind but I started to 'prequalify' them. In other words - I assumed that they would or would not be interested in attending the chapter. So its worth considering who exactly is worth inviting along.

1) Potential member: This is someone who lives or works in the area, who's slot is not represented and you could recommend. Bulseye.

2) Tourist: This is someone who may not want to join for various different reasons. Either you reckon the mornings would not suit them or they would not get any business. An example might be a priest. I'm not sure how many God fearing chistrians we have here - but its safe to assume that you are not going to referr your soul at 7am in the morning. However - down in cork last quarter - 3 priests did attend a meeting. They provided great contacts to the 'wedding mafia' in the chapter (photographer, event manager etc) and also recommended the meeting to a parishioner who then became a member.

3) Hunter: This is someone who comes along with the soul intention of promoting their business without buying into the gives gain mentality. That person may even be from another chapter. Their attitude is to try and hoover up as much work as possible and scat.

In short - we do want potential members and tourists - they are both really add to the meeting. The only people you want to discourage are hunters.

Slot 5: Lose weight or grow your chapter

While I am no management consultant - there is a thing or two I've learnt about making a chapter grow and included in that is the importance of measuring your progress. Luckily - measuring your progress is just as useful for growing your business as it is for growing your BNI chapter. Herein lies the spiel.

Has anyone here tried to lose weight recently? Don't answer that. Whether you have or not -I think we all know it is a bit of a struggle. There are hundreds of ways to lose weight. From sea-food diets to Atkins diets - there seems to be a diet for every day of the week. Thankfully - the clever boffins at an American Iveay League University have done the hard work for us. We don't have to guess. They put a whole slew of techniques through their paces. Everything from just weighing yourself every morning to depriving yourself of dairy products.

Would you like to know the MOST successful technique of ALL tested?

It was simply weighing yourself. If you attempted to change nothing else in your diet but simply focused your attention on your weight every day for a few seconds - the weight would fall off.

Interesting - but what has that got to do with me. Well -as it happens - measuring yourself isn't just good for weight loss. It turns out that it works for pretty much any improvement you are trying to achieve. Peter Drucker claims "What gets measured gets done." and he is right.

Is there anything we are trying to improve as a chapter? [wait for them to respond - hopefully with the refrain of "growth"]. Great - well I have brought along something to help you improve your ability to invite visitors. Track it. I will leave this document here which is a way for you to track how well you are doing inviting-wise. If you use this sheet - and fill up all fifteen slots with people you have invited - you should have a new member at the end of it.

IF YOU FIND IT HARD TO INVITE VISITORS - THIS WILL HELP - and not just a little. A lot.

Slot 9: Six steps to more business

I got this education slot from David O'Dell, a UK BNI director. I like the X ways to achieve Y type slots. They have good structure and you can spin through them quickly enough. David recommends starting off with a question - so here it goes

Is anyone here because they don't have enough friends?

No? Then why are you here?

Thats right - to make money. Assuming you have picked up a few friends along the way - I'm going to give you six steps to making money in the BNI. If you are not getting the referrals you would like or want to get more business - consider these.

1) Know: How do you get to know your fellow members? [wait for answers and write them up]

2) Like: If you do the above, have a positive attitude and turn up every week, members will start to LIKE you.

3) Trust: If you feel that the members don’t know you well enough – go back to step 1.

4) What you do! How do they find out what you do?

121’s, 6.30 – 9.30, 60 secs & 10 mins

5) What you want! Specifically the business you want, with company names & job titles if possible

6) What to say? What do members need to say to get the 3rd party to take your call. Feeder line plus ‘shall I ask him/her to give you a call?’

Slot 4: Category Conflict

Last weeks presentation on how to invite a visitor using a letter went down pretty well. About half the members volunteered to try it out next week. While they do - I thought I would cover off on something that crops up in every chapter - conflicting categories. Rather than wait for this problem to bubble up I'm going to address it now.

This morning I would like to discuss intimidation. Lets face it - we all feel intimidated from time to time. In the BNI you are most likely to feel intimidated when someone in your group starts to pitch for work that looks like it should belong to you - or at least you think it should belong to you. After all - if you are shelling out the big bucks to be a member - you deserve all the work you can get your grubby little mits on. So lets talk about categories and how to avoid that sinking feeling.

The first step in handling category conflicts is to get it straight in your own head as to what it is YOU are looking for. What is your USP and what makes you different. The most successful businesses are those that excel at providing a particular benefit. Of all the services you provide - there is probably (or should be) one or two that you really are the best at. Don't try to be a jack of all trades but a master of one. We're only interested in referring work to masters - not jacks. Once you have identified what you can do for the group that really makes you stand out - it becomes easy for members to find work for you and have confidence that you will provide the best possible quality service. For example, in some chapters you will find that there could be two printers - one lithographic and one digital. Each focuses on their particular strengths. In our own chapter you we have two solicitors - one commercial and one private. In these cases it often happens that those that in the closest supposed competition can refer work to one another.

The second step to chapter harmony is to seek clarification as to who does what within the chapter. If you are uncertain as to where a referral should find a home - ask. If you receive a piece of business that should be directed to someone else in the chapter - say so. We are attempting to build good will and trust in the group. Acting in this way will do wonders for your credibility amongst those that share services with you. Instantly they will feel secure in the knowledge that they should not be threatened by you. This will lead to them relaxing and finding ways to find work for you in return.

If you do want to pass business to someone outside of their category - DON'T pass it as a referral. This goes for cross chapter referrals also. It will come up in the reality check and will damage your relationships within the chapter.

In the mean time - don't be intimidated - be profitable. Next week I will do some work on helping you to figure out your USP.

Slot 3: Everybody has a number

At last weeks meeting I put some numbers up on the board. I asked what techniques people had for inviting visitors and we evaluated them based on how effective they were. 'Being persistant' and calling people every two months or so seemed to work well. The most consistently successful approach however was using a letter to invite someone. This week I want to cover how to use a letter to invite someone to a chapter. Before I do though - I want to try and dispel the myth that some people are just 'bad at bringing visitors'.

Last week we covered a couple of approaches to inviting a visitor. I promised that I would tell you a secret about using letters to invite people. Before I do though - I want to give you a absolutely sure fire method of bringing visitors along. This sure fire method is to 'ask enough peope'. Not very glamarous. What 'enough' is - is really dependent on you and the techniques you use to bring invite people.

I would like everyone to take out a pen and write down now what 'enough' means for them. In other words - think about the number of visitors you have brought along - and how many people you had to invite to get those visitors. For example - I know that I have to invite five people, on average, to get one visitor.

[Now ask for the numbers that have been written down. ]

Who has 5 as their figure? How has less than that as a figure? Who has more? Who has 6 or 7 as a number? Who has 9 or 10? Who has more?

[You will no get some high number. Someone will be finding it hard and might claim that they have to invite 20 people in order to get one along].

Right -now here is the problem. Asking [20] people along each week is a tall order. Its too much really. So what we need to do is to share experience so that we improve our conversion rate. Let us cover the number one way to improve upon that figure - and then I'll tell you a secret.

1. Step one is to generate names for your campaign. Look at your customer list, people you are scheduled to meet during the week, contacts from flyers that come in the door etc. One you have, say 10 names. Put them down on a sheet of paper. IT IS CRITICAL TO WRITE THAT NUMBER DOWN.

2. Step two is to write up the BNI invitation letter. I will send out a link to this letter which you can customise.

* Anyone know what step 3 is? [Wait for someone to say 'put it in the post']

3. Step 3 is not to send out your letter but bring it along to the meeting and show it as part of your contribution.

4. Is to send it out.

5. Is to precede the letter arriving with a phone call. "I'm sending you something in the post - watch out for it" - is all you have to say. THEN GET OFF THE PHONE.

6. Call up on the following monday (once they should have received the letter) and ask them if they would like to come along.

7. If they say 'yes' - then phone Tony (our chapter director) and ask him to confirm their attendance on the afternoon before the meeting.

That is it. Sound like work? Of course it is. It is a lot of work. But so is asking 20 people each week. It is far more effective to ask five properly by using this technique.

Right - want to know what the secret is? This is it. A number of years ago - a BNI director was setting up a new chapter and the entire chapter was using this technique together. There was a mix up - and the letters remained in the post office instead of getting sent out.

How did the campaign go?

Brilliantly. Depsite the fact that the letters did not arrive- the campaign achieved a 4 out of 5 hit rate. So what does this tell us?

[someone suggests that you don't need the letters]

Wrong - when they tried again - without letters the campaign was a failure - with a 1 in 10 hit rate. So what made the difference? [ask for some reasons why the campaign might have failed]. The secret to the letters is - it shows openly to the group that you have made an effort. By doing that you are publically putting yourself under pressure to follow up properly and get the visitors in.

Slot 2: The Results are in

Having dutifully handed out my survey last week - this week I plan on presenting the results and getting started with a little bit of education on the most favorite topic according the the feedback - inviting visitors. Now - in my humble opinion - inviting visitors is simply a numbers game. I've found it easy to get La visitor along in the past - all I have had to do is ask 5.

I guess that is a truth that everyone in my group already knows on some level. In reality - asking one person to come along (let along five) can be a daunting prospect for some. To ease us on to the topic therefore - I'm going to do a few mock interviews. It will go something like this ...

Last week I handed out a survey and the results are in. At number three spot with 3 votes was 'How to convert a visitor'. Runner up was 4 votes was 'How do I get more referrals?'. The top dog - perhaps unsuprisingly was : 'How to invite a visitor' - with 5 votes. I've taken note of the other topics and we'll roll out some education on them over the coming months. In the mean time - it seems like we would most like to focus on inviting a visitor. With that in mind - let us take stock of how we have been doing so far.

We have a lot of experience here in the room so I thought I would ask what 'strategies' people have been using to find people to ask along.

[at this point - whip out a marker and whiteboard/flip chart and start to write down all the suggestions that people have had. It can help to seed a few. For example - I know someone in our group has been following up on flyers that come through the door. Mark up the strategy and ask for more examples. Someone who has sent out letters or gone through a client list might be good candidates to speak up here. Then - beside each strategy - put the number of times it has been used. Eg: if someone calls one person a week based on a flyer that came through the door - that would translate to 5 a month. Then ask how successful - or what conversion rate that strategy had acheived. Do the same for each of the strategies. It should become clear which strategies are most effective.

So here we have a few stragegies - and their effectivness. It looks like [strategy A] is a great strategy but coming up with leads to employ it is difficult. [Strategy B] is easy to generate leads but the conversion rate is low. I would ask everyone to pick one strategy from the board this week - try it out. Next week I will ask you how it went.

Slot 1: Set the scene

No going back now. There are about 25 education slots ahead of you (and me). The good news is that you do not need to carry the can completely. If delegation isn't a word in your vocabulary - get out the dictionary. You do need to set the scene however and provide some kind of structure for your tenure. One very good reason to do a little leg work on this now is - you need to do this job well. It needs to appear structured and professional. If you don't - instead of boosting referrals you will receive - you are going to look like a twat. The education slot is an extremely important part of the whole meeting. If there are visitors on board - its pretty much the first piece of 'entertainment' they will get. Not that you have to be a stand up comedian. Instead you do have to provide some value to the group.

For my first session I have decided to do a little bit of market research on my group and find out what it is exactly they are looking for. I've loaded up the printer with some ink and prepared a survey. You can get a copy here.

Along with the survey - here is the script I will use. I've included some bits about what the education slot is for and how the membership can use it.

Good morning everyone. I'm back for another stint as the education co-ordinator. Taking a page from Pat Shannon's book (Pat is an ex member of our chapter) - I have come up with a simple survey. You guys are going to be listening to me every week for the next 25 weeks or so. I thought it only fair to give you a chance to pick out what you would like to hear about. I have come up with 25 topics which I would like you to rate. Mark each with either a 1, 2 or 3 depending on how useful you might find it. Just leave a blank if you don't think you need to hear my insights on the subject.

One more thing I wanted to mention before I finish up this morning. I just want to explain what the ed-slot is for. Basically - I'm here to relay the perceived wisdom of the BNI to the members. Specifically - the leadership team may feel like they would like to focus on a particular area. For example - lets say we want to improve our 60 second presentations, Tony (our chapter director) might ask me to give a few hints. Of course - I'm perfectly within my rights to delegate that back to him. I will try and call on the expertise within the room as much as is possible - so you might well be asked to pitch in . That is my lot.

Have a great morning guys.

The 'have a great morning' bit might be over-egging it but its strange with what you can get away with in the confines of a BNI meeting ;)

The Ed slot is good for business. It really is. The extra visibility in the meeting means that you do get a better supply of referrals than your average member. It also means that there will be a few hectic late night scrambles across the internet to find something worthwhile to empart.

I've already done one stint as an Education co-ordinator - and in an effort to raise the bar this time around - I am going to start blogging my efforts. With a bit of luck - if you are also an newly minted Education Co-ordinator - you might find something you can use for yourself.

If you do find something useful here - don't forget to make a post and give some feedback. Someone else might find it useful.