Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

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.

Monday, April 21, 2008

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?’


Thursday, April 17, 2008

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.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

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.

Sunday, April 6, 2008

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.