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.

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