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Sometime later, you call the prospect and introduce yourself: “Hello, Ms. Prospect, my name is John Businessman. Larry Source recommended I call you. I’m an accountant…”

Handling referrals this way, as you might expect, gets minimal results. Your chance of converting the referral into a customer will be greater if your referral source:

1. Makes the initial contact with the prospect (his acquaintance) to assess her need and, if appropriate, alerts her that you will be getting in touch;

2. Sends the prospect background information about you and your business;

3. Lets the prospect know the nature of his relationship with you;

4. Gives the prospect a brief description and endorsement of your products or services;

5. Arranges to introduce the prospect to you;

6. Follows up with the prospect after you contact her.

Unfortunately, if you don’t ask your prospective referral source to do some of these things, he probably won’t – not because he isn’t willing, but because he doesn’t know how these actions could make a big difference; doesn’t have enough information about you or your business, or simply doesn’t know how.

Make it your goal to communicate to your sources the actions you wish them to take and then provide them with all the materials necessary to accomplish those actions.

If you do this, I guarantee you’ll get better-quality referrals that will more quickly turn into actual business

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“Crackle, snap and pop” is good – you will attract new members no matter how small you are. “Ho Hum” is bad, very bad. You will lose members, no matter how big you are.

I talk to hundreds of BNI members and they all tell me that they come to BNI for referrals, but they also come to the meetings because it’s their weekly booster and a chance to mix and mingle with other like-minded businesses owners.

The problems begin when we all start to get a bit familiar with each other. When we start to stand up and say “I’ve done this so many times, you all know how my business works”. No, no, no – this is very bad. When this happens it’s time to shake things up a bit.

One way to do this is to introduce regular meeting stimulants (located on the www.bni.co.nz) website. Another is to applaud everybody’s 60 second – it may seem lame or ‘uncool’ but it gets the blood pumping and the pulse beating. It injects ENERGY!!!

If your visitors come to a meeting and have fun, they’ll stay no matter how small your chapter is. If your members come to a meeting and they have fun, they’ll also stay.

No fun, no referrals.

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When you are trapped at an event where people are milling around, acting formal and sterile and unwilling to open up to genuine relationship building, scrap any negative reaction (”I shoulda stayed home”) and instead anoint yourself as the event’s host, even if only in your own head.

Imagining that it is your role to help other guests break through gives you permission to act a little bit differently – you’re acting in service of the entire event to make sure everyone has a good time.  Assume an aura of relaxed self-assurance while you make sure everyone has a drink and someone to talk to.  Find out what they’re looking to do and who they’re looking to meet and make introductions.  Start conversations.

Even if it is not in your basic DNA to be the life of the party, appointing yourself to the “job” of making sure that the event is a success can be the kick in the pants you need to inject some energy into a failing function. Whether or not you’re able to transform the event, you’ll certainly transform your own experience of it.

How have you transformed a bad networking event?

LINK TO KEITH’s WEBSITE

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There are many ways in which you can tell if your chapter is healthy or not, but the number of visitors your chapter has each week is an easy way of telling if your chapter is growing or in decline.

Over the long term three or more visitors each week mean the chapter is growing, whereas two or fewer visitors mean that the chapter is in decline. Now you may be wondering why this should be the case and the answer is simple. On average all chapters lose one member per month.

Now before you say ‘Not my chapter!’ remember I said on average. Some chapters don’t lose that number, but then others lose more. In fact, my own chapter has lost four members in the past month – it really does happen! So, during the term of a Leadership team, your chapter could lose up to six members (maybe more).

Therefore, just to remain a group of the same size, you need six new members. Now, again on average, one out of every five eligible visitors will join your chapter. However, we all get a lot of ‘other’ visitors as well, so the joining rate is actually more like one in every eight visitors.

LINK TO BLOG

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Professional associations, or knowledge networks, have been around longer than almost any other kind of group, from the medieval guilds to crafts associations to today’s professional groups and industry associations.  The primary purpose is for the exchange of information and ideas, whether intraindustry or interindustry.

Some of these groups limit membership to their own industry, but quite a few groups that represent industries other than your own will allow you to join as an associate member (as opposed to a full member). This can put you in contact with a concentrated target market, including many top-quality potential contacts.  Many of your best current clients, looking for their own competitive edge, may be members of industry associations.  Ask them which open-membership groups they belong to, and try to join a few of them. This can give you an opportunity to meet prospects of the same quality as your clients.

The other part of your knowledge network should be groups in your own industry. Yes, you’ll be rubbing elbows with competitors, but there are advantages.  You’ll stay abreast of developments in your industry, find out what your competitors are up to, study the competition’s brochures and presentations, and discover opportunities to collaborate with competitors whose specialties are different from yours or who need help on a big project.

Knowledge networks present great networking opportunities. So if you’re looking to build more relationships and increase your word of mouth, start investigating local professional associations today, and find out which ones you might be able to join.

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BP doesn’t check water levels of vehicles on their forecourt, no matter how desperate the need of their customers (even the elderly) because the ‘rules and regulations’ don’t allow it… this blind adherence to bureaucracy landed BP on national television news, in national newspapers, on national radio.

It has not gone down well with the public, despite BP’s position that the ‘safety of their staff’ comes first (obviously they don’t believe their staff have the ability to act with common sense in assessing the situation).

Rules there may be, but if you want to receive goodwill (like positive word of mouth), you have to exercise goodwill. That means going the extra mile.

Sometimes we may not even get a thanks for ‘going that extra mile’. The customer may not give it a second thought. Our act of ‘bravery’, ‘goodwill’ or ‘initiative’ may go forever unappreciated… to all outward appearances.

But, and it’s a big BUT, I don’t believe any act of giving ever goes ‘unappreciated’. The customer will return (because you’ve not given them any reason not to); and each act of giving will build up your own character and habits and it will shape the kind of person you become.

So the more giving we become, the more it will come back to us. “Do unto others…”

My point? Your goodwill and your acts of giving may have limited effect on the recipient, but that doesn’t matter because each act is first and foremost an investment in yourself.

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Say I knew roughly everything that was still going to happen. What would I do differently? Write a book immediately, or start a business and make sure I was very wealthy by the age of 20… but would I?

I would know when and where I was going to meet my wife Ursula, for example. Would I do anything differently? Probably not, because if I did, would that jeopardise one of the best things that’s every happened to me? Would it jeopardise the future existence of my children, friends, family – people I love, know and like?

Would my doing things differently jeopardise their very existence?

It was at that point that I realised the chance to do it differently is no dream at all, but a nightmare. Why? Because everything we are – even in business – is distilled down, in its purest essence, to the relationships we have. I would be terrified of missing out on all those people I’ve come to know, like or love.

They say we come in to this world with nothing, and we leave with nothing. It’s not true. We all come into this world with relationships, and we all leave with relationships. How healthy they are is up to us.

Networking, business, referrals, selling, marketing… it’s also all relationships.

If something is failing in your life, like business, referrals or sales – look to your relationships and you’ll probably find the problem there.

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Chairman of BNI, Dr Ivan Misner, recently gave BNI members some good advice on becoming involved with local chambers of commerce.

In addition to joining a referral networking group, you should also consider further diversifying your network by joining your local chamber of commerce. A chamber provides a broad membership base but usually within a defined geographic area, such as a town or a county. Depending on the nature of your business, this kind of local membership could be of significant importance.

Unlike a referral networking group, professional society or trade association, a chamber does not limit the number of people who can join from any one profession or industry. The local membership may include, for example, several commercial interior designers. Membership in this chamber of commerce would thus give you an opportunity too meet more than one prospect for your word-of-mouth marketing team.

Chambers conduct social and business events where you can socialize and develop relationships. Becoming a member of a chamber of commerce provides opportunities to give back to the community and capitalize on significant member benefits; serving in the leadership raises your recognition, visibility and credibility, as well as that of your business.

So make it a point to investigate your local chamber of commerce. Find out where the office is and request membership information. Ask for the names of members you can contact. Attend an event or two to see whether the membership is a good fit for you; for a small fee, you can probably visit a chamber mixer. Take your time, do your homework and locate a chamber that knows how to hold networking events and has strong membership. Membership is not free, but it’s far less expensive than traditional advertising.

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My fellow BNI director Brian Noble (Achievement Discoveries) came up with a great quote the other day. He said: “Don’t waste time developing the swan when you should be selling the duck”.

Brian was referring to the fact that many of us spend too much time fine-tuning and building-up a product or service offering, when we should be out selling the basics.

I think it’s an expression that can also be applied to how we sell to customers and our networks.

Too often we will stand up and try to push the swan, when we should just stand up and sell the duck.

Time is short; we’re competing with heaps of other messages and the internal dialogues of our ‘listeners’.

Keep your presentation – especially your referral request – precise, simple and specific.

Effective selling – whether face-to-face, your elevator speech or 60 second presentation – is not a public speaking competition. Your job is to be heard, understood and acted upon.

Sell the duck! It’s a foot in the door. Once you have a relationship, then you can go after the swan.

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