Begin by being showing your face more.

Here’s a tip:

Social scientists have shown that the more often we see somebody – even an image of them – the more we grow to like them. It’s one reason why celebrities are so popular and why there is such an outpouring of grief when one of them dies – even if their fans never got to within a thousands kilometres of them in their life!

It’s because we see so much of them, we feel like we know them.

Does this mean you can send a life-size cut-out of yourself to your BNI meetings?

Well, your leadership teams wouldn’t like it and there’s always the real risk is that your fellow members might end up liking the cut-out more than they do you…

Jokes aside, if you want to be relevant to somebody, you need to be present. We all know that ‘absence does not make the heart grow fonder’. It just makes it colder.

If you want to increase your referral business, make sure you’re getting regular face time with your network. And that’s how your face can make you money.

Colin Kennedy is a keynote speaker, writer and content marketing consultant. As BNI New Zealand’s marketing director he is responsible for the organisation’s communications strategy, and also serves as an assistant director for North Central region of BNI.

Being part of a BNI chapter is a unique opportunity. Where else do you get the chance to form a close bond – to work as a team in multiple areas – with a group of other independent businesses?

But so often we waste it by taking the easiest route, which is human nature after all. We lapse into a routine of attending meetings, making up our 60 second on the fly and only doing our dances when we have a gap.

For most of us, word of mouth referrals are the number one source of new business. The number and quality of referrals you receive, which directly impact your bottom line, are determined by how much effort you put into your networking.

Don’t leave it to accident. Take control of the process and drive your networking activity.

You can do this by:

• Setting objectives (what do you want to achieve from your BNI investment?);
• Recruiting new members for your own hub within your chapter (that’s how you get more referrals from your chapter);
• Increasing your visibility among the membership i.e. doing properly planned and structured dances more frequently;
• Preparing powerful, memorable 60 second presentations;
• Being specific with your referral requests;
• Helping other members with a combination of referrals, your time, your expertise, mentoring and encouragement (there is more to ‘givers gain’ than referrals).

These are the basics of BNI. They are there because they work (it’s the same reason other networks attempt to copy what BNI does).

Do these things consistently, regularly and with commitment and you will reap the reward.

Colin Kennedy is a keynote speaker, copywriter and content marketing consultant. As BNI New Zealand’s marketing director he is responsible for the organisation’s communications strategy, and also serves as an assistant director for North Central region of BNI.

Photo by Ambro

BNI member Tony Allwood’s new book, ‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’, has not only been endorsed by Ivan Misner, but was recently also translated into German by BNI Switzerland.

‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’ is a hands-on tool with worksheets, tips and suggestions to help you be more referrable. Tony’s experience in business has shown him how easy it is to get derailed by the hectic pace of running your own company and believes it’s important to keep things in perspective.

‘I see my fellow BNI members as an extension of my business – they are an important aspect of what I do and as such I need to prioritise them into my day.’

Tony, a 10-year BNI member, has built W3, a successful web design business, on word-of-mouth referrals and very little else in terms of marketing and advertising.

Tony’s book will show you how to spot referrals and opportunities by doing things differently. You’ll find suggestions to help you develop usable ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing skills as well as guidance on planning your one and ten minute presentations, refining your memory hook, learning to dance and use props, and training your chapter to find you strong, qualified referrals.

Tony has been contacted by BNI Korea about further translation opportunities and is particularly excited about the idea of penetrating the Indian market.

Learn how to find more referrals and build strong relationships with your business colleagues by going to www.beyondthecomfortzone.net, where you can buy ‘Beyond the Comfort Zone’ online.

Alternatively, buy an annual subscription for $2.50 – delivered to your Inbox in palatable chunks over 52 weeks.

“Successful networking is about constant activity and Beyond the Comfort Zone offers common sense ideas that will help you build your social capital and become a more active networker. … Tony Allwood offers wise, fresh insights and simple, easy to implement strategies that will empower you to master the art of networking and significantly increase your referrals whether you are brand new to networking or have been practicing it for years.”

Dr Ivan R. Misner, NY Times Bestselling author and Founder of BNI and Referral Institute

I did a 10 minute presentation to a chapter this morning that was ‘off the cuff’ so to speak (rather than pre-prepared), because I wanted to get an understanding of how they functioned as a ‘personality’.

My advice to them was to be more aware of their own personality, because like tends to attract like.

So, while you may be a small chapter that battles to compete with big chapters, targeting people who ‘click’ with your group is a good strategy.

To do this, you should consider two things:

1.     The chapter niche

2.     The chapter demographic

1. The first and easiest to work with is the chapter’s niche. This particular chapter had a clearly defined three way split between marketing people, property people and ‘personal services’ people (such as travel agent).

Break your chapter up into its hubs and build a list of visitors who will benefit your business personally and your hub, rather than looking to get visitors in randomly for the sake of growing the chapter.

For example it may benefit an IT support company to attract a company that writes software.

For example, this morning’s chapter has a number of marketing related people (web developer, SEO, PR, branding, print). Hence, finding a photographer and events co-ordinator would be a good fit for them.

2. The second, more difficult and possibly controversial strategy is to consider your chapter’s demographic. Is it primarily baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y? Are most members men or women? Is there, for example, a strong core of British immigrants who can attrack other Brits? Are people in the chapter sporty, sedentry?

By understanding the personality of your chapter you will be able to profile the prospective member most likely to click with you and other members in the chapter. It may be a debateable and perhaps controversial approach, but it is marketing 101 and a proven conversion tactic.

Colin is the Marketing Director of BNI New Zealand, a director of Iron Road Ltd and a professional speaker and copywriter.

How the WhoIsWhere™ partnership works:

1. Inform your director that you would like to hold a visitors day, and set a date
2. Your director will give you a form to complete, including details of the kinds of category visitors you are looking for
3. Once you have completed the form your director will forward this to WhoIsWhere™
4. WhoIsWhere™ will telephone 200 businesses to invite them to your visitors day
5. WhoIsWhere™ will pass on the RSVPs to your local director who will send them to you to follow-up if you wish
6. WhoIsWhere™ will also give your director a list of people who were interested but for various reasons couldn’t make the visitors day
7. After the visitors day, send all your visitors a thank you for attending email, with a promise for the visitor host to be in touch with them shortly (include a link to the BNI video in your email so your visitors can find out a bit more about BNI)
8. Have your visitor host follow-up the visitors

Why this is a good idea

You might be sceptical about using a list or a third party for your telemarketing, but here are three reasons why E-ideas Limited can help your chapter:

1. E-ideas Ltd is a member of the Capital Connection BNI Chapter in Wellington. Their telemarketers have been on BNI breakfasts and have a good understanding of BNI values.
2. Both options give you the opportunity to save time and money.
3. Direct marketing is proven to work.

The BNI 4 Shore Chapter in Auckland had the opportunity to make use of the E-ideas Ltd offer. Their telemarketing campaign resulted in 18 business owners showing an interest, four confirmed their attendance via email and a couple asked to attend at a later date. All the confirmations turned up at the meeting and conversions are looking likely.

Says Colin, “This first project with BNI 4 Shore at the end of April resulted in visitors not normally exposed to BNI — people such as driving school instructors, locksmiths, hairdressers etc.

“All the visitors who came through the whoiswhere™ programme were impressed with BNI and every single one promised to be back next week – these are visitors over and above those invited by chapter members; it is, and will be, a very powerful way to supplement your chapter’s recruitment drive.”

Your chapter can experience similar success – ask your director for more information. If you’re interested in starting a campaign, request a campaign form from your director and email it to Assia Salikhova, Managing Director of E-ideas Limited on assia@whoiswhere.co.nz  

“It’s early days yet, but we’re expecting great things through this direct mail and telemarketing partnership with whoiswhere™,” Colin said.

It’s no secret that we all want to do business with people whom we know and trust. So, how do you build rapport and create trust with new contacts at networking events?  By offering value-added advice – solid, helpful information provided out of a genuine concern for another person.

Let’s say you’re a real estate agent talking with someone at a networking event who, although not ready to buy a home today, is heading in that direction.  You could say something like this:

Well, I know you’re not interested in buying a home right now. But, when you’re ready to start looking, I highly recommend checking out the north part of town. A lot of my clients are seeing their homes appreciate in the 10 to 20 percent range, and from what I understand, the city is thinking about building another middle school in that area.

See how it’s possible to offer some value-added advice without being too salesy? A statement like this acknowledges that your prospect is not currently in the market (first sentence) but still demonstrates your expertise, so he will remember you when he’s ready to move.

This model works for consultants, CPAs, accountants, financial planners, coaches – just about anyone in a service-based industry in which knowledge is the main product. If you’re concerned about giving away your intellectual capital for free, look at it this way: few people are going to sign up to do business with you if they’re not sure you can do the job. In the absence of a tangible product, you have nothing but your technical expertise to demonstrate that you have the goods. And when you think about it, that makes sense. Whenever you’re ready to buy an automobile, it doesn’t matter how much research you’ve done on a particular model, you’re probably not going to write your check until you’ve taken the car for a test drive.

The same is true for your prospects. Give them a little test drive to show how it would feel to do business with you. If you’re a marketing consultant, give them a couple of ideas on how they can increase the exposure of their business. Don’t go overboard; maybe offer a technique you read in a magazine or tried with one of your clients. Just give them something they can try on to see if it works.

Not only will this open up a good conversation with new contacts while you’re out networking, if you play your cards right, whom do you think they’ll go to when they’re in need of your kind of service?   When it comes to building rapport and creating trust, nothing does it better than offering value-added advice.

The goal of the video is to raise the awareness of BNI and hopefully to assist with attracting visitors. We have attempted to highlight the concept of BNI and Givers Gain; namely working in relationship with others and the spirit of giving – as opposed to focusing upon what happens at a BNI meeting. We would like to think that we have achieved what we set out to do – and would welcome feedback.

Wishing you all a prosperous 2011

Graham and the team at BNI Support.

* What is my business mission? — Beyond simply making a living, what are my long-range professional goals? Do I wish to become the standard by which my competitors are judged? Is it my dream to help make the world a better place?
* Where is my organization going? — Am I achieving my mission? Am I making plans to accomplish it? How can I change policies, procedures or personnel to improve my chances of achieving my mission?
* What environment is my organization operating in? — What are the social, economic and technological trends that affect the way I do business and my progress toward my goals?
* What are my core competencies? — What do I like to do? What is it that I do better than my competitors? Is my business mission compatible with my values and aptitudes?

I’ve seen too many business professionals and companies make the mistake of trying to be all things to all people. Starting out with the fundamentally sound goal of finding a niche that will make them successful, they go astray by changing direction every time a customer or associate suggests a new product or service. The mission gets lost in a frantic scramble for business before the original idea ever gets a chance to pay off.

So, even if you think you know your mission, it will serve you well to pause periodically, analyse your business and, if necessary, refocus on your mission and philosophy.

The first of these was the different needs of buyers depending on their roles within the business.

We identified 3 potential buyer levels –

1. Middle Management level
2. Senior Management
3. Chief Executive Officers and Managing Directors

Then we looked at lack of funding where we discovered we need to clearly identify all the associated costs related to their current need.  Business owners make buying decisions based primarily on the expected return on investment.  If you can’t show a clear cost saving then there is no reason to change.

It is a fact that 99% of new prospects you visit already have a provider providing the same services/products you do.  Therefore they are only focused on two things in talking to you – the cheapest price or at least a price check on the current provider or improved value over what they are already receiving.

Our sole goal is focused on adding value. This can only be achieved if we can uncover their needs through good questions.

The opportunity for us to add value with these prospects lies in the following areas –

1. Helping them to uncover an unrecognized need
2. Helping them to uncover new opportunities
3. Finding new solutions for old problems

To achieve this requires good preparation which unfortunately most salespeople tend to skip as they argue they are far too busy.  These types of salespeople are generally referred to as “professional conversationalists” i.e. they get paid to go around and talk to people but not actually to make sales.

Back to the subject of today  – No Hurry/No Desire to change from the status quo.

If we can uncover a big enough need through this process and combine the return on investment calculation that we looked at last time then this should create the desire and more importantly help the buyer to come to the buying decision.

We will look at the last of the obstacles in my next article.

Quote of the Week:

“Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor”
H. Jackson Brown Jr

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group Limited based in Hawkes Bay

A key message is public relations tool defined as: “A short, concise and memorable sentence used to convey an important message during an interview”.

I get to hear, on average, about 70+ sixty second presentations every week, and it always amazes me how we all – myself included – see the need to say something different week in and week out.

Sure, variety is important; and perhaps we feel uncomfortable repeating the same presentation on a regular basis.

However, repetition is important if you want your message to be remembered – so changing every week does nothing for making you memorable.

One way to kill both birds with one stone is to develop three or four key messages. Just one sentence long, each message says something compelling, memorable and important about your business.

For example: “John Green Landscapes are the premier sustainable garden creators in Auckland”.

Develop three or four of these key messages; then use them liberally throughout your sixty second presentation to make sure the important messages and benefits are getting through, without making yourself appear to be repeating yourself Ad nauseam.

Colin Kennedy is a public relations consultant, copywriter and speaker. He is also the outsource Marketing Director for BNI New Zealand and assistant director for the South Central region of BNI.

Photos by Rosemary Meyer. See www.prmeyer.com. Thank you Rosemary. Top: Fiona Powell and Colin Kennedy. Below: The Howick seminar.