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I am pleased to announce the appointment of Colin Kennedy as Marketing Director for BNI New Zealand .

While this is an outsource function, Colin will manage – at an executive level – all marketing and communication functions for BNI New Zealand. As such, he will design, implement and facilitate the annual marketing plan and communicate for the BNI New Zealand office and within its regions.

Colin will be the official spokesman for BNI New Zealand, building relationships with media and our partners including Hospice NZ, as well as representing BNI at all public speaking engagements (when BNI receives requests to talk at those functions).

What does this mean for you?

He will also be responsible for member engagement. For example, where previously I received requests to visit chapters in my capacity as National Director, Colin will now respond to those requests in his capacity as Marketing Director.

Colin will also represent BNI and negotiate in approaches from third parties wanting to work with BNI, and represent BNI at various community and business meetings to promote the interests of the organisation.

We have a number of exciting developments for members in the area of personal development, social media, rebranding, a national survey and other initiatives designed to deliver more value to members in 2010.

In his new capacity, Colin will assist or co-ordinate on each one of these projects.

The team

In Colin (Marketing Director), Sue Redknap, Fiona Harrop and Leigh Mason (BNI Support), Fiona Powell (Social Media Editor) and Brian Falkner (BNI Technical Support) and the team of 18 BNI directors, I believe I have a strong, capable team which will help us to raise the bar for you, our members in 2010; I for one  am looking forward to taking this journey with you.

Graham Southwell

BNI New Zealand –  National Director

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BNI National Director of BNI New Zealand, Graham Southwell, said that BNI owes its success to the concept of businesses helping each other through the ‘Givers Gain’ philosophy, and giving back to the community is a natural extension of that philosophy.

“Every week our more than 2,600 SME members combine their resources to grow each other’s businesses through giving referrals, while also recognising that we are part of the community and that the power of reciprocity is only released when you give without the expectation of getting something back – as we do with hospice,” he said.

Chairman of Hospice New Zealand, Wilf Marley, said the involvement of BNI members and the funds they raise for hospice work around NZ is an inspiration.

“We are very grateful for your support and highly value our partnership with BNI. Thank you all so much.”

Each chapter donated money it raised – whether through an auctioneer donating his time in Northland or a comedy and cocktail’s evening from the Rangitoto chapter in Auckland – to its local hospice.

BNI New Zealand has 120 chapters from Invercargill to Whangarei, offering SME members an opportunity for structured networking, training and personal development within a mutually beneficial environment.

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This is what WomenLikeMe has to say on integrity:

We live in society that is mostly out-of-integrity most of the time. We say things to please other people and we choose to deny to face the wholesome ‘what is so’. 
We let things drift rather than complete them. We read everywhere things that our heart knows cannot be ‘the truth’ and rather than listening to what our own heart has to say, we believe them.
Integrity in this context refers to being whole and complete, like an aeroplane is to be whole and complete to fly safely and effectively. When a plane is not whole and complete you will know about. The same is the case with us and our lives. Not being in-integrity has consequences and causes break downs.

You can read more what your heart knows is useful on WomenLikeMe on Being in Integrity.

It all started when my daughter announced she wanted to have dinner with my family in Holland when she was on holiday in Europe.

That meant organizing that from this side of the world in New Zealand, while fitting it into her tight traveling schedule and dealing with a complicated family situation.

Of course I offered to help her.

My ex and his family has chosen not to communicate with me after our divorce.

As my daughter would stay with my ex’s mother, coordinating dates would be difficult.

His family would have plans too but how could I know which dates would clash when we are not freely communicating?

However those things would have not been so bad if my daughter would have played her part with integrity.

When I asked her to give me a date to play with and start the process, I could not get one.

After several weeks of emailing and phoning her all I had was the usual myriad of excuses I always get when I want her to do something.

Too busy at work, no chance to talk to boyfriend about plans yet, having a headache and on and on it went.

Hmmm. In those weeks I felt my blood temperature rising, as well as the old feelings of frustration with non cooperative family members. And was it not she who requested this dinner?

There were also other people involved who needed to know.

I could have been tempted to ring my sister and complain about my own daughter and gossip about the ex’s family traits she inherited, but I did not succumb to that temptation.

I just kept asking and stating that if that she wanted a dinner organized I needed a date.

When her excuses ran out she started to play helpless by telling me it all was so difficult.

Was it?

One of my suggestions to sort it was to pick a date,  ring grandmother, tell her the day she would have dinner with my family and that would be that.

But oh no she could not ring, it was so hard to talk over the phone to her grandmother with all the language differences and all I got was again an air of helplessness.

“Fine”, I said; “let me ring her”.

Oh no, that was not possible either as that would upset her father AND the family and would set the whole gossip machine in motion.

Fine  . . . but actually NOT fine, this was no longer fun and I was not making any progress either.

I was now in real trouble of getting hot under the collar, especially when I got accused of hassling her.

Hmmm, however I chose to ignore that accusation and I did my best NOT to blame her for making all this so difficult and making me feel check-mated.

I asked her once more if she actually still wanted the dinner and when she answered ‘yes’, I continued my efforts to make it happen.

I did succeed in staying calm and collected and not giving up.

In the end I did get a date and the dinner eventually took place in a very cold and snowy Holland.

After a lot of practice I can now accept that family, in this case my daughter and most people very seldom act in-integrity. I recognize out-of-integrity behavior for what it is and therefore it no longer effects me much.

I no longer get dragged into being out-of-integrity myself, I am no longer tempted to blame, make excuses or gossip myself or give up if it is important to me.

When I so choose, I can keep going to make things happen in my family regardless of their carrying on and . . . I can do that with integrity, I can do that with a calmness and clarity that delights me.

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The idea behind this free and fun event is to highlight the power of giving referrals by challenging small business owners to make 1000 referrals to 1000 small businesses during the week. You can find out more about it here

As part of the Make a Referral Week 2010 Education Series John is highlighting the power of referrals and word of mouth marketing with a live event featuring some of the brightest authors, speakers and thought leaders on the subject of referral marketing.

You can join John for a live web discussion Wednesday, March 10th at Noon CST. Click here to register for the online seminar. (That’s 7am, Thursday March 11 our NZ time).

The panel includes Ivan Misner, founder of BNI and author of The 29% Solution,  Bob Burg, author of  Endless Referrals and the  Go-Givers Sell More, and  Ben McConnell, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists.

This group makes up a panel of what may be the worlds single greatest collection of thought leaders on the subject of referrals and word of mouth.

More info on the entire week can be found here. Have you made your referral yet? Do it here

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Call out to me some answers please? Is it $100, $1,000, $100,000, $1 million, $100 million, $1 billion? Just how much is it?

Repeat some of the answers as well as nominate the category they represent.

Now tell me what percentage you think that you are getting?

Call out to me some answers please?

If you nominated a figure that was less than 100%, does that leave you room for business growth in your business?

The Referral Master®

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It really is a shame, because such new contacts are where future business is born.

Don’t be misled; it’s not the number of contacts you make that’s important–it’s the ones you turn into lasting relationships. There’s quite a difference. Try making 10 cold calls and introducing yourself. OK, how well did that go?

Now call five people you already know and tell them you’re putting together a marketing plan for the coming year and you would appreciate any help they might be able to provide, in the form of either a referral or new business.

Better results behind Door No. 2, right? Of course. You already had a relationship with these folks and, depending on how deep it was, most of them would be glad to help you.

So, here’s the question: How can you deepen the relationships with people you already know to the point where they might be willing to help you out in the future?

Here are four quick steps to get you moving in the right direction:

1.Give your clients a personal call. Find out how things went with the project you were involved in. Ask if there’s anything else you can do to help. Important: Do not ask for a referral at this point.

2.Make personal calls to all the people who have helped you or referred business to you. Ask them how things are going. Try to learn more about their current activities so you can refer business to them.

3.Put together a hit list of 50 people you’d like to stay in touch with this year. Include anyone who has given you business in the past 12 months (from steps 1 and 2) as well as any other prospects you’ve connected with recently. Send them cards on the next holiday (In the U.S., it would be Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, etc.).

4.Two weeks after you’ve sent them cards, call them and see what’s going on. If they’re past clients or people you’ve talked to before, now is the perfect time to ask for a referral. If they’re prospects, perhaps you can set up an appointment to have coffee and find out if their plans might include using your services.

See how easy that was? After a few weeks, you’ll have more than enough social capital to tap into the rest of the year.

Social capital is the international currency of networking, especially business networking. If you take as much care in raising and investing your social capital as you do your financial capital, you’ll find that the benefits that flow from these intangible investments will not only be rewarding in themselves, but they will multiply your material returns many times over.

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Well ok, of course being memorable is your responsibility; but what I mean to say is that each person in your chapter has to take personal responsibility for getting their head in the referral game, in order for any strategy to succeed.

Don’t they?

You could be as sticky as five day gum on the sidewalk, but if the other people in your chapter aren’t in the referral giving, business networking mindset, what chance do you stand?

Well… actually, here are some ideas.

1. Get really close to a handful of people in your chapter and build strong ties with them. However, you say, success still hinges on their taking responsibility to give referrals. Doesn’t it?

2. Another way is to give, and give. Most people, if they are normal, will feel obliged to reciprocate in some way. By giving you spread goodwill, prosperity and… pressure. Funny how we always come back to Dr Ivan Misner’s basic, fundamental, golden rule: “Givers Gain”.

3. Finally, take responsibility for leadership in your chapter or network. If the others aren’t playing the game, motivate them, hold them accountable (in a nice way) and lead from the front.

Any other ideas on how to get your fellow networker’s head in the game?

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9am – 11am on Monday 29th March at Sports House, Harbour Sport, Stadium Drive, Albany, 2nd right Nth Harbour Stadium

(Book on line on the BNI New Zealand website).

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