The first words of my tertiary education, at the age of 19, turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned. Our journalism practice professor put his notes down, looked up and said: “A journalist is only as good as his sources”.
I would like to suggest that a business person is also only as good as his or her sources of business; in other words, his or her contacts will make or break the business.
There are two components of effective contact or ‘source’ management: 1. How you cultivate and 2. how you grow, your sources.
A member of the CBD1 Chapter of BNI here in Auckland passed out 51 referrals last week – that’s up from his usual 30 or 40 a week. Mark Trafford, of Maintain To Profit, sub contracts trades’ people and companies for commercial and residential maintenance work. Thirty of his 100 sub contractors are BNI members.
But, get this, most of the referrals he receives are not from those trades’ people.
Mark has been in business a little over a year and a member of BNI for 11 months. In that time he has done more than $300,000.00 worth of business from BNI referrals. Just yesterday he closed two deals – one worth $17,000.00 and the other worth $18,000.00 – both from BNI referrals.
I asked Mark what he does.
He said: “I believe in ‘Givers Gain’”. And I said, that’s good; but it can’t be all.
He said: “I attend all my BNI meetings and I get involved. I’ve put my hand up to be president next”. And I said, that’s good; but it can’t be all.
He said: “I ask ever single person I meet if they belong to BNI or if they have heard of BNI. If they have heard of BNI, it immediately builds rapport. If they haven’t heard of BNI, we immediately have a good conversation about BNI”.
What Mark is doing is using BNI as a device to put his prospects into a referral frame of mind.
By mentioning BNI, he creates conversation about referrals. From the outset then, people are viewing him as a ‘connector’.
It’s the perfect way to build your network and that’s good for your business. After all, you’re only as good as your sources.
