In his book Truth or Delusion (with Mike Macedonio and Mike Garrison), Dr Ivan Misner gets to the heart of what should be your objective at every single BNI meeting, when he says: “Just talking about yourself is not enough; you’ve got to teach people how to refer you”.
Dr Misner goes on to say that the trick is to train yourself and your sources to listen for the language of referrals. “Tell them, ‘When someone says ‘I can’t,’ ‘Need,’ I want,’ or ‘I don’t know’”.
Essentially, the way to train your ‘sales team’ of fellow BNI members is to show them how to recognise the cues or trigger events that lead to your particular referral, and then teach them how to respond when the cues arise.
A good formula for training your fellow BNI members to respond to referral cues consists of three steps. Show them how to:
- Identify the cue or pain
- Express sympathy by asking questions that get to the reason behind the problem
- Then offer the solution, supported by convincing proof
Let’s look at the potential opportunity for a chiropractor:
When somebody says: “I haven’t been sleeping well lately,” (1. Identify that there is a problem here that may have any one of a number of causes). Other triggers for a chiropractor could be complaints about sore back, the action of stretching their back, rubbing their neck…
The natural and normal reaction is to express sympathy by finding out why they’re not sleeping well. So ask them ‘Why?’ (2. This is identifying the problem).
Perhaps the reason is a sore neck.
A good networking chiropractor will have taught their BNI members that a sore neck may be a muscle reflex resulting from stress.
At this point you can mention the facts about muscle reflexes and stress ((3. this is a statement of fact or evidence; in other words convincing proof).
Then recommend they visit a chiropractor; give them his or her card. If they’re keen to know more, have your chiropractor contact them…
Another trigger may be a change in circumstances.
Insurance brokers and real estate agents in particular, can talk about being on the lookout for a change in circumstances, like somebody starting a new business, getting married, getting divorced…
To summarise:
- Teach your chapter members to identify a cue or trigger event
- Teach them a fact or two about the cue or trigger event to support their recommendation
- Give them a process to follow when referring you i.e. give them my card, refer them to my website, invite them to a telephone consult with me etc.
