Five simple changes led to major growth for BNI Wine Country Hastings

Recently the leadership team at BNI Wine Country Hastings changed, and they undertook five simple initiatives that have led to significant growth in their membership. There are now 30 members in their chapter, and in the last 6 months since these initiatives have been introduced, 12 new members have joined. Whether your chapter is small or large, it’s easy over time to become complacent, so think about these five initiatives and see if you could introduce some of them to your own chapter.

1. Look at other chapters for inspiration

When the new leadership team came in, BNI Wine Country visited a  larger Palmerston North chapter with 43 members, to get some ideas on what they could do differently. It was a great experience for the whole team because it allowed them to reassess what they had been doing in comparison to Palmerston North. It reenergised the leadership team at Wine Country and gave them some pointers on things that they could change.

2. Ensure members are accountable to their chapter

BNI has mechanisms to measure and track each member’s success and activity based on referrals, dances, attendance etc. One thing that came out of the visit to BNI Palmerston North was the importance this chapter put on accountability – making sure every member in the group provided value to the chapter as a whole.

After this visit the leadership team went back to their members to encourage everyone to achieve at least five points per month. This is very achievable since members get one point for a dance, two for an external referral and two for a visitor. The purpose was to remind everyone that they need to pull their weight in BNI and provide value to the larger chapter.

3. Think about a change of scene

One change that was made, which has led to significant benefits, was to move venue. This may seem like a major change, but for BNI Wine Country it wasn’t traumatic and improved the atmosphere in their meetings enormously. The space that is selected to hold meetings is very important. It needs to be welcoming, business-like and large enough to hold a growing chapter comfortably. By changing their venue to one that ticked these boxes, they immediately had positive feedback about the new environment from their existing and new members.

4. Refocus on the core purpose of BNI

Over time, it is easy for BNI members (especially those who have been in a chapter for a long period) to become overly comfortable and a little too matey. Of course, it is important for people to get along and be friendly; however it is vital that members stay focused on the core purpose of BNI. BNI Wine Country refocused on getting “back to business” in their chapter and it made an immediate difference to visitors coming in. Visitors saw that the chapter was process driven and purposeful – not too cosy and chatty. This change led to more visitors signing on as members.

5. Try incentives

To get visitors to sign on as members you need a greater number of new people coming through the door. One way to do this is to offer incentives. There are lots of different ways to offer incentives and what you can offer will vary from chapter to chapter. For BNI Wine Country they ran two promotions that were very positively received. The first was for members to get points for visitor signups. At the end of a few months the member with the most points won a prize – a GPS system. The second was called “every dance is a chance”. This was run over a six month period, every dance participant went into a draw and one lucky member won a prize – a weekend stay at a beach home owned by one of our members. Be creative and think about incentives – you’ll be surprised by the results you achieve.

These five relatively minor changes have reaped major benefits for this chapter. Membership is up and the atmosphere is fantastic – why not give one or more of these a go in your chapter and see what rewards eventuate.