A shorter education this week that should work for Online and In Person BNI Chapters. We are looking at a very specific topic we’ve never covered in New Zealand before .. Internal vs External Referrals.
This should be short and to the point. It would be a good idea to ask your chapter Vice President to circulate the 6-month Summary PALMS Report during your In Person Meetings or by email before Online Meetings so members can see how many internal or external referrals they are receiving.
Internal vs External Referrals
What is the difference between an Internal and an External referral?
An internal referral is one you receive from another member for themselves or their own business.
In the APP they are entered as Inside/Internal.
On the PALMS they are shown as RRI (Referrals Received Internal).
An external referral is one you receive from another member to anyone but themselves or their own business.
In the APP they are entered as Outside/ External.
On the PALMS they are shown as RGO (Referrals Received Outside).
Why do we differentiate between them?
In BNI we regard external referrals as the gold of referrals because there are potentially many more of them (there are only X number of members in the chapter and 5M prospects outside the chapter) and of a greater value than even if every member of the chapter referred themselves to each other member.
If we were only able to receive internal referrals through BNI it would not be so successful. We truly prosper in BNI when we receive external referrals. Long term in addition to external referrals we also stand to receive Tier 3 or Spin Off referrals. This is when someone who has been referred to us, then recommends us to someone they know.
“Free Trial” Period
If you are only receiving internal referrals or mainly internal referrals, then you may still be in the “free trial” period of your BNI membership. This can mean that you don’t yet have full visibility and credibility with all the chapter members. Members risk their reputation to refer you to friends, family, clients, or colleagues so they need to feel confident your will do a great job and make them look good.
Initially they may offer you an internal referral to trail your services to see how good you are, typically this will happen within the early stages of your membership, more common in the first six months. In BNI we refer to this as the Referral Confidence Curve. Different members will be at a different point on the curve in relation to their confidence to refer you and your business. If you have been a member of the chapter for more than six moments and are still mainly receiving internal referrals, then you are likely still working within your “free trial” period.
Still on Trial?
If you are still receiving mainly internal referrals, then you may be yet to achieve Visibility and Credibility within the chapter. In BNI we say that Visibility and Profitability can lead to Profitability and often use the acronym VCP.
If so, what can you do?
Aside from making sure you are doing the activities that will help you to achieve VCP like good attendance, regular one to ones and the passing of referrals; it’s a good idea to have a one to one with the members who have referred themselves to you, especially those in your power team. Ask them for honest feedback about how the work you have done for them has gone and if there is any reason why they might not have felt ready to refer you to friends, family, clients, or colleagues. Treat the feedback with respect and in the spirit, it is offered.
Summary
Even if you are doing all the activities to achieve VCP, sometimes there can be something we aren’t aware of that can be blocking the path to profitability.
