How to successfully invite visitors to your BNI chapter

Successfully inviting visitors to your BNI chapter is simply a matter of awareness and attitude, and it is only achieved if you are motivated. Unfortunately most of us have other priorities and our cause is not helped by a fear of rejection.

Attitude

Have you thought of inviting somebody, but hesitated? Consider how you felt at the time… Perhaps you did not want them to think less of you for trying to sell them something? Maybe you feared they would be distracted from the business at hand, or would silently ridicule you for some or other reason?

Those fears are always unfounded, but they do exist and overcoming them is a case of being motivated by a goal. Inviting visitors to your chapter is an ideal way to influence the make-up and character of your network – you could, theoretically, even surround yourself with people selected by you.

To get better at inviting visitors, set yourself a goal – number of visitors you would like to invite in the next two month (make it a short goal to help motivate yourself with urgency), and then decide what industries, trades and professions would most likely be a good referral source for you.

Awareness

Armed with your goal and your list, you will have elevated your awareness of your priority to invite visitors to your chapter, and therefore be more motivated.

You will automatically find that in conversations with people, you will start viewing them – each and every one – or perhaps their spouse, as a potential visitor to your BNI. You will find that you actually have opportunities everyday to invite people, you just weren’t ‘switched on’ to it as a priority.

One source of visitors will be salespeople who make unsolicited calls on you – that includes telephone calls, emails and flyers in your postbox. Let’s face it, they’re contemplating rejection themselves so would most likely welcome an opportunity to engage with open arms.

Take for example BNI UK member, Jason Smith, who says he turns unsolicited calls into visitors: “When they’ve finished telling me about their business, I ask them if they’d like even more, and invite them to my chapter. It obviously works because I’ve brought along 35 guests in the past year, seven of whom have joined”.

A word about technique

Remember, you’re not inviting them to become members – you are inviting them to a business networking breakfast. It is not your decision to invite them into membership, because that’s up to the leadership team and there is a process to be followed.

So don’t feel like you’re trying to sell them into membership of BNI, it’s just breakfast folks!

Take for example BNI UK member Denis Fuller who invited 53 visitors to his chapter, nine of whom became members, inside of 12 months:

“There really is no special formula, but it’s important not to try to sell the BNI concept. I merely tell potential guests that I’d like to introduce them to a group of colleagues who may be able to offer them new business, knowing they’ll soon discover the opportunities for themselves. The other vital aspect is to follow up with every visitor after they’ve attended a meeting.”