Let visitors know about BNI’s unique formula to success
Last year former BNI member Richard Christie created an excellent blog relating to his experiences in two different BNI chapters in New Zealand.
Balance Transfers – A Kiwi Microfinance Blog was created by Richard to discuss inflation and a range of other issues. In a section relating to networking, he clearly lays out the underlying factors that have led BNI to international success when many other networking groups have failed. This information is of huge value to visitors to your chapter; whose number one question is usually – Why should I become a member of your chapter?
Here’s what makes up BNI’s special sauce…
- Clarity: It’s clear that BNI Chapters exist for one purpose – to help members to gain business. We’re not a coffee group talking about new developments on the tech front.
- Consistency: BNI Chapters follow a simple model that produces results, and repeat it week after week. This consistency is the backbone of long term results.
- Regularity: You may not like the idea of waking up early 6am to get to a working breakfast weekly, but it’s this regularity that ensures that BNI chapters succeed. It’s important to meet regularly to develop connections. Without this regularity, you can lose touch with your network and their evolving needs and forget what people are looking for and how you can help.
- Clear Metrics: Many BNI chapters are successful because they have clear KPIs that result from a clear vision. How many One to One meetings have occurred in the membership over the last month? How many referrals were passed? What dollar sum of closed business resulted?
- Spaced Repetition: The repetition that occurs from the regularity, clarity and measurement of results assists in the formation of beneficial habits among the membership.
- Structure (rules and enforcement): The truth is that conflict and disagreement is more prevalent in networking chapters at all levels than one would like to believe. This conflict can often sow the seeds for any chapter’s failure.
The way that BNI chapters guard against disagreement and conflict is by having rules and clear parameters for their enforcement. These rules have been created after extensive experience across thousands of chapters globally, and are generally very comprehensive. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of rule enforcement we know can differ from chapter to chapter. Many chapters have undermined their long-term performance for example, by failing to manage time properly. The rules and their enforcement helps to provide clarity and longevity.
These 6 elements unique to BNI that Richard has identified are key selling points for visitors to your chapter. The BNI formula works. Let visitors know about these elements that make up BNI’s success when you invite them into your chapter.
