At one time or another many of us have looked over at our neighbours’ property and thought that it looked better than our own. The paint seemed fresher, the garden more stylish and the lawn healthier and greener. In reality we could just be overlooking anything negative about our neighbours’ property and downplaying everything positive about our own!
In the same way it can be easy to look at other chapters and feel that you could be more successful moving from where you are to another BNI group. It’s common for members, at one stage or another, to feel that referrals aren’t coming as thick and fast as they used to.
This isn’t a reason, however, to immediately consider moving to another chapter. Instead, it’s time to evaluate your behaviour and think about what you could do to improve your networking efforts.
When a chapter is healthy, but your own business isn’t thriving perhaps as it used to in BNI, look at how you could change your ways to improve referrals. Don’t become a nomadic networker – someone who jumps from one chapter to another and can’t understand why they aren’t generating business. Remember, you generate business by getting in and creating relationships. If your business is a mile wide and an inch deep, it’ll never generate referrals and be successful.
Unless you are in a group that is inherently unhealthy, it’s not a good idea to switch chapters. Instead take responsibility and think about how you are communicating. Could you communicate better with the other chapter members through your 60 seconds or dances?
A healthy group is gold and even if there are stints when referrals are low, when you are committed to your chapter for a longer period of time you generate a high number of referrals and a high value of referrals over time.
Leaving you with this quote from an US professional basketball player LeBron James: how committed are you… to being trustworthy, to being successful? How committed are you to being a good teammate? There’s that moment every morning when you look in the mirror: Are you committed, or are you not?
