Last month the 2015 International Directors’ Conference for BNI International took place in Long Beach, California. At the conference, over 750 directors from around the world gathered to attend breakout sessions, network with one another, and exchange best practice. Some fantastic ideas for networking came out of the conference and these ideas fed into our own most recent New Zealand Director Consultants end of year meeting.
At this meeting the Director Consultants brainstormed thoughts for how we can continue to help grow our chapters.
These thoughts will have relevance for chapter members throughout the country who are interested in learning about how we want to improve and develop our chapters and the BNI NZ organisation as a whole.
There were over a dozen key initiatives that fall into different categories including: training; marketing; BNI Connect and visitors.
Key areas to focus on for growth
Training
- Continual and consistent message around training and the leadership roles for all members. Transitioning members into leadership roles should be a focus in 2016.
- Strategy sessions with the leadership team to talk about goals. It should be made clear to members that leadership in BNI is a positive step that anyone can make.
- Using and teaching a robust induction process for new members. It’s important that training be a constant process for members at BNI.
- Taking leadership teams to visit showcase chapters. Spread the word about chapters that are succeeding in a big way.
Marketing
- Use of marketing collateral. There needs to be a renewed focus on creating material that will spread the word about BNI NZ– this can be as simple as continuing our regular Facebook posts on what different chapters are up to.
- Encouraging BNI branding on members’ email signatures and other items. Adding the BNI logo to members’ websites where they are comfortable about helps spreads the word about BNI, improves brand awareness and for the members raises their credibility.
- Selecting those who may have great sales skills when selecting certain leadership roles. The leadership teams are taking a more and more important role in shaping the structure of the chapter. Those with sales skills can help increase membership.
BNI Connect
- Using and encouraging the use of the visitor module on BNI Connect. We transitioned to BNI Connect this year and members are still getting used to it. More time needs to be spent getting trained up on BNI Connect in 2016 so people get the full value out of this online space.
- Updating the how to join messaging on the website. Again, members need to become more familiar with the BNI website in 2016.
Visitors
- Working closely with presidents and vice presidents and looking at how visitors are followed up. Visitors are a key part of growing our organisation, they must be carefully managed to ensure growth.
- Retaining members and completing exit interviews. When members leave it’s important to understand the reasons for this.
- By giving visitors a great experience, making them feel special. Chapters need to put an emphasis on getting visitors to meetings and then ensuring they have a fantastic experience while they are there.
- Training members on how to invite visitors. Some members are uncertain about how to reach out to new businesspeople – the leadership teams should help them with training in this area.
Along with these points it’s important that we make sure the systems and fundamentals of BNI are being followed by chapters.
Follow BNI’s structure and process and your chapter will grow and so will our organisation as a whole. Our goal for 2020 is to raise members from 2600 to over 3000 – following these points will put us on track to meet and exceed this goal.
