Vision is important at BNI and in your own business!
It’s recognised that a team or group with a shared vision will be more successful.
A vision provides a direction, a sense of purpose and a guiding set of principles to make decisions by.
BNI’s vision is Changing the Way the World Does Business®
BNI’s Mission is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional referral marketing program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.
Chapter Goals
Having Goals for our chapter allows us to check our progress regularly and adjust what we are doing to achieve our Vision and Mission.
It’s recognised that having goals, especially written goals and a plan to get there helps individuals, groups, companies and even countries be successful in reaching them.
Having no goals, badly set goals or goals with no plans means it’s unlikely anything will be achieved. We can’t celebrate if we don’t set goals to achieve.
Goals in BNI are relatively easily set because we know the underlying KPI’s that indicate a group is being successful.
We need to recognise here that having FUN is a key component of a BNI Meeting – but BUSINESS is the MAIN reason why we are here. FUN is the cream on top.
We will have plans, education and activity to help us achieve these goals. Achieving them will mean everyone will benefit more from their membership.
These BNI KPI’s that have been proven to be effective measures of chapter performance that we can easily track through the PALMS reports
•Attendance
•One to ones (1-2-1s)
•Referrals
•Visitors
• TYFCB
You may also like to include event goals and other goals.
Here below are recommendations for useful goals for your chapter. You can add or delete goals as you like but remember they should be in line with your vision and mission.
Attendance
Attendance is one key to success and we know that a chapter with poor attendance is unlikely to build and maintain good referral relationships. As a chapter we believe that as a minimum we expect xx% of members to be present or be represented by a substitute each week (guide 90% is ok, 95% is excellent).
Currently we are achieving xx%. Our plan is to encourage attendance by education, having fun and engaging meetings and actively following up on absences.
One to Ones
Another key to success is quality One to Ones as they help in building referral partnerships and deepen relationships. As a chapter we believe the ideal number of one to ones each member should have a month (or week) is xx (2 per month is ok, 4 is good).
Currently we are averaging x per month. Our plan is to encourage one to ones by getting members to book one to ones in the networking break, meet ASAP with new members and recognise members who achieve x or more per month.
Referrals
Referrals are why we are all here and receiving a quality referral can open up a world of possibilities. BNI’s Philosophy is Givers Gain® so we believe the expectations of each member is to give at least x referrals per month (2 per month is average, 4 is excellent).
Our plan to encourage referrals is to encourage one to ones and attendance, educate on quality sales pitches and make sure every member understands that giving referrals is an expectation.
Visitors
Visitors are the life blood of BNI and represent business opportunities as well as introducing potential new members to the chapter. Our expectation is that each member brings x number of visitors over the next 6 months. (1 is average, 6 is excellent) Currently our average is x.
Our plan to encourage visitors is to educate on how to invite, improve our visitor process, have fun, welcoming and vibrant meetings, have themes for meetings that make it easy to invite and we expect that every member takes responsibility for bringing visitors.
Thank You for Closed Business (TYFCB)
TYFCB shows that we generate real business and that thanking those who helped generate business for us is polite and encourages further referrals.
We think that based on our last 6 months TYFCB ($xxxx) and on our plans for the next six months that we can aim for $xx for the next six months. We are going to encourage all members to be assiduous about recording their TYFCB.
Events
We believe that holding events helps build relationships in the group and that they are also fun. Our goal is to hold X number of events in the next 6 months of X type or examples.
Other
We plan to … (find a new venue… support a charity, grow the group to x members… have a monthly meeting enhancer…. etc)
Hopefully by now your leadership team has had a chance to sit down and discuss what its vision and goals for the group are for the next six months (and beyond).
