The VCP Process
It’s been a while since we have talked about VCP. Briefly: V is for Visibility, C is for Credibility and P is for Profitability. It’s not a formula, it’s a process.
•Visibility is when members know who you are and what you do.
•Credibility is when members trust you, implicitly, and know you are good at what you do. Everything you do at BNI adds or subtracts from your Visibility and Credibility.
•Profitability is when a member is a fan and refers you freely. It’s not when you cover your membership fee.
Your VCP is at a different place with every member of your chapter.
One-to-Ones
One-to-ones play a key part in establishing your credibility with an individual member and are a crucial step to gaining profitability. For your first one-to-one with another member, the use of the GAINS Exchange Profile is recommended. This helps uncover common interests, useful networks and referable skills.
However, like any deeper relationship, the initial one-to-one or meeting is only the start. To really build a referral relationship it may take as many as 8 one-to-ones with the same member to reach that level. Often, subsequent one-to-ones are just general catch-ups and while they qualify as one-to-ones, they don’t move the relationship forward to profitability.
All one-to-ones to achieve VCP need to be intentional (have a purpose).
Intentional One-to-Ones
First, review the chapter member roster and identify your referral partner level for each person:
·Advocator: Refers you when someone asks for a referral.
·Promoter: Volunteers referral information when they hear about a key situation.
·Creator: Reaches out to their network to promote you without waiting for prompting.
The Creator
The Creator is the status that we all want to get to. This person knows, likes and trusts you so much that they’re just going to open up their network to you and really make an effort to bring you in. Not waiting for the phone to ring, not waiting for a key situation, just making it happen all on their own. The idea is to learn how you can become a Creator for them and show them how they can become a Creator for you.
Start with the GAINS Exchange and ask for three more things:
1.Bragging Point: Two short sentences to use when describing the member’s services. Knowing this helps you become an Advocator.
2.Key Situation: What is the trigger event that causes people to need their services? Knowing this helps you become a Promoter.
3.Golden Goose Referral Partner: What person or profession could pass them endless referrals? Knowing this helps you become a Creator.
Wait, there’s more!
Next week we will go into the next steps of moving through the different steps from Advocator to Promoter to Creator.
