Once upon a time Mary and Michael met and fell in love.
It came to pass that Michael proposed to Mary (or was it the other way around…..) and they got engaged.
They were recommended a jeweller by a travel agent friend and the jeweller helped them choose a ring that symbolised their love for each other. Conversation with the jeweller turned to when and where they would get married.
They said no rush but maybe next year. The jeweller said if you want the wedding of your dreams it’s good to plan at least 12 months ahead.
She said: “If you like I can recommend a wedding planner who will sit down for an hour with you and talk you through your ideal day and budget”
So, they went to see the wedding planner to talk about their budget…..
The wedding planner said (and we all know where this is going), if you need help finding suppliers for any of those things on your list, I have contacts I trust and recommend you could talk to.
So, Mary and Michael talked to most of the people on the wedding planner’s list and they chose to use most of them, they even booked their honeymoon with the travel agent.
And they had the most wonderful and harmonious wedding day they could have imagined and they lived happily ever after…..
So, what it the parable here? How does the story relate to BNI?
Of course, these service providers were all members of the same BNI group. They were part of the same wedding and events hub that had gotten together regularly to find out exactly how each other’s businesses operate, their ideal client and how to deliberately introduce each other to their clients.
How many newly engaged couples would each of those members meet each week that could create referrals for the other members. One a week each? Imagine the referrals. This is an example of a hub working together to help solve a particular need. In doing so, they help create a lot of business for each other.
Until they got together as a hub and recruited all the different specialities, they only had a contact sphere of limited possibilities.
Challenge
Can you identify contact sphere possibilities in your group? Can you see further referral potential if these were developed into hubs?
To find out more about hubs and how to make them work, talk to your BNI Director Consultant.
