BNI Policy #7
Does anyone know what BNI Policy # 7 is? No, I didn’t either. I had heard about it though. It is, “Visitors may only attend a BNI meeting up to two times”.
I always wondered why. Has anybody else wondered why? We all must understand why, and we should be all confident in explaining the policy to a visitor. Let’s look at the why.
Visitor Credibility
A visitor might tarnish or adversely affect their credibility if they visit one or several BNI chapters multiple times, never applying for membership. What message does this send about them and the value BNI places on membership if we allow this?
Only allowing a visitor to attend twice, stops their credibility from being eroded.
Paying for the Privilege
BNI members pay for the privilege to promote their business to one another each week and while we want visitors to attend and experience a BNI meeting for themselves, it would be unfair to allow visitors to continue to visit continuously for free while members pay for the privilege.
Building Relationships
Building relationships is key to any successful business and to a successful BNI membership, which is why BNI puts so much emphasis on this and why it is a core value!
This also explains why BNI stresses the importance of helping visitors understand that building a strong relationship happens through trust, commitment, and engagement. Visiting without committing won’t allow the visitor to get the real value of BNI. BNI is about farming and cultivating leads and referral partners rather than hunting them at all costs. Visitors may not immediately understand this.
Assumptive Membership
Visitors are made to feel like part of the chapter during their visit. They participate in the meeting very much like a member.
They will see members giving and receiving referrals, but they won’t understand why, when they are part of the meeting like a member, they probably won’t receive referrals like a member.
The Visibility and Credibility leading to Profitability process may not be immediately obvious to them. If they keep visiting without joining and don’t receive any referrals yet, they may form the wrong opinion of BNI.
Summary
The two-visit-only Policy exists to protect the chapter and the visitor, and we should all be confident in explaining this to our visitors.
