Passing Referrals to Visitors

Passing Referrals to Visitors

One way that we are not recording all of the business being done within the chapter is by not passing referrals to visitors. The philosophy of BNI is Givers Gain, and the spirit of BNI is that we should give first and unconditionally. I think that the best way to handle this is that if you have a genuine referral for a visitor, write out a referral slip, and hand it over in the contributions section so the visitors can see the value of BNI to them.

We are inviting visitors to the chapter every week, to meet the group and do business with the group. When we invite them we are not inviting them to join, so we do not want to look like we “bait and switch”. Once we have met them, and found out more about their businesses, we may then want to invite them to join.

If the visitor was brought along by someone you trust, and you feel that the visitor would be a good member of the chapter, and you would like to encourage them to join, then write on the bottom of the slip, something along the lines of “come back next week and I will give you all the details”.

If you feel that the visitor may just a farmer, visiting lots of chapters to get leads, and may not be a good member, then write on the bottom of the slip, something along the lines of “come back next week and bring me more information about your business” as this will show them that we are just giving referrals to people we can trust.

Remember, every referral slip has a scale on it from 1 to 5 so use the scale to show the quality of the referral.

BNI Maidstone Mid-term Forum June 2009

Highlights of the Mid-term forum, in no particular order.

KL10 has a twitter account @bnikl10

Some chapters ask visitors for payment in advance for Meetings, and have a booking form for this.

pre-allocate members (on the hot-seat) to get certain professions as visitors.

BNI Connect going live in November, presentation at bniconnect.com
Local Business - Global Network™

BNI folder of visitors business cards, with six month follow up

Orientation table with all members literature

Visitors seated first for breakfast

BNI Membership up 40% due to credit crunch. Lots of new chapters opening, Kent still #1 region in UK.

Chapter business card - with a sausage www.bnidealandsandwich.co.uk

60 Seconds

We are making good progress with making sure all members have a sixty-seconds script in the box. This is useful as it makes the chapter look more professional. It shows the importance of your business, and it lets people know about you and your business when you can't attend the meeting.

All Members, should ensure they have an up to date Sixty-Seconds script in the box. This script should be in large type with your name and surname at the top so Substitutes can find it quickly and the script should be easy for the substitutes to read within one minute. Ideally, this script should be on your company letterhead.

It is a good idea to start something like this:

Good Morning, My name is ______ from _____ Chapter and today I am standing in for Mark Horner. Mark is an Architect who...

Scripts are sorted by Surname, and if you need any help with laminating, then please get in touch.

Mark Horner

Ten Minute Presentations and MSP

At BNI Maidstone - Pioneer Chapter, we have come up with the following Rules.

1. No member is to do a ten minute presentation until they have attended MSP. (Member Support Programme). All new members are expected to attend MSP within three months of joining, and existing members are expected to attend official BNI MSP training each year.

2. No Member is to do a ten minute presentation unless they have attended MSP within the last year.

3. The ten minute speakers will be allocated 6-8 weeks in advance. Once a slot is allocated, this will stay fixed, and if you are unable to attend for your slot, you will put back on the list for a future slot with no shuffling of those above.

4. When allocating slots, the Membership Co-ordinator will run through the ordered list on the website and ask the person at the head of the list if they can fill the slot, so each person gets a ten minute presentation in a fair rotation.

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This has been working now for nearly a year with great success: BNI Maidstone Pioneer Ten Minute Speakers

The BNI Maidstone Blog

The BNI Maidstone blog provides networking information for companies in and around the town of Maidstone in Kent. Helping to grow businesses to their full potential.