FAQ's
Ask BNI
This is the place where you can ask any question about BNI. If you have a question for BNI's CEO and Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner, send it to askbni@bni.com. He will post his response here, as space allows. From time to time, a guest Director will post a response.
Q: How many times can a member holding a seat in the chapter have a substitute? (name withheld by request)
A: Under PROGRAM GUIDELINES in the MEMBER POLICIES, it states:
"A member should have a substitute come when they are absent, but not replace them on a continuous basis."
Nine out of thirteen weeks is roughly 70% of the time. That feels continuous to me. I recommend that the President (called the Chapter Director in some countries) or the Vice President (called the Membership Coordinator in some countries) have a one-on-one conversation with the 'member' (not the sub).
My advice to them is - DON'T start the conversation with the policy. People don't care about policy, they care about "why". So, show them "why" it is important to be there.
BNI is all about building relationships with other business people. By sending a sub 70% of the time, the group is developing a relationship with the sub and not the member. The Chapter needs to develop the relationship with the member. The number of referrals passed, depends not only the quality of the service but, on the quality of the relationship as well. Therefore, the 'member' needs to attend regularly if they expect to get referrals. In addition, it's difficult for the member to GIVE referrals if they're not there to hear about the services that the various members offer.
Clear, open, honest, and direct communication is always the best way to handle problems or potential problems. Explain the "why" AND have high expectations. If after explaining why, the member disagrees or is unwilling to comply - then, and only then, review the policy with them and explain that the Membership Committee has the authority to open someone's classification over issues such as this.
Chapters that act from a position of caring - while NOT ACCEPTING MEDIOCRITY, are the most successful groups in BNI.
Good luck.
Ivan R. Misner, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO, BNI
Q: Why does BNI discourage chapters from scheduling outside speakers?
A: The subject of allowing outside speakers speak at a regular BNI meeting is an important one. This request comes most often from a newer chapter. The reasoning behind this desire for an outside speaker is usually, because the internal speakers are -
- not very interesting,
- boring,
- saying the same thing over and over again, or
- individual members have not learned to listen carefully to the message of the speaker.
The anticipated hope for an outside speaker is that outside speaker will liven up the meeting, teach a new useful technique and or be a "drawing card" for new guests.
In a "normal" organization, the calling card to get more members or, a larger audience is to feature a well-known and established speaker. The group responsibility is then to sell the potential audience on coming to hear a great speaker. BNI is NOT however a "normal organization" as we focus on promoting the success of our own members. While we may not be a normal organizational, we still have normal organizational dynamics to deal with.
One such pressure is to make the routine weekly behavior interesting, stimulating and inspirational. If the weekly meeting has the above three elements present every week, it would be hard to imagine anyone ever wanting an outside speaker. As you point out, it is the task of each member to act like a sales manager at his/her weekly sales meeting and work diligently to educate, stimulate and motivate the audience or the sales team.
BNI is designed to help members generate new business through establishing strong relationships among members. The purpose of the speakers spot is to allow each member to better education, stimulate and inspire the fellow members to find referrals for the speaker. Each member gets an equal chance to present his/her material which hopefully is educational, stimulating and inspires the fellow members in the audience to go out and find that speaker referrals the following weeks. At the next week's meeting, it is the previous speaker's turn to listen and be inspired by yet another member and so on.
By bringing in an outside speaker, the group may create temporary interest for that week, but the speaker will not be particularly interested in finding ANY of the members new business. Instead, the outside speaker is looking for his/her own business, and has not agreed to the Givers Gain philosophy.
In other words, they will be pleased to have members' give them business, but they have not agreed to find business for the members on an on-going basis.
What some members may not realize is that each member in the chapter must work hard to create their BEST and most polished presentation every opportunity available. If every member spends time and energy on presenting new elements to their industry each time they have the opportunity, word like "boring, tired and same old thing", will not be words used describing the chapter's atmosphere.
Instead, here is what we promote in Canada and some chapters in the USA:
Call the speaker's spot, the "Member's Show-Case Presentation."
Teach the members to coach the others on the best people to invite to hear his/her presentation. Give the members tickler information about what will be included in their Show Case Presentation. Give out lists of people who could be potential buyers of the service or service presented by the "Sales Manager."
Each Member's Show-Case Presenter should plan on having at least 10 Non-BNI guests in the audience to hear their presentation. Obviously, the Show-Case Presenter better prepare their presentation well.
If another member is able to get someone to attend the meeting to hear the show case presentation, then that can also be considered as a referral to the member giving the talk.
As the members learn to better prepare for their show case talk, the quality of the presentations will increase which will go a long way to fighting boredom. It doesn't make sense to bring in outside experts, when each chapter has 15-40 experts within it's own membership.
Two examples of this...
- One member invited the neighbor to hear a show case presentation by one of the members. The neighbor was an senior retired person in their mid 70s. Because the neighbor who showed up to the chapter meeting to hear the show case presentation was so impressed with the "nice group of young business people in the chapter" this same senior person began referring her own needs to members in the chapter such as the plumber, carpenter, financial advisor, and so on. Of course the old person was not interested in joining, but the chapter members got business, which is what we are all about.
- In Toronto, there is a translator in the chapter. When she gives her show case presentation she typically invites about 50 people to hear her talk. She does a great job and very animated. Her members know who her potential customers are and invite as many people that they can to hear her show case talk. Typically she has about 20-25 non-BNI guests out to hear her 10-minute presentation.
Now compare the potential for a non BNI speaker to come in and take the speaker's spot with having BNI members take more care and concern with preparation of their own talk.
Bringing in outside speakers, cheats the members out of the opportunity of becoming more responsible about how they deliver their own talks and present themselves.
Ways to liven up the group, and begin a process of creating more lively presentations are to: 1) call the 10-minute presentation a "showcase presentation," 2) invite guests to hear the speaker, and 3) create a contest for the most lively chapter show case talk to be operated each month for six months. The person voted each month to have the best presentation will win some sort of small prize or be posted to the website as a director's speaker of the month giving them more recognition and marketing exposure.
Please urge your leadership to "think out of the box" in respect to bringing in outside speakers. The problem may be boredom in the chapter, but the solution is not to bring in someone else to talk about how to fix the problem. The outside speaker does not fully understand the BNI process. They will not necessarily be in a good position to offer suggestion on the solution to internal boredom.
From an organizational perspective, organizational boredom and staleness must always be fixed by the participants in the organization. The solutions are easy. Sometimes, if an individual member is not willing to be part of the solution, then they are part of the problem and may need to be coached out of the BNI chapter.
Starting a "Buzz" about the BNI chapter will come from the members' spark, and not from a dynamic speaker invited once from the outside.
I hope this helps spark some ideas for you.
Best,
Don Morgan, MA
Founding National Director, BNI Canada
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