July 2008
Art of NetworkingBe sure to set your printer to "landscape" mode before printing.
Art of Networking
Grow BNI through Cross-Cultural Strategic Alliances
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The Cross Cultural Council has wanted to establish a national and international strategic alliance with organizations like the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which would complement BNI Membership. Here's why you should take an interest.
What is the purpose of developing diverse strategic alliances?
Nine years ago, BNI purposefully chose to address the apparent international syndrome: Most chapters appear to be very homogenous and not reflect the larger business community. BNI formally established the BNI Cross-Cultural Council to address that. The purpose is to increase the number of representative strategic alliances, clients, and employees of diverse cultures to expand profit opportunities for members. In short, regions, chapters, and member business owners increase market penetration by developing key relationships and forming alliances with all segments of their business community.
Where do you start?
First, identify organizations and key people in your region to build relationships with within these diverse communities. Second, through these local contacts, identify and develop relationships that lead to key people in these organizations. Then introduce them to your executive director for BNI to develop the relationships at a national & international level.
To this end, the local director should identify organizations to open doors between BNI and these organizations, looking for speaking engagements.
The makeup of the local business community can be researched through your local Chamber of Commerce and the Census web site. The State Office of Economic Development is also a good resource. Members of chapters in various diverse communities that have a strong mix of cultures are also great sources.
The Cross Cultural Council has established strategies to accomplish the goal of forming more strategic alliances. They are:
- Find out demographics of the businesses in your region.
- Build a list of representatives from all business markets.
- Ask for referrals from your network for personal introductions.
- Include target businesses in your marketing plan.
- Make employees and strategic alliances aware of your initiative.
We're looking for regions that want to be part of a local pilot program with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. The alliance will be local first and, ideally, national after success is measured. Please contact me if you're interested in participating or if you can make an introduction. I look forward to hearing from you!
To contact Stacia Robinson, e-mail her at stacia@bni.com.
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Simple but Not Easy
Networking is simple; it's just not easy.
If it were easy, everyone would do it and do it well … and they don't! In this article I'm not going to give you a step-by-step process you need to employ to network effectively. No, this article is to get you to stop and think about all the networking advice found in articles, books, blogs, podcasts, and audios you aren't following. I want you to stop and think about the things you should be doing—and implement them.
In my presentations around the world I talk about how to apply networking to your everyday life. Sometimes someone comes up and says, "I've heard my director or education coordinator talk about some of those things before." But they've never successfully applied them.
Hearing it for a year versus doing it for a year are completely different things. Success is about the "doing," not just the "knowing." In fact, I believe that ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice! The only thing more powerful is knowledge on fire.
There are so many things in life that look simple but, in fact, are not easy. Cooking is one of those for me. It always looks so simple. My wife can go into the kitchen and within 30-40 minutes put together a gourmet meal. Then, I get into the kitchen and burn water.
Small repairs around the house look so simple. Then I pick up a hammer and, well, it's just not pretty. I remember when I was 17 my dad brought me into the garage and solemnly said, "Son, you'd better go to college, because you're never going to make a living with your hands!" Good advice, Dad. Thanks.
Golf. Looks simple, right? I'm not talking about the professional competition; I mean just going out and smacking the ball around some grass. It looks simple. I've learned, however, that it's not easy.
There are so many things in our lives that look simple but are not easy. Networking is one of them. It is a skill. A skill that takes commitment and effort to learn as well as consistently apply.
So, I'm giving you an assignment (sorry, my inner professor is coming out): Think of one idea in a book, article, recording, blog—anything—that you've read or heard over the last year that you wanted to apply to your life but never did. Your assignment is to pinpoint that "something" and do it within the next seven days. If it is something you do on an ongoing basis, then find a way to incorporate it into your life and/or your business. All excuses are equal—just do it.
Success is the uncommon application of common knowledge. You have the knowledge. Now apply it with uncommon commitment. It won't be easy. But I assure you it is simple.
Called the father of modern networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the founder and chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization. His latest New York Times best selling book, Masters of Sales, can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.
BNI in the News
Hamilton County Businesses Thrive
Despite threats of a gloomy economy, BNI (formerly known as Business Network International) says members continue to grow their businesses in Hamilton County while pumping more than $56 million into the local economy in 2007.
During 2007, BNI, a business and professional organization, had nine chapters based in Hamilton County with a total of 225 members who relied on the organization's word-of-mouth referral system to boost their businesses.
Randy Sipe, sales manager for Main Street Power Mail and a BNI assistant director, says BNI networks can help businesses break into the booming markets—like Hamilton County—while acting as a stabilizing factor in areas where the economy isn't so good.
Click here to read the article.
Business Support Served Up with Breakfast
Every Tuesday morning, when most people are reaching for the snooze button, Jonathan Black and 20 other members of The Hub tuck into a weekly mix of business and breakfast.
Despite the 7 am start, the seats around the Last Supper-sized table at Eliza's Manor in Bealey Avenue, where the meetings take place, are routinely filled.
The people who belong to The Hub are a committed and eclectic bunch. Among those partaking in the weekly ritual are a cordon bleu chef, an electrician, a masseuse, a furniture retailer, a realtor, a financial adviser and a panelbeater.
Click here to read the article.
Business-to-Business Group Forges More than Friendships
Jeffrey Turner is well aware of the advantages of membership in Business Network International, a business-to-business organization that has two chapters in Lafayette.
"We've been members for six years. It represents about 17 percent of our new business each year," said Turner, president of ServiceMaster Advantage, a Lafayette-based company that provides residential and commercial cleaning services. "It's obvious to us that it's worthwhile."
Turner is a member of Bright Futures, a BNI chapter that meets on Thursday mornings.
Click here to read the article.
Play Your Cards Right with the Written Word
The cultural significance of business cards should not be underestimated—we are judged on every aspect of our appearance in society, so having the right business card can speak volumes about your social status.
If Alan Brightman, Yahoo's senior policy director of special communities, handed you his business card, the first thing you might notice is its texture. That is because his details are also printed in Braille. The main reason is not so that his card can be read by blind people - he says "only 10 per cent of them read Braille". Rather, it raises awareness about the communities he works with. "People take it, realise it's different and look at it, that makes it a better card."
Click here to read the article.
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Giving's Greatest Reward
Recently, someone at a Leadership Team Training Meeting asked me, "Gordie, how come you know so many people?"
"Because every day, I make it my point to introduce two people to each other," I said.
Absolutely nothing is more energizing than bringing two strangers together for their mutual benefit. I owe my commitment to this ideal to a movie I saw in 2000, starring Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt and Haley Joe Osmont, entitled Pay It Forward.
Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother's alcoholism and fearful his abusive but absent father will return, is intrigued by an assignment from Mr. Simonet, his new social studies teacher.
The assignment: to think of something to change the world and then put it into action. Young Trevor's idea is to a "pay a favor not back, but forward"—repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new, good deeds, done to three new people.
Trevor's efforts to deliver on his idea bring a revolution, not just in his life, but his mother's, his physically and emotionally scarred teacher's, and, also, to a circle of people completely unknown to him.
Shortly after seeing this movie, I made its message my mantra and applied it to my weekly networking efforts. At first it was challenging, but once I got the hang of it, it became easier. Before long, it was second nature. Weekly soon became daily.
Bringing two strangers together for their mutual benefit is really about "paying it forward"—or Givers Gain. It's my daily good deed. Accomplishing this simple assignment is exhilarating and energizing.
People never forget who brought them together, especially when some good comes from the introduction. The result: they most often voluntarily reciprocate. The proof can be seen in my startup BNI chapter.
Tuesday, January 16, 2008, I invited 28 people to join me to start a new BNI chapter in Winter Garden, near my home, at the new Winter Garden Village Mall.
On Tuesday, February 12, 2008, 27 of the original invitees attended our first meeting. Four weeks into our Pre-Core Training we had 25 members, and after our Visitors Day in May our number stands at 35.
As you "pay it forward," introducing your friends to each other, remember to never ask for anything in return; do it because it's the right thing to do, and do it daily. Paying it forward will then pay off big.
Gordie Allen is on the Leadership Team of the Central Florida Region's newest Chapter, BNI's Referral Masters. He is a Marketing Consultant with Leads-Plus, Inc. He invites all of his BNI friends to enroll in his blog at www.salesprospectingtips.com.
My BNI Story
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Having been a member of BNI for ten years and as an assistant director in the Manhattan Region, I can say that I had one of the best experiences of my tenure. One of the tools that I promote to new members and to the chapters I visit is the BNI Card Case. I always carry it in my briefcase. It is filled with my fellow members' cards as well as my own.
As a salesperson in the virtual computer IT field, I have a diverse range of clients. About a month ago, the executive director of a small hotel in New York and I were discussing his infrastructure and, during our meeting, he mentioned he might have to stall his decisions as he needed to arrange an abatement for the facility. Jokingly, he pointed to my BNI Card Case and said, "Do you have anyone in your group that does asbestos removal?"
Without hesitating, I opened to Marc Rutstein's card, the principal for Environmental Consulting & Testing, dialed his number, and put the two in touch. Marc called me a couple of days later to inform me that he had just completed his first meeting with the client and walked out of the meeting with a six-figure check in his hand. The total to date is $165,000. Because the client was so thrilled with Marc's services, I was able to complete a $50,000 agreement for my company.
In ten years of professional networking, that was the largest single referral that I was able to give to another member. And let me tell you, it was the best feeling in the world!
Thank you, Dr. Misner, for defining business networking and for changing the way the world does business.
Thomas J. Lacalamita, Assistant Director, BNI Manhattan Region
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It was only a year ago that the Lessing Chapter in Frankenthal was inaugurated, and I became a member immediately.
Since then, I've witnessed the Lessing Chapter's meetings create business win-win situation for its members as well as establish personal win-win relationships. Personally, I have enjoyed a joyous New Years event, helped a member land a deal months in the making, and aided a member's teenage daughter in finding an adventurous vacation abroad in Alaska.
Thanks to BNI, I am socially engaged by building a seniors' home of 10 flats in my town www.senioren-lodge-dirmstein.de, which authorities regard as a "pilot project." A number of Lessing Chapter members joined in to make it possible.
Miriam Ettisch-Enchelmaier, B.A., MSc. (Computer Science), President, CEO, Ettisch-Enchelmaier GmbH
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I have been a member of BNI for about five years, beginning in New Jersey in the Mercer County region while working for other companies. I found myself gaining credibility over time. Known as the Networking Queen by my friends and colleagues, BNI was a natural fit.
In 2007, I launched Future Endeavors Life and Business Coaching in Bridgeville, Deleware, and quickly took a seat at the Salisbury for Lunch Chapter. There, my first three business clients were signed on, followed by six more to my group life coaching workshops.
Not long afterwards, I wrote my first book, offering a way for women to understand what is happening in their business life and in the corporate world: The Last Box; A Women's Guide to Surviving Corporate America. Since publishing, I have been on local television, and the book is quickly becoming a hit.
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Susan Rae Baker, President and CEO, Future Endeavors Life and Business Coaching
A Rolls-Royce Because of BNI
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While its first owner's story ends in distress, my story has only gotten better. The Rolls-Royce currently rests in the hands of a computer doctor whose path continues to be successful, thanks to the workings of BNI.
It all began not long after I relocated from Sitka, Alaska, to St. Petersburg, Florida. My wife and I bought St. Pete Computers, and being new in town, it was very difficult to get the business going. About a year after we started St. Pete Computers, I was invited to the BNI Grand Slam Chapter. They had an IT opening. I was so impressed with the meeting that I immediately applied and was accepted a week later.
Truth be told, I didn't know anything about networking or referral-based marketing. I was told about the Certified Networker Program. Although it was financially difficult for us at the time, my wife and I went ahead with the course. I learned so much from the Certified Networker Program that our business actually increased over 30 percent that year.
I went on to become president of our chapter in the next year, and our business continued to thrive, growing by another 40 percent the following year. I was also able to grow our chapter to 40 members.
Now, a year later, I have joined the director team in our region. Because our business has done so well, I was able to purchase the 1987 1/2 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur. For that I am truly grateful. I never believed I'd have that opportunity. Right now, using all the tools and techniques I have learned from BNI, three out of four people that walk in my door today at St. Pete Computers are referrals.
Dr. Jeff Parker, St. Pete Computers
You Never Know What Might Happen
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| A unique visitor attends Visitors Day. |
After the meeting, a member was taking photos for their web site and I offered to pose with Peter and the snake. I foolishly thought I'd stand beside them. The next thing I knew, Peter had placed the python around my neck, instructed me to hold out my hand, and he placed the snake's head into it!
It was such a unique experience for me, and, really, I was glad to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with such a unique visitor! As a director, you have to be prepared for anything. You never know what will happen at a Visitors Day!
Natalie Paz-Storey, Executive Director, BNI - Central Ohio
BNI Makes a Father's Dream a Reality
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The formula for success was simple—get at least one major insurer account and get established within the community. With 15 years of experience in management capacity, I was able to come in close contact with the upper management of major insurers in our area. However, I was new to the community and needed to build local relationships—and fast.
After three months of business developing slowly, Billy Porter, from Eastern Exterminating, invited me to BNI Homestead. I sat in on my first meeting and knew that BNI was for me. The members of the group were local and, for the most part, influential as well.
The following month I was inducted. Almost immediately my business grew. At first it was a car here and there, but before I knew it, I was working on almost one BNI car per week.
It has been five months since my induction, and my ninth month in business finds me in the midst of purchasing an adjacent property for the expansion of my facility. Southside Collision & Custom Works has become the premier collision repair facility in its market, and is close to outgrowing its present capacity. This is due in large part to the word-of-mouth advertising, relationships, and referral business generated through BNI.
Today, Southside Collision & Custom Works is on the verge of adding not only a major new car dealer account, but a major rent-a-car fleet account to our three existing major insurer accounts. Both of these new account referrals came directly from fellow BNI members—Ulises Pacheco (Budget Rent-A-Car) and Jon Pineiro (Signarama).
Efrem Rodriguez, Southside Collision & Custom Works, Inc., BNI Homestead Chapter
Breaking News
Members Event KL08
Sponsored by Emery Worldwide and VIS-AGE
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On Tuesday, top international speakers spoke to Asian directors, many of whom have been unable to afford travelling to California for the Annual BNI Directors Conference. The speeches were outstanding, replete with cutting-edge advice on how to run BNI as a business and how to stimulate PR.
The day started off with a phenomenal presentation from the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. This was the first time many of the delegates from India, Thailand, Taiwan, and Malaysia had the opportunity to hear Dr. Misner and meet him in person. Dr. Misner was photographed many times, quipping that he felt like a pop star in Asia!
The second day was less packed with speakers to allow plenty of time for serious networking activities. Members worked the room asking, "Who do you know who can help me to get a contact for … ?" If the person could help, the member wrote down the member's name and promised to follow up later. The goal was to get about ten names. The morning was complete with Laughter Yoga. Every member benefitted with leads in hand and a healthy laugh!
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The 10-person team from Germany, led by National Director Harald Lais, told us they plan to target a country every year. They hope to meet international BNI Members, with a view of forging strong commercial links.
The highlight of day two was the Gala Dinner. By popular demand, the Lion Dance Troupe headed the entertainment, and again provided the "Wow" factor with their incredible energy and agility, a truly Asian spectacle.
For the first time ever, BNI invited their two strategic alliance partners, Ecademy and Referral Institute, to share the platform. This was a resounding success for all concerned, as it is likely to strengthen the relationships. Ecademy's Penny Power delivered a down-to-earth message about the potential of online networking. The Referral Institute's Mike Macedonio and Dawn Lyons gave a huge boost to the Directors Day with a strong motivational address.
The organizers are indebted to Niri Patel, National Director for India, for acting as MC throughout, and to Don and Nancy Morgan for their highly-charged presentation. Many thanks for a job well done!
Dr. Misner was generous in his praise for KL08, and has pledged his support for another Members Event in 2010. Having assessed the feedback sheets from the delegates present, there is an overwhelming demand to host the next one in Kuala Lumpur again.
Please visit www.bni-worldwide.com for further information and to read testimonials for KL08!
Submitted by Avryl Au and Robert French
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International Networking Week Conference: Get Connected 09
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| Beth and LuAnn present Get Connected 09 at the 2008 US National BNI Convention |
Our colleagues in Europe have hosted two member conferences in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, over the past three years. Inspired by them and the "BFO" (Blinding Flash of the Obvious), that members should also have an opportunity to learn from the experts, brought BNI Minnesota Directors LuAnn Buechler and Beth Anderson to develop Get Connected 09.
But wait … it's not just for BNI members; it is open to all networking professionals—giving us all a chance to "get connected" with new opportunities in and outside of our organization. This conference will bring members and non-members together for a weekend of networking, education, and relationship building. It is an opportunity to promote International Networking Week and BNI to networkers worldwide. It is a chance to learn from each other and build relationships in a relaxed atmosphere. It is an occasion to combine work and play. So bring the family.
It is also an opportunity to learn from the experts. The keynote address will be delivered by our own Dr. Ivan Misner. Other featured speakers include BNI Executive Directors Frank DeRaffele and Jeff Stay. So don't miss it! Join us in St. Pete Beach for the first-ever International Networking Week Conference and Get Connected in '09.
For more information or to register go to http://www.GetConnected09.com.
Submitted by LuAnn Buechler & Beth Anderson, Assistant Directors, BNI Minnesota
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Entrepreneurial Excellence Radio Show
Misner and De Raffele Offer "Referral Marketing Tips"
BNI Executive Director Frank De Raffele, creator and host of the Entrepreneurial Excellence Radio Show, has asked Dr. Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, to be on his radio show weekly with a segment entitled "The Referral Marketing Tip."
It was launched on June 16, 2008, when Dr. Ivan Misner and Frank De Raffele conducted a 4-minute Referral Marketing Tip for the entrepreneur. These tips are offered through conversational banter between the two, making the tip interesting, engaging, and fun.
De Raffele tells SuccessNet: "It's a win-win arrangement. Ivan gets great exposure for BNI, and my entrepreneurial audience benefits from the advice of the world's leading authority on networking, word-of-mouth marketing, and referrals."
The show web site, http://www.EERadioShow.com, will have archives of each of the shows and feature the Referral Marketing Tips. This will allow anyone to listen via the web anytime and to download podcasts.
Entrepreneurial Excellence is now being syndicated across the USA. It opens a new affiliate market in Palm Beach, Florida, the first week of August. If you would like to have the show broadcast in your area, contact Frank directly at Frank@EERadioShow.com.
Words of Wisdom From Brian Tracy
BNI Members get 25% off BTU course fees. For more information, please click, call or e-mail: www.briantracyu.com/bnimembers; (866) 505-8345, Extension 21; bni@briantracyu.com
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The keys to sales success.
When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers some years ago, he was asked what he was going to change. The players? The plays? The training process? How was he going to turn this team around after a string of failures?
Lombardi is reported to have replied, "I am not going to change anything. We will use the same players, the same plays, and the same training system. But we will concentrate on becoming brilliant on the basics. Before I am finished, we will be the best team in the National Football League in kicking, passing, blocking, running and catching. We will run our plays with such precision that the other side will know what we are going to do, but will be unable to stop us. We will be brilliant on the basics."
This principle applies to you as well. Your job is to become brilliant on the basics of selling. This begins by identifying the seven essential parts of the professional selling process and then developing a plan to upgrade your skills in each area.
Fortunately, all sales skills are learnable. It does not matter how well you have performed in different areas in the past. You can learn any sales skill that you need to learn to achieve any sales goal that you can set for yourself.
Everyone in the top 10% of your field started in the bottom 10%. Everyone who is doing well today was once doing poorly. The top people in your industry were at one time not even in your industry and did not know that it existed. But once they began, they committed themselves to becoming excellent in each of the key result areas that make up the successful sale.
Improve a Single "Weak" Skill
Here is an important discovery. Your weakest key skill sets the height of your income. Just as a chain breaks at the weakest link, the skill at which you perform the worst determines how many sales and how much money you will make. By improving a single skill, the one skill that can help you the most, you can increase your sales and your income faster than in any other way.
Here is the key question: What one skill, if you were absolutely excellent at it, would help you the most in doubling your sales and your income?
This is one of the most important questions you will ever ask and answer. The answer usually jumps into your mind. If you are not sure of the answer, it is essential that you find out, and find out quickly. Ask your manager. Ask your best customers. Ask your colleagues. You must know your weakest skill if you are going to improve in that area and unlock your full potential for higher income.
Measure Your Abilities for Success
In this article, I will give you the first three of the seven key result areas of selling and show you how to measure your ability in each area. Next month, I will explain the next four critical skills, and how you can master each one of them.
Give yourself a grade of 1 to 10 in each of the key result areas of selling: 1 means that you are low in that area and 10 means you are highly skilled in that area. Be honest with yourself. If you are not sure about the accuracy of your answers, review your personal scores with your sales manager, or someone else who knows the truth about your sales ability.
The starting point of personal improvement is when you become absolutely honest with yourself and others about the areas in which improvement can have the greatest impact on your sales.
1. The first key result area of selling is prospecting. This is defined as your ability to get face to face or ear to ear with qualified prospects who can and will buy your product or service within a reasonable amount of time.
Please note that this does not mean that you talk to lots of interesting people who may or may not buy your product sometime in the future. Prospecting requires that you spend more and more time with people who can buy and pay for what you are selling in the short term.
A score of 10 means that you are fully occupied, every hour of every day, and you have so many prospects that you cannot take on any more. You probably have an appointments secretary who keeps a backlog of people who are eager to talk to you and to buy from you. If this is your situation today, you would give yourself a 10.
A score of 1 means that you are a lonely person. You sit around the office like the Maytag repairman. You don't phone anyone and no one calls you. You probably drink a lot of coffee, read the newspaper, play on the Internet, and chat with your friends much of the time.
It is easy to give yourself a grade on the subject of prospecting. Just calculate what percentage of your time is spent each day with prearranged prospects. If it is 50%, give yourself a 5. If it is 70%, give yourself a 7.
2. The second key result area of selling is establishing rapport, trust, and credibility. People will not buy from you until they like you, trust you, and are convinced that you are their friend and acting in their best interest.
A score of 10 in this area means that you are a positive, cheerful, high-energy individual with a warm, empathetic personality. You also get along wonderfully with almost everyone you meet. A score of 1 means that after you talk with someone for the first time they never want to talk to you or see you again.
3. The third key result area of selling is identifying needs accurately. The biggest mistake that you can make when you meet or talk to a new prospect is to assume that you already know what this prospect needs, wants, and is willing to pay for. Each prospect is unique. In the initial stage of your conversation with the prospect, your single focus is to ask questions and listen carefully to ascertain whether or not a genuine need for what you sell exists in the mind and heart of the person you are talking to.
A score of 10 in identifying needs would mean that you have a careful series of questions, from the general to the particular, which you go through, one by one with the prospect to clearly ascertain if the prospect needs the product or service you are selling. At the end of your questioning process, it is abundantly clear to both the prospect and yourself that the prospect can use, benefit from, and pay for what you are selling.
Scoring 1 means that your approach to each prospect is random. You ask whatever questions pop into your mind and say whatever falls out of your mouth. For you, every sales call is a new adventure. You have no idea what is going to happen or how it is going to turn out. The mark of the professional is preparation. He has thought through and prepared every part of the sale conversation. He leaves nothing to chance.
Give yourself a grade on the three key result areas of selling explained above, and think about how you could become better in each one. Next month, I will explain the final four skills that you require to move to the top of your field.
Be brilliant with the basics.
About Brian Tracy:
Brian Tracy is one of the top sales experts and trainers in the world. He has taught more than 2,000,000 sales people in 46 countries. He is the president of Brian Tracy University of Sales and Entrepreneurship online, committed to teaching ambitious individuals how to rapidly increase their sales, income and profits. For a free one-hour CD, "How to Become a Sales Superstar," click on briantracyu.com/success.