To The Next Level
And the Moral of the Story Is …
If you miss BNI, you miss an opportunity.
By Jeff Ensinger, BNI Executive Director - BNI of Central Illinois

This article is for one of three BNI people:

• You just joined.
• You haven't gone through MSP (Member Success Program for new members).
• You just received that infamous letter #3. You know, the letter that says you missed your 3rd meeting, reminds you about the substitution policy, and explains that upon your 4th absence your profession will be opened up for another person.

Or maybe you identify with all three: You just joined, didn't go through MSP, and now you've missed your 3rd meeting.

That was me. I went from being a participant, to a non-participant, to a fanatic in about two year's time. Mind you, it took a fantastic experience to get me to the fanatic level.

Let me give you a little background.

I have been in sales since 1988. I was first a headhunter with a national recruiting firm and then went into the insurance business in 1991. Since 1988, I was told to pound the phones. Each week, I was making about 500 calls and getting about 15 appointments the next week. I would spend my nights going through the city directory looking up names and phone numbers. It was grueling, but it worked.

Somewhere along the line I was told to start tracking all of my activity: how many calls I made; how many people I spoke to; how many appointments were set; and, finally, how many sales were made.

For every 100 calls I would talk to about 50 people, get about 20 appointments, and close 5 sales. Now that I look back on it, that's a lot of work for five sales.

That all changed when I discovered BNI in 2002. Notice that I joined BNI in 2000, but I discovered BNI in 2002. There is a difference.

The BNI Difference
When I joined, I was plugging along and not involved. I was doing OK. In fact, I started my own business based on the referrals I received through my chapter. But I would still qualify myself as not really involved until June of 2002 when we started a new chapter.

I was lucky enough to be the first president and that chapter went from 0 to 38 members in about six months. We passed so many referrals that our heads were spinning.

As a member of the previous chapter, I missed meetings here and there and would get the warning letter on occasion. When I received the 2nd letter, I would make myself go to the meetings so I wouldn't get kicked out.

As president you can't miss meetings, so in the new chapter I was forced to be at every meeting. It was then I learned what most BNI members know: When you miss meetings you miss opportunities.

This was made clear one meeting, right after I completed my infomercial. A lady stood up and said she had to talk to me after the meeting.

We talked after the meeting, and I met with her two days later at her office, met with her employers the next week, and had the biggest sale I had ever made in my life two weeks after that.

You would think that's the big story—but it's not. It is the fact that she was a visitor that day. Had I not been there that day I would not have met her and probably would not be an executive director today.

I know all the excuses: It's cold. It's snowy. It's raining. It's early. I want to play golf. It's only one meeting …

I'll give you one excuse to be there. You might make money today!

So what's the moral of the story? There are actually two:

You never know who will be in the room.

If you're not there, that somebody won't meet you either.

And then there's that closing ratio: One Referral-One Appointment-One Sale.