Profitability in BNI

 

The BNI Platform promises a horizon of opportunities for the business owner.

 

Through the Givers Gain philosophy, Chapter members stand to gain more than just referrals and closed sales. The intangible benefits include increasing one’s net worth, growing strong and meaningful relationships and personal growth.

 

That said, profitability in terms of Sales Growth, is a fundamental objective for every business owner. Profitability targets may vary from trade to trade, and is dependent on a variety of factors (we observe that some business owners profess to join BNI not for profitability, and we respect that).

 

This workshop aims to help BNI members understand why they are not gaining as much as they desire in terms of referrals. More importantly, the workshop will assist them to discover their blind-spots, and areas in which they should focus on as priority before arriving at a higher achiever level.

 

The three-hour workshop is broadly divided into 3 segments:

 

1. Self-Discovery

Understand yourself. Understand your Chapter and how you can develop a better business relationship with your members.

 

2. Your Strategy in BNI

Re-visit your business strategy. Does your current strategy bring you the results you are seeking?

 

What are the missing gaps in your strategy that can ensure better success? How will you fill these gaps?

 

3. Develop a winning Strategy

Fine-tune you strategy to allow you to become more effective in BNI. This may require you to apply changes in the way you operate, developing new habits and behaviors, and achieving measurable results.

 

Facilitators:  Michael Tey, Executive Director, BNI Singapore

        Joseph Chong, Assistant Director, BNI Singapore

 

Registration (expected turnout 60)

 

Deadline:             22^nd March 2010, 5:30pm

Email to:              miketey@bni.com.sg

 

Workshop date:  29^th March 2010

Venue:                Exhibition Room, 2^nd Floor,

    Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Address:              47 Hill Street          

Time:                   8:45am – 12:30pm

Fee:                     $30 pax ($50 for substitute)

 

** Members can pay through their Chapter Secretaries, who should contact

    Michael through email.

** All BNI members to bring their own BNI name tags for training.

 Please note the Singapore time is 17th March 1am (USA 16th March 10AM PDT / 1PM EDT).

Extracted from BNI Dr Ivan Misner’s latest article

“Although the full complexity of your network may not be apparent even to you, the results of a good referral networking system are measurable.
…..
The returns you receive through networking are like the apples you pick from an orchard you started from a single seed. You don’t expect anything the first year, or even the second or third. But in the fourth year that tree will not only bear fruit, it will spread the seeds that ultimately become a whole grove of apple trees. With networking, the time scale is not that daunting; it may not take years to start seeing results, but it will probably take many months. You might get a few early referrals, but the real payoff in measurable business comes after you’ve stuck with it long enough to build a substantial referral network.
…. ”

For the fill article, click here.

The following are simple Flash Animation which appears on BNI podcast Episode 142 which are good and simple visual tools to learn about

1. Why Join BNI - the 4 Reasons

2. How BNI Works - the 5 steps

3. Benefits of BNI

Date:25 Jan (Monday)
Time:9am - 12 noon
Venue: Marketing Institute of Singapore
210, Middle road, #07-08, IOI Plaza, Room #1017.

Investment: $30 per member
Dateline: Registration by 20 Jan

Top 10 ways to totally fail as a networker

What do you have to do to be a complete failure when you’re attending networking events ?

Article by Gordie Allen and obtained from SuccessNet Online

Click HERE to see original article. 


About Gordie Allen
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. 

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. 


Post by Kelly Chua

Article by By Brian Tracy and obtain from SuccessNet Online.

Click HERE to see original article. 


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.


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.  


Posted by Kelly Chua

Article by Stacia Robinson (BNI Cross Culture Council Chairman) and obtained from SuccessNet Online

Click HERE to see original article. 


What diverse business groups are in your region?

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:

1. Find out demographics of the businesses in your region.
2. Build a list of representatives from all business markets.
3. Ask for referrals from your network for personal introductions.
4. Include target businesses in your marketing plan.
5. Make employees and strategic alliances aware of your initiative.

WHO DO YOU KNOW FROM THE HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE? 

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. 




Posted by Kelly Chua

Article by Dr. Ivan Misner (BNI Founder & Chairman) and obtained from SuccessNet Online

Click HERE to see original article.

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 Timesbestselling 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.


Posted by Kelly Chua

This latest article is one great one to read, practice and remind ourselves about the old age question about how we can grow our business through getting more referrals.

Dr. Ivan Misner, our BNI Founder and Chairman said “The answer is simple, but not easy. It includes both a mindset and a skill set. ”

For the whole article, click here.


Posted by Ang Ah Sin

These are the two things you should know about networking:

1. “Practice makes perfect” is not enough.

Practice alone is not enough. It must be “effective” practice. In martial arts, the sensei (master) says, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” In other words, if you’re just going through the motions, you are not learning and growing. Every time you do a kata (a system of basic body positioning and movement exercises in karate), you must do it as though you were in a tournament, or as though the sensei were there watching you. Only with that intensity of focus does one improve.

The same applies to your networking efforts. If you are applying the techniques halfheartedly, you’ll get less-than-acceptable results.

Practicing the skills necessary to become a good networker is important. But would-be networkers cannot expect to become master networkers by just going through the motions. Take, for instance, the 60-second presentation or brief commercial you make every week when you attend many types of networking groups or various other organizations. Most people come to the meeting unprepared and unrehearsed, with only a vague idea of what they will talk about. While others give their presentations, instead of listening, they’re thinking about how to say what they need to say. When their turn comes, they stumble through an amateurish, marginal presentation. Yes, they practiced, but it was far from perfect practice, and the results prove it.

If you’re a teacher, do you wing your lesson plan? The better teachers set goals and objectives for what they want their students to learn. They spend time planning exactly what they are going to cover in class, sometimes down to the exact wording, and they prepare visual aids and handouts that reinforce the subject matter and facilitate learning.

As a businessperson, you should have similar goals and objectives. Ask yourself what, exactly, do you want your listeners to learn about your business that they can pass along to prospects for a possible referral. If you’re vague and unprepared, your potential referral partners are going to leave the meeting without a clear idea of how to refer you.

You also need to practice delivering your message. Winging it is not going to get you what you want. You have to practice it perfectly if your goal is perfection.

2. Good networkers should talk about more than just business.A referral relationship is much more than just, “I do business, you do business, let’s do business.” A better approach is to find common ground on a personal level, then relate your business to it.

The longer I’ve been involved in networking, the more I’ve seen the power of personal interests in making connections. Networking is about building personal relationships. If you remove the personal from the equation, you limit the amount of business that can happen. In one networking group I worked with, I introduced an exercise I call the GAINS Exchange, in which people share personal and professional information about themselves (including their Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks, and Skills).

Two of the participants in this group had known each other for more than a year but had never done business. During the exercise, they discovered they both coached their sons’ soccer teams. They quickly became close friends and were soon helping each other conduct soccer practices. After a few months, they began referring business to each other–two guys who had barely spoken to each other the first year because they seemed to have so little in common were now doing business because of a personal connection.

Here’s another example of the power of common interests. One of BNI’s most instinctive, natural networkers and an avid sailboater, whom we shall call “Bob,” found himself sitting in an airport shuttle, very casually dressed, next to a man wearing a shirt with a Nautica label. “Do you sail?” he asked. “Yeah, a little bit,” said the man. “Why?”

Bob started talking about his own sailing experiences. It turned out he had won a national championship sailing in the harbor where this man lived. They got into a lively conversation about sailing, the man’s hometown, and other common interests and experiences.

After a half hour or so, the man asked, “So, are you a professional sailor?” Bob said, “No, I’m in the training business, but it’s a lot like sailing, and here’s why.” They talked a bit about that, with Bob using sailing as a metaphor for much of what he did. The man expressed an interest in hearing more about it on a professional level. At the airport, the two men exchanged cards and went their separate ways.

If Bob had started the conversation by saying, “I’m a professional trainer,” that probably would have been the end of it. Instead, by finding a common interest and starting with that, Bob made a connection that had a good chance of turning into business.

Perfect practice makes perfect, and personal connections lead to business. Entrepreneurs who implement these two strategies into their networking efforts get a lot more business than their competition.

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 book Masters of Sales can be viewed at MastersBooks.com.  Dr. Misner is also the senior partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached atmisner@bni.com.

Special Quotes To Share With All…

Posted by Kelly Chua