BNI Minnesota & N. Wisconsin Blog

What do we turn to when we can’t find something in the dark?  A flashlight helps, doesn’t it!  I recently heard a comment about light and darkness.  It went something like this – light simply punches holes in darkness.  Never quite looked at it that way, but it makes sense.  So what does that have to do with my job or my business?

In many businesses, key managers often make decisions while they are in the dark.  Sometimes, not knowing all of the key information can be compared to trying to find your lost keys in the pitch black.  Not having the right information available, when you need it, to make an informed decision is the same very thing.

Here are a few observations that may give you a new perspective on this very subject:

1. Light dispels dark – more info will often lead to better decisions
2. Your flashlight provides focus for your company’s direction
3. It’s hard to see where you’re going if you don’t have the right tools, like a flashlight
4. Make sure your flashlight is in good working order – last thing you want is for your light to grow dim or burn out when you need it most
5. Lastly, your flashlight needs to be working – guiding you along the path to profitability

Next time your power goes out and you reach for that flashlight, remember these few simplistic perspectives.  If you find it challenging to even find your flashlight or not even sure if you have one, seek help right away to lighten your path!

Visitors are the life-blood for every chapter.  Visitors

represent the future for our chapters. Visitors bring excitement, additional business, and the possibility of new memberships to the chapter.  While chapter Leadership Teams are busy planning, running the meetings and leading the chapter throughout the year and the Membership Committee is working to enforce BNI policies, and guidelines, who is responsible to ensure that visitors are welcomed and feel wanted by chapter membership?  The answer is Chapter Visitor Hosts!  Visitor Hosts are the key to the growth of your chapter! 

            Visitor Hosts are so much more than just hosts:

            Visitor Hosts are really Visitor Advocates!

The biggest factor in chapter growth is how you make visitors feel:

                        When they walk in the door

                        During the meeting

                        After the meeting

                        When they go back to their office

Make sure visitors are engaged in the meeting, they feel wanted, accepted and they believe there is a place for them in your chapter.

If Visitor Hosts are so important, how many hosts should there be in each chapter?  I would say 20% of the membership!  You cannot have too many, in fact, every member should act as a Visitor Host.

Before the meeting:

Visitor Hosts please smile, greet and welcome all visitors and help them sign in.  Then collect two business cards: one for the President and the other for entry into www.bni-mn.com.  Write their names phonetically on the card so your President can introduce them properly.  Finally, bring visitors into the meeting room and introduce them to another member, preferably someone in their Contact Sphere.  Never, ever leave visitors alone!

During the meeting:           

Presidents please introduce visitors properly!  Make visitor introductions special and please pronounce their names correctly.  This is where the phonetic spellings of their names will help.  Make sure you lead visitors throughout the meeting.  Tell them what is next and what is expected of them.  We want them to feel comfortable and think that membership in your chapter is a good thing for them personally and for their business.

Members, if you are sitting next to a visitor, please help them feel comfortable and guide them throughout the meeting.  Be friendly and inclusive.

After the meeting:

Visitor orientation is important!  Find out what they thought about the meeting and the members, answer their questions, show them how to complete the application and, most importantly, ask for the sale!  Be enthusiastic!!!!!!!!!

When visitors return to their office:

Visitor hosts please coordinate follow-up with visitors and substitutes. A quick notes and phone calls can make such a huge difference.  Determine how many members will follow up and who will they be; Visitor Hosts, Leadership team, member of Contact Sphere, and/or the person who invited

them?

Take visitor advocacy one step further and appoint one Visitor Host to attend the Membership Committee meeting and report on the number of visitors, the status of those visitors, response received from follow-up conversations, questions asked by visitors and areas of visitor hosting

that need improvement.

Yes, they are so much more than just Visitor Hosts, they are Visitor Advocates!!!

by Linda Aasen

There are several things that often happen in BNI meetings that absolutely make me crazy. I’m sure that the members who do these things are unaware that they are doing something wrong and, I’m even more sure, that they don’t know that they are driving me crazy.

The first situation is a visitor who is standing alone. No members are talking to them. No members are asking about their business. No members are asking what a good referral is for them. No members exhibiting behavior that will convince the visitor that the people in this chapter care about them and would like them to join their chapter. Never, ever leave a visitor alone.

The second behavior exhibited by members is disregarding the 60 second time limit for their

60 Second Commercial. Other members, not just me, get irritated by members who think that what they have to say is more important that everyone else and they can take more than their 60 seconds. I find that members who take extra time are adding extra “stuff” which detracts from the message that they are trying to convey to their sales force. Every members’ commercial is important. No members should take more than their allotted time!

The third thing which drives me crazy is during the “I Have” portion of the meeting. Some members will stand and say, “Good presentation speaker”. Many times it was a good, or even great, presentation. That is why we applauded when the speaker was finished. I have big news for members who say this routinely…we know you do not have a referral! We know you are copping out by saying, “Good job speaker”! If you do not have a referral, give a testimonial. If you do not have a referral, make sure you have a One-to-One, so you can tell us something you learned during your mini-meeting. If you do not have a referral, work hard to find one for your members! Do not say, “Good presentation speaker”!!!

So, if you exhibit any of these behaviors, be on notice your members are of your behavior.

Remember that everything you say and do or not say or not do can move you up or down the Referral Curve. If you are making me crazy and you may be doing the same for the other members of your chapter.

If you hate to write and it’s keeping you from blogging, then I have good news for you!  Have a “video blog”.

A web video isn’t a mulitmillion Hollywood project. It’s not going to be “perfect”, and if you wait for perfection, the world will pass you by!

Basically, a blog video is like a blog post your write.  It’s you sharing some information with your readers and connecting with  them in a sincere, honest way. Here’s my top 5 tips for your blog video:

1. Have a script and practice it a couple of times before recording. You want to sound energized and competent while still showing your humanness of “ahhs”, etc.

2. Check the background where you’ll be recording. Remove any stacks of papers, clutter, etc. I would recommend having a couple items in the background that are “personal” and help people learn a little more about you as a person. For instance, if you have a pet you love, have a photo of them on the desk or table behind you.

3. Have the camera capture your face straight on.  Have you ever seen the videos or photos of people where the camera has been angled from below the head and is aimed upward?  No one looks good with a double chin!

4. Engage your audience with a story they can relate to.  If you are using visuals (like a white board to share something), have yourself in the video, too. “Condition” them to hear your voice, see your face, and provide valuable, helpful information. This increases credibility and name/information retention. You want them to remember YOU when they think of the product or service you provide.

5. Be enthusiastic. Smile. And have fun! 

Blogging can be an essential tool in attracting and finding the people who want, need, and are willing to buy what you offer. Someone is going to go online and find and connect with a person who offers what you do… Help them find you!

By B. Scott Binion             

I’ve been in companies that push their employees.  Push them to do more with fewer resources.  Push them to do whatever it takes to get the job done.  Sounds good for the bottom line, doesn’t it?  Maybe on the surface, but not in the long-run.

Doing more with fewer resources does help the bottom line.  Doing whatever it takes can drive customer service to a new level.  But at what cost? 

In reading a recent leadership book, an example was given on what you get with pushing versus pulling.  If you take a string, lay it on your desk, and try to push it in one direction, what happens?  You move it, but very slowly and without much force.  But if you turn it around and pull it, you can do so much more.  You can pull so many different things to get the job done.

Apply this to your company.  If you are pushing your employees, there will be substantial resistance from most of them.  No one likes to be pushing in a direction they are not already leaning toward.  If you pull them along with you in driving the organization, their performance will skyrocket.

Managers sometimes need to push to get things done, but likely are very tired in the process.  True leaders need to pull everyone alongside them.  Try pulling for a change and see what happens.

One of the most common questions I hear as a social media expert is: “Why Twitter?”  Good question. I’d like to share a few thoughts on what Twitter is and how it can be used to truly maximize your online marketing efforts and results.

Twitter is a micro-blogging platform that asks you to write about what you are doing now. You can interpret that to be (1) what do you wish you were doing, (2) what are you thinking, (3) what problem do you need solved, (4) what problem did you have and you just found the solution, (5) what are working on that is related to your business, clients, customers and/or referral partners.

Think of Twitter like an ongoing, real-time, global conversation about the things that matter to us. It IS NOT about selling or pitching your product. Yes, people do this, but I highly doubt they make any money. Why? Because people like to buy, they don’t like to be sold.

So if you aren’t supposed to “sell” or “pitch” your products and services in your tweets, then how do you monetize your Twitter experience?  Use Twitter to move prospects out of Twitter and into your company funnel as soon as possible. Recommended tweets support Twitter’s main purpose of:

1. Networking globally

2. Adding value to others

3. Sharing experiences (engage them with emotion)

4. Collaborate

5. Instant feedback on your ideas, thoughts, etc.

6. Refer people to good products or services (refer, NOT sell)

Building trust is essential. Spend some time tweeting about what matters to you personally as well as in your business. Then when you add a tweet about a free report, CD, or information on your website that can be of benefit to them, they’ll be more likely to go to your website, sign up, and buy.

Twitter, like all social media, is a learned process. It takes time to learn the subtle nuances, culture, and acceptable behaviors. But once you do, Twitter will become a marketing tool that will truly increase visibility, credibility, and, of course, profitability.

by LuAnn Buechler, CMP

It’s easier to hold on to current customers than it is to find new ones. We have probably all heard this before. However, most people spend more of their time on marketing strategies to attract new customers rather than following up with current customers and/or building strong relationships with them. Relationship marketing is answer. Think of the time you spend building relationships as marketing to shift your paradigm to a customer service focus, rather than a customer “search” focus.

A friend of mine told me a story recently of how he was on hold with his web hosting company with a question. The system told him that he was number 12 in the queue to speak with someone, which he appreciated knowing. He was happy to wait, as long as he knew how long he might expect that wait to be. So, he kept working on the problem while on hold. Turns out he was able to resolve the problem on his own before the company representative came on the line, so he just hung up.

The Supervisor of the web hosting company called the next day to check with him on what happened. Why had he hung up? Did he get the service he needed? Was the wait time too long? In my friends experience the company has always provided good service but this was “wow” service. His comment “I will stay with them forever, because they care.”

The web hosting company took the time to follow-up and make sure their current customer was happy with the service that they are providing. They wanted to ensure that his service needs had been met. Rather than run the risk of loosing a customer based on an overloaded call center or something that could have been easily handled. So they followed up to see what happened. Any company with phone banks/service centers typically receives a “Dropped Call” report. This company is using that report to maintain strong relationships with current clients.

In a recent column by New York Times Best Selling Author Harvey Mackay, he told a story that he typically shares when delivering presentations on customer service. “A man walked into a bank in Spokane, Wash., to cash a $100 check. The bank teller refused to validate his parking ticket, saying he had to make a deposit. The customer asked to see a manager, who also refused to stamp the parking ticket. At that point the customer proceeded to withdraw $1 million from his account and walked across the street to a competitor and opened a new account. The next day, he went back to the same bank teller and withdrew another $1 million.

That’s an expensive lesson to learn. So is losing any customer.”

Mackay’s Moral: Disappoint customers and they’ll disappear. (www.HarveyMackay.com)

LuAnn Buechler’s Moral: Relationships, relationships, relationships; build them, care for them, and provide them with exceptional customer service. The rest will show up.

Worried about spending marketing dollars in today’s economy. Shift your paradigm to spending time with current clients, serving them with exceptional care and the new customers will come!

LuAnn is working on a new Customer Service book, if you’d like to share a customer service experience with her for the book, send them to her at LuAnn@BNI-MN.com.

by Linda Aasen

A young woman was embarking on a new business venture. She was very concerned about the future of her business and so she asked a very successful business man from a neighboring town to show her what success looked like.

The successful businessman led the young woman to a heavy wooden door. When they opened it they saw a large room with a round table in the center. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the young woman’s mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. The people were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms, but allowed them to reach into the pot of stew to take a spoonful. Because the spoon handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoon into their mouths. The young woman shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering. This was not the picture of success she had envisioned.

Then the successful businessman led her to the next room and opened the door. The room was set up exactly like the previous room. There was a large round table with a big pot of stew which again made the young woman’s mouth water.

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking as they ate. The young woman said, “I don’t understand.”

It is simple the businessman replied. Success requires one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the unsuccessful business people think only of themselves.

The people in the second room were members of BNI, where they learned to work together and feed each other referrals. That room of BNI members believes in Giver’s Gain and working together for everyone’s success.  Are the members of your chapter feeding each other and working together?