Having worked with a lot of different BNI chapters I’ve seen the good and the not-so-good sides of networking. I’ve seen it work when members of BNI become proactive at “making their networking work for them” and I’ve seen it fail miserably when members are standing there with their hands out wondering why there aren’t any referrals coming.
BNI is one of the best networking tools around. It can be fantastic if you decide to “work it” and it can be just as bad as the other forms of networking if you are standing there “waiting for something to happen.”
So, what does it take to make it work?
Be proactive.
First be proactive with all of the things that BNI tells you to do, have goals for every activity and work the activity to get those goals. If you are off target, then rework what you are doing. BNI works, you just have to make it work for you. Setting and waiting for something to happen, or trying something once and saying “darn that didn’t work” is accepting what you got. Use BNI as the tool it’s meant to be.
- Meet at least one member of your chapter every week. My goal is to get one referral per week from that activity and 4-5 from leveraging that meeting to the next level. As a business coach, I help businesses grow (and chapters as a side benefit). So, when I meet with a chapter member my goal is to help him increase his business during that meeting. If I’ve done that well, he’ll show up at the next meeting saying “Wow, do you know what happened to my business from setting down with Alan . . . .” Every one of the visitors I brought hear that, and about 50% of them ask to meet with me later. SUCCESS! That’s proactive.
- Bring visitors, lots of visitors. Bring THE visitors that you either want to do business with or those that are doing business with those you want to do business Read the rest of this entry »
Just to piggy back up on my latest article about Jim Rohn and his inspiration this great story happened the day after writing that article. The law of attraction basically states in which we think is that which we create. After writing an article about inspiration and trying to invest time in seeing others who inspire I received a phone call from a friend. This friend called as I was just about to cook dinner and he stated that he had tickets to the baseball game. I thought to myself he is the opportunity for inspiration in which I just wrote and obviously thought about, thus the law of attractio in full force.
Now we were not talking just any tickets, we had VIP parking and front row seats right next to the Saint Louis Cardinals dugout. To the point were I could hear conversations between the players, hear talk about situations and the like. Now being from Saint Louis it is almost a rite of passage to be a Cardinal fan, so me being no different this was an incredible situation, again a sign of the law of attraction. As I sat and watched the game and the dugout I also noticed another natural law happening right before my eyes. The law of return on investment.
The law of return on investment states that which you invest; time, effort, energy,money and spirit must be paid back in multiples. Well right in front of me or actually just a little to my left was this indeed taking place. We often think of ball players in any sport as being paid an awful lot to play a game, but this is no game to them this is a business. The intensity in that dugout was unreal, most every player focused on the game, practicing their swing in the dugout and/or talking to coaches about the game.
Now this may seem unimportant to most but think of the time,effort,energy,money and spirit that these guys put into this game and how it multiplies their in Read the rest of this entry »
Hosting corporate hospitality events, networking meetings and seminars is a fantastic way to promote your business, entertain existing clients and gain new ones.
However, these days business owners are often swamped with invitations to all sorts of events and will pick and choose the ones that appeal to them most.
So how can you make your event appealing enough to attract the people you really want to entertain? And when they do attend, how can you help break the ice and ward off that awkward feeling that puts so many people off attending in the first place?
The simple answer is you need an event puller. Something that will stand out and encourage attendees to return their booking form immediately and something they know will alleviate that daunting feeling experienced when arriving alone.
Finding an event puller however can be an arduous task. High profile speakers are always a good idea, but securing them is another matter. Often their diaries are booked up way in advance, and many charge a high fee making the idea out of bounds for smaller companies.
Organising some form of entertainment is another option and there are various types of activities that could appeal to a wide range of guests. If you want to make everyone feel at ease from the outset, choose something interactive that gets everyone involved. Add a touch of competition to really help break the ice; something with a sporting theme will give everyone the opportunity to relax and get chatting about their own sporting passions.
One very important thing to take into consideration when choosing an activity for your event is the weather! This is one element that no amount of strategic planning can control, so if you are organising an outdoor affair make sure you have a back up plan in place because otherwise, the entire event could be a complete was Read the rest of this entry »
