Don’t think of BNI as networking. Think of it as your sales team.

BNI Dream Team is an amazing chapter. We are 30-something people that meet every single week. But why do we meet every week? What do we think we’re going to learn about each other one week that we didn’t learn about last week?

We haven’t changed industries. We haven’t changed geographic areas. We haven’t found an entirely new social circle. So why do we expect one week to be different from any other week? Why are we all holding out hope that even if we’ve gone a few days or weeks or even months without a referral, one will come eventually? Because it probably will, but only because we lucked upon it. Someone we knew asked for an introduction to a social media manager. Or a client asked for an accountant. The referrals that we give each other, and that are the easiest ones to give, are the ones that are closest to our power sphere. Power spheres work together and need adjacent services for our clients. When a realtor is working with a buyer it makes sense to refer a mortgage broker, a title insurance company, and real estate attorney. Our clients are asking for our referral partners. We aren’t doing any work at all, we’re just waiting for our clients or friends or family to ask for a recommendation. And then we’re ready with our network of referral partners.

Sound familiar?

But what if, just once a month, every single member of this chapter attended an outside networking event. A chamber of commerce meeting, a young professionals meeting, a happy hour, a new social club – like when Eric joined his knitting club. We currently have 33 members of the chapter. If every member went to just one networking group, and connected with 10 people at that meeting people, that would mean that every single month we would increase our network by over 300 people. Every. Single Month.

What are the chances that there’s not 1 in those 300 people who needs a divorce attorney or an architect? And what if we did that every month? If every person in this chapter went to one networking a month and met 10 people, we’d meet an additional 4,000 people per year. 

Being in BNI is not networking. Being in BNI is having access to a loyal sales team and referral partners that will sing your praises when they come into contact with someone who needs your services….but in order to come into contact with someone that needs the services of the people in this group, we need to be networking OUTSIDE of BNI and then bringing those contacts back to the chapter. So don’t think of BNI as networking. Think of BNI as your sales team. And we want to grow your business. 

Education moment prepared by:

Emma Tang
Emma Tang Designs
Website and Graphic Designer
585-703-1256
design@emmatang.com