Category : Networking

Focus On The process In BNI (not the final product)

• Robert Mitchell
• January 15, 2018

We need to know what the final product is but we need to focus on the process more than the final product. What is the final product in BNI? If we ask a hundred members we might get a hundred answers. We should all be on the same page, especially on messaging.

Some may say creating large chapters, others might say passing referrals and still others might say building relationships. All of these are great but they are a means to an end not the end product. What is the final product? It is found in our mission statement. “… Help members increase their business…” Matter of fact every business or organization should find their final product in their mission statement.

Before we look at the process let’s look at 5 reasons we should not focus on end product but instead, the process.

1. We might focus on the wrong thing. We might think “the means to the end are the end.”
2. New members won’t know how to execute the process, if we only focus on the end results.
3. It’s easy to get discouraged if you’re only focused on the end product.
4. You start to compare yourself to others that have “already arrived.”
5. You won’t know how to maintain the process when you do arrive.

What is the process in BNI?  My process is to follow up with all my contacts on a regular basis and focus on the following 5 objectives.

1. I learn as much as I can about my members and their business, what questions to ask, what to look for, what to listen for, conversation starters to create the referrals and what problems they can solve.
2. I learn as much as I can about my customers and contacts. What do they need, what are their goals and how can I help them with a referral?
3. I always ask; can I buy from them, or can I sell to my contacts.
4. Can I give them a referral to my members or can I refer my members to them. In other words, can I help them buy from or sell something to my members?
5. Can I invite them to BNI or do they know someone I can invite.

Here are 5 reasons you should focus on the process of BNI instead of the final product.

1. The magic of the results are found in the process.
2. You don’t have to wait until the end to celebrate but you can celebrate daily victories.
3. You become the sum total of what you do daily. Your daily habits define your success.
4. You are more “seed conscious than harvest conscious.”
5. It’s not so much what “you get” that matters as much as who you become while “getting.”

When you focus on the process, you will create more relationships, give more referrals, create more closed business for your members, increase and grow your own business, have more visitors and have larger chapters. Your chapter will grow to the extent that you and your members grow.

Robert Allen Mitchell Sr

Lazy networkers can be very successful in bni

• Robert Mitchell
• April 4, 2016

Word of mouth will spread like wildfire at successfully damaging the lazy networker’s credibility and trust factor. You probably already know this and was appalled at my title. I know this because a lazy networker would never take the time to read an article.

Lazy networkers think that referrals will fall in their lap like ripe cherries off a tree, they won’t. The one key word in networker is the word WORK! It takes work, hard work to be a successful networker and I would like to share some of this hard work with you.

Changing the way the world does business

• Robert Mitchell
• September 30, 2015

I heard Dr. Ivan Misner, founder of BNI say that “a company’s vision should be audacious.

And BNI’s vision is just that; “changing the way the world does business!” What is interesting about this vision and this statement is the fact that BNI is changing the way the world does business back to the way the world use to do business.

Just a couple of hundred years ago the world did business the way BNI’s vision suggest and that is doing business with people you know and trust or at least with someone that you were referred to by someone that you know and trust to someone they know and trust.

A lot of knowing and trusting is the key to the way people really want to do business. People are forced to do business with someone they do not know and trust because they do not know someone in that field of expertise.

Why Google beats the pants off of referral marketing

• Robert Mitchell
• September 17, 2015

People hire more companies through Google than they do through referrals. A lot more! It is so much more it would appear that referral marketing could soon be a thing of the past. People go do Google in the droves and the reason for it; people don’t know enough professions. Consumers are forced to go to Google and hire a total stranger that they do not know nor do they trust because they do not know someone personally in that field of expertise.

The reason referral marketing will always be around is the same reason it has always been around, people want to do business with people they know and trust or they at least want to be referred to someone that is known and trusted by someone they know and trust. (Key words; know and trust)

I had a customer that attended my BNI meeting for the sole purpose of meeting contractors. She was a property manager for the State and had a waiting list of customers a mile long. She did not need referrals to customers she need referrals to business professionals that could meet her needs.

Why we no longer need the BNI Basket in the “I Have Portion”

• Robert Mitchell
• September 12, 2015

To answer this statement we first “NEED” to define need; a requirement, necessary duty, or obligation; need also means commitment, demand, obligation, urgency and essential. When I really want to know the meaning of a word, I like to find out what it doesn’t mean, its antonyms, which are; nonessential, comfort and luxury.

I think that you can probably see we don’t “need” the basket. I bet we needed the basket in 1985 when Dr. Misner started what turned out to be the first BNI chapter of many. I would like you to imagine with me 30 years ago and all the changes that have been made.

No internet! No email, no cell phones, no smart phones and most people did not have a personal computer in their business or homes. We used pagers, briefcases, land lines, lead was in our fuel, and it was a long distance phone call with a hefty fee to most of our neighboring towns where we did business.