Referral Success thru using the BNI Podcast by Michael Vaughn

The recent BNI Podcast (Episode 104) had the idea of how to get quality referrals for your chapter members while also positioning yourself as a resource for your clients. How well does that work?

I recently sent the referral letter mentioned in the podcast as a “test run” to some of my clients. I included a page with the occupations of the members of my BNI chapter. I also included occupations of other people I would like to get into our chapter.

The same day the letter arrived, I had a long time client call. I was able to give her referrals to our chapter’s carpet cleaner, chiropractor, and a massage therapist. (This happened about two weeks ago and she has already used the services of the carpet cleaner and was very pleased.) I had another client call that is considering buying a new business. I gave him a referral to a CPA, estate attorney, and a commercial insurance agent.

So in the span of 10 days, I have been able to give six referrals to my BNI group and we have already seen some “Show Me The Money” as a result. I will likely send this letter out 3 times a year to keep it fresh in the minds of my clients.

It is important for all of us as BNI members to think, “how can get the people I know in front of my chapter members?” Simply waiting for someone to ask me who I know isn’t enough. I want to actively market the skills and expertise of my sales force to the people I know and interact with.

That is what builds long term success. For my chapter and for me.

Michael Vaughn, CFP
The Mutual Fund Store
Success Link -Springfield

Chapter Production Numbers Released for May: BNI Business by Referral "Three-peats" as Chapter of Excellence/

Congratulations to our May "Chapter of Excellence" BNI Business by Referral-Springfield. They are our #1 chapter for the third month in a row...a "Three-peat"...way to go! The photos are from the chapters visitor day they held late last month. Burgundy BNI shirts were printed that had the chapter logo on front and the question "Ask me who I know" on the back. The bottom photo shows Vice President Michael Defontes awarding the chapter MVP to Rebecca Austin. This is an engraved, traveling plaque that awards the top performer in the chapter in all the crital categories (i.e. referrals, attendance, visitors, etc)

Chapter of Excellence is our way of recognizing the #1 chapter out of the 90+ chapters in our franchise for any particular month- it has been all over both Illinois and Missouri.
Every month we track the progress of our chapters in regards to comparable statistics. This is an excellent way for chapters not only to scale their efforts based on other chapters, but also to see what is possible as a chapter.

We scale this based on 1.) Attendance 2.) Referrals 3.) Referrals Per Member 4.) Conversion Percentage (number of referrals vs. number of show me the money slips turned in for the month 5.) Visitors 6.) New Members 7.) Chapter Size

Congratulations to all those who attained top 12 status for the month of May!

Top 12 Chapters BNI Missouri- Southern Illinois

1. Business by Referral-Springfield

2. Bigger Net Income- Springfield

3. Springfield Business Connection

4. St. Clair County, IL.

5. All Biz

6. St. Charles West

7. Greater Joplin Business Connection

8. Business Power Network-Springfield

9. Think Big-Nixa

10. Show Me The Business-Branson

11. Belleville, IL.

12. Givers Gain- St. Charles

If you would like to see the complete report, go to the member login, bnistl.com, and go into "General Documents" for the complete report.

To Our Success,

Mike Tobin

Director of Marketing,

BNI Missouri-Southern Illinois

miketobin@bnistl.com

BNI Gold: Which is Better: A lead or Referral? by Dr. Ivan Misner

Knowing the difference between the two can make your marketing efforts go much more smoothly.

Q: What’s the difference between a lead and a referral?

A: A lead is a contact that may come from any number of sources. This contact is generally not expecting your call. For example, if someone gave an insurance agent a list of people who just bought new homes, that might be considered a good set of leads. Unfortunately, because the prospects are not expecting a call from the agent, it’s basically not much better than a cold-call.
However, a referral is the opportunity to do business with someone in the market to buy your product or service who’s been told about you by a mutual friend or associate. In other words, when you contact them, they already know who you are and what you do. It is stronger than just a lead because the prospect has talked to your mutual acquaintance and is generally expecting the call. Hence, they are referred.

Once a referral source has given you the name of a person to call, it’s up to you to do the rest. A referral is better than a lead because you can use the name of the referral source to open the door. What more could you hope for? Actually, there is quite a bit more you can expect from referral sources that have been properly developed.

There are many different shades of referrals. According to material developed by the Certified Networker Program, there are at least 16 shades, or levels, of a referral.

The shades of a referral vary in quality according to how much involvement your referral source has invested in preparing the referral for you. The more time and effort your referral source puts into qualifying, educating and encouraging the prospect before you become involved, the higher the quality the referral should be. Conversely, if your referral source only passes a prospect’s name to you, most of the work of developing that prospect into a customer falls on you, and the likelihood of turning that prospect into a customer diminishes significantly.
Of course, the effectiveness of your referral network in providing you with quality referrals depends on the amount of work you do to develop the sources in your network. There are many ways to encourage your referral sources to become active and enthusiastic members of your marketing team. These efforts determine the shade of the referrals you will receive over time.
The shades of a referral can range from merely receiving the name of a prospect to obtaining a referral that is a customer waiting to make a purchase. Here are three examples that are fairly representative of the broad range of potential referrals you can develop with your referral sources over time:

Referral Shade No. 1: You are authorized to use someone’s name. Once referral sources have authorized you to use their name, you can feel fairly certain that you’ve established a good level of credibility with them. By allowing you to say that he or she endorses your product or service, your source has given you valuable leverage with the prospects that know them; however, the problem with this shade of referral is that the work of developing the prospect still rests with you. Once you’ve conveyed that your mutual contact recommends you and your business, the task of selling really begins.

Referral Shade No. 2: A meeting is arranged. Your referral source moves beyond the role of a promoter to that of a facilitator. He or she takes the responsibility of working out the details of getting you and the prospect together so you may discuss the business opportunity

further.

Referral Shade No. 3: The deal is closed. In this scenario, the sale is closed before you even contact the prospect. On the strength of your referral source’s efforts, nothing else is required from you except to deliver the product or service and collect the payment. This is the strongest of all referral shades and is indicative of a networker who has cultivated a strong relationship with his referral source.

A referral is almost always better than a lead. But don’t forget that there are many shades of a referral, and the development of those shades depends on the development of the relationships that you nurture. The key in developing long-term referrals rests with the relationships you develop. The information, support, and referrals that you assemble will be based on your relationships with the other individuals and businesses you know.

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 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.

BNI S.M.A.R.T. uses "Think Big 2009" program to get chapter beyond 20 member mark- 30 is next!

Congratulations to the BNI S.M.A.R.T. -Springfield chapter. They used the BNI "Think Big" program to get their chapter over the (20) member mark- 30 is next! Here are some great photos of the event.....a very special thanks to Julie Mercer (Ambassador) and P.J. Hord (Ambassador) who did an outstanding 10 min. presentation "Keys to BNI Success" for this event. Everyone is the chapter worked on this project, and you could tell the day of the event that everyone had a hand in the success of the event!

Way to go BNI S.M.A.R.T.-Springfield!

To Our Success,

Mike Tobin

Director, BNI

Central and Southern Missouri

miketobin@bnistl.com

BNI Springfield Business Connection hits 12 Million Dollars in Closed Sales! Breaks goal sign in the process

Congratulations to BNI Springfield Business Connection for hitting their Show Me The Money mark of 12 Million Dollars.....in May! The photo says it all. Way to go BNI Springfield Business Connection...."I Refuse to Participate in a Recession".

To Our Success,

Mike Tobin, Director
BNI Central and Southern Missouri
miketobin@bnistl.com

BNI Missouri-Southern Illinois introduces chapter "Medallion" program

BNI Missouri-Southern Illinois is proud to introduce the BNI Medallion Chapter Program. This program recognizes chapter growth. With chapter growth, members increase the referrals they receive-if you double your size, you triple the referrals passed in the chapter. A study was done some time ago with a region in the east coast that found when a chapter added 7-10 new members (especially chapters going over 30 and 40) the closed business increased 232%....Wow!

To receive this status, a chapter needs to be Silver, Gold, or Platinum 2-3 months. Chapters that receive this status get a special ribbon indicating they are a member of a Medallion chapter. Congratulations to all of our Medallion Chapters!

Silver (30-39 members)

Chapter Name/Region

Belleville (BNI South St. Louis County/Southern Illinois)

St. Clair County (BNI South St. Louis County/Southern Illinois)

Bigger Net Income-Springfield (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Business By Referral-Springfield (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Business Partners-Springfield (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Business Power Network-Springfield (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

HIT Referral Network-Springfield (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

St. Louis Success Net (BNI South St. Louis County/Southern Illinois)

Business Builders Central (BNI South St. Louis County/ Southern Illinois)

Clayton West (BNI West and Central St. Louis County)

Referral Builders (BNI West and Central St. Louis County)

Gold (40-49 members)

Chapter Name/Region

Think Big-Nixa (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Lake of the Ozarks (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

St. Charles West (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Platinum (50 members and beyond)

Chapter Name/Region

Show Me The Business-Branson (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Springfield Business Connection (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

Greater Joplin Business Connection (BNI Central and Southern Missouri)

To Our Success,

Mike Tobin

Director of Marketing,

BNI Missouri-Southern Illinois

miketobin@bnistl.com

To The Next Level: "10 Ways to Show Committment" by John Suarez featured this month on SuccessNet

In this month's issue of SuccessNet, the online international newsletter of BNI, our very own John Suarez is one of the top featured authors. He has an article entitled "Top 10 ways to show commitment" which is an excellent article that will help you get the most out of your membership. Here is the link: http://successnet.czcommunity.com/art-of-networking/10-ways-to-show-commitment/2885/

SuccessNet is an excellent resource for BNI members and is free to subscribe to. After reading the article, look to the upper right hand corner of the page- there is a place to subscribe!

Congratulations to John on getting his article published in SuccessNet. His article is right alongside our founder and best selling business author Dr. Ivan Misner. Way to go John!

To Our Success,

Mike Tobin

Director of Marketing,

BNI Missouri-Southern Illinois

miketobin@bnistl.com