Synopsis

This week Brian Buffini joins Dr. Misner to discuss creating a proactive system for referrals. You need a systematic approach to cultivate referrals on a daily basis. The essence of it is:

• Build relationships
• Provide value
• Remind the people in your database that you’re looking for referrals

This requires sorting your database by your most valuable customers and who is most likely to refer you. Then you take a three-step approach to dealing with those people, and set aside time for it every day.

1. Contact
2. Care
3. Community

For more information about Brian Buffini’s trainings, go to the Buffini and Company website. You’ll find live seminars and coaching and mentoring programs. Dr. Misner endorses this system wholeheartedly, and Priscilla is an active client.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 165 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you today?

Ivan:
I am doing great, Priscilla. And I’m really excited because I have a guest on the line. He is a friend, a friend of BNI. His name is Brian Buffini. Brian is one of those who is extremely knowledgeable about referral marketing and, here’s where you find people who are knowledgeable, but they’re not really good at the second part, Brian walks the talk. He has been a huge supporter of BNI for many, many years. We have really appreciated his support of our organization and I highly recommend the training program that Brian does, and I’m really excited to have him on our podcast today.

Brian, do you want to say “Hi”?

Brian:
Well, hello, Ivan. Great to be with you here today. The feelings are mutual; we’ve been very excited to endorse BNI to the people we coach and the people we have in our live events over the years. And we have such great, great results with that. We have some of the folks we coach who talk about 50 percent of their income comes from the referrals they get from Business Network International. So we keep referring you, and they keep being more successful, so it’s a win-win situation.

Ivan:
Well, I’ll tell you something that I said when we first met years ago, and that is, I can walk into a BNI meeting and I can immediately tell when somebody has been trained in your training program. They absolutely stand out as a superior member in our program, because they go deeper in the process, and it’s not as superficial as some people. Some people – I hate to say it, but some people come to BNI and their only networking is what they do at that meeting, and I can always tell when there’s somebody who’s been through your training, because they’re all about building relationships and drilling deep for the referrals.

So it’s great to have you on the podcast. Let me ask you this question.

Brian:
Well, it’s great to be with you.

Ivan:
Thanks.

Tell me about the referrals. What is the power of referral marketing? And you are absolutely one of the world’s experts in this, and I think my members get benefit from hearing it from you.

Brian:
Well, no doubt. I think the big difference for me is, my dad would have been a classic BNI member. He was a house painter in Dublin, Ireland, and my father always used to say, “The work will speak for itself.” So my father was committed to doing a great job. In fact, all of us kids, we grew up in the family painting business, and every day my grandfather, who was kind of the Mr. Miyagi of our family; he mentored you and trained you in the business, and every day he’d ask you, “Can you put your name to the work you did?” And if you didn’t put your name to the work you’d done, you had to do it over, whether the customer saw it or not.

So doing a great job for people was imperative, and that’s where my father and grandfather knew their future business would come from. So they were very, very committed to what you would call a word-of-mouth business. And so I was raised in that, so that’s what I knew.

Now, when I immigrated to America and got into the real estate business, I was looking for referrals, but I found that the rhythm of waiting for referral, like the way my father and grandfather had, wasn’t working for me. So I had to go and cultivate it on purpose, and that’s where over a period of a number of years I developed a proactive system to cultivate referrals. And that’s really where it goes from word-of-mouth to working by referral, is that you have a systematic approach to intentionally cultivate referrals on a daily basis.

As we’ve talked about, Ivan, the people in our coaching program from real estate and lending side, for example, they earn seven times that of the national average. And it’s not that they’re any smarter or work any harder, they actually do it typically with less advertising budgets, but it’s done in regards to a systematic approach to your database and building relationships, providing value, and reminding those people that you’re looking for referrals. And so I think this is a big thing where a lot of folks, they do a great job, they’re committed to customer service, and they get the occasional referral, but you can’t count on it; you don’t know when the next referral is coming in, you can’t predict it.

And so our system is that you build, sort, and qualify your database. The database isn’t just something on a computer; it’s a list of relationships. And you have some business relationships that are closer than others. And in our system, we encourage you to spend more time, more energy, more effort with those clients that are the better clients, the most likely to refer you, those who have referred you in the past, those who’ve done the most business with you. So instead of the squeaky wheel getting the grease, in this system, the squeaky wheel really doesn’t get any of your time at all. So we’re investing time, energy, and resources in building relationships with our best customers and our best referral advocates.

So the first thing you have to really get familiar with your database, know who you have, know who they are, and then know a little bit about them. And many of your books go into great detail about how to do that. Where we, then, go is providing systematic approach, and we have a thing we call the Three Cs, which is Contact, Care, and Community. So you want to contact these folks. You’ve got to be seeing them in person, you’ve got to be calling them, you’ve got to be connecting with them. We believe in marketing to folks proactively, so providing something of value.

So rather than a Realtor who traditionally sends out a note pad with their picture on it or a football schedule or a recipe card for potpies, we’re providing something of value. So for example, here’s how to raise your credit score; here’s how to protect yourself from identity theft; here’s the 15 new laws, the tax laws that just came down that can help you with your tax burdens for real estate and other things. So practical, tactical things that are items of value.

Sometimes it’s a little more fun. The postage rate changes by a couple of cents, and you’ll send your customers 20 two-cent stamps in the mail. And just little tokens, little items of value that give you a chance to build the relationship deeper with the customer.

Then we recommend you go see them, you go have coffee with them, you build relationships, and then you systematically ask people for referrals. And this is something that we’ve done in our own coaching program. You talk about walking the talk; we’ve been doing this for years ourselves where our company grew on average by 49 percent a year for ten years by generating referrals from our customer base.

So it just flat out works; it just flat out works. It’s a systematic approach to a dedicated group of people familiarizing yourself with the database, building relationships with them, providing something of value, then you’ve got to go out and see them.

And then, I guess, the last little piece to this puzzle here, just in giving an overview, is just having a daily set of activities set aside. So for us, we have a little process we call the Win the Day Formula. And it basically is two hours of cultivating leads, of generating leads, of spending time with your database, talking to your database, connecting with your database, and letting them know that you’re never too busy for their referrals, and actually, kind of going from schmoozing to cultivating, and I think that’s really a key component here.

And so the number one thing, and I think you’ve seen this probably throughout BNI, Ivan, is that the people who do well in business are people who are committed to generating leads. So many people are dealing with the symptoms of a lack of leads, inconsistent income, poor quality customer, or you end up dealing with the high maintenance customer. Well, if you’re generating – in my business in real estate, I was averaging 35 referrals a month. Well, when you’re generating 35 referrals a month, you’re going to get a couple of bad apples.

Ivan:
Yeah.

Brian:
You’re going to get people that, “Hey, I want you to do this for almost free; I want you this;” they’re high maintenance; they’re after you all the time.

And you go, “You know what, I just don’t think we’re a good fit for one another.”

Well, you can say that when you have a bunch of lead. That’s hard to say that when you don’t have any leads.

Ivan:
Yeah, when you feel that the pipeline is full and there’s a lot of business coming, then it’s easier to say that, no question about it.

Brian:
Right, right. So, Ben Franklin said, “Tis hard for an empty purse to stand upright.” So we all tend to fold when the bank account’s empty, when we need food with our meals.

Ivan:
Well, you know what else Franklin said, and I talked about this in one of my previous podcasts, is that – he seemed to have a thing with purses – he said, “If you empty your purse into your head, you’re gaining something that no one can ever take away and that’s knowledge.”

Brian:
Yeah, best investment of all time.

Ivan:
Absolutely, and that’s exactly what you’re doing, what BNI is all about. And we do training in BNI, but there’s only so deep we can go in our weekly meetings. So your program’s all about really going deep with people and giving them systems. I love systems. That’s what BNI is all about, is a system.

Brian:
Right.

Ivan:
But it’s those systems for following up, and I think that’s what’s made your students sell much better, BNI members is that the system that they have they employ, they employ not only in BNI but in their business, as a rule.

Well, listen, tell us briefly, because we’re almost out of time, tell us about your trainings and where people can get information. There’s very few podcasts – and listeners, you know this is true – very few podcasts that I recommend go to a training or read a book. This is one of the few ones, and the reason for that is I so believe in the kind of training Brian does.

And so tell them a little bit about where they can go, Brian.

Brian:
We appreciate that, Ivan. BuffiniAndCompany.com is – my name, Buffini, B-U-F-F-I-N-I, AndCompany.com, has a lot of layout of where we do our live events, where we do our systematic training called 100 Days to Greatness, and then ultimately, our coaching programs. And it’s a wonderful thing. We have, obviously, a number of mutual members where we have a number of BNI folks we’ve been able to kind of help get to the next level by coaching them one on one in an in-depth capacity.

We have kind of an unusual setup in that we have like a 90,000 square foot headquarters in Carlsbad in California where we have a highly skilled, trained staff of coaches that coach people one on one, a lot of Realtors, a lot of lenders, but we also have about 15 percent of our business is general market folks in many walks of life.

So we get a great opportunity to coach folks one on one in the systematic approach of generating leads, holding folks accountable, teaching them these systems, bringing them to our live events, and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun to see people grow and prosper. And yours is an organization right now that’s doing very well and continues to prosper because of the value you provide, and then we try to do the same in the coaching side of the business in helping folks grow their business, run their business like a business, and then holding them accountable, and it seems to work very well.

Ivan:
Well, I’ve been to your facilities. I was very impressed. You have an amazing team there and a great operation. And I think it’s interesting that Priscilla, who’s our host on these shows.

Priscilla, you’ve been to Brian’s program.

Priscilla:
Yeah, I’m an active client. I get all his materials. I send them out. I did my first client party this year, and that’s something that Brian has been promoting and telling us to do forever and the coaches tell you to do. And I discovered why it’s so magical to do that, and I’m a great believer in that. I love his system.

Ivan:
Well, Brian, thank you so much for your comments.

Priscilla, I appreciate your endorsement, your testimonial.

We do testimonials in BNI, so it’s a perfect segue into this.

And listeners, if you have a chance, go to BuffiniAndCompany, that’s A-N-D, BuffiniAndCompany.com to take a look at what Brian and his team have put together. It’s one of the few training programs that I recommend in networking.

So Brian, thank you so much.

Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Okay, great! Thank you both very much.

I’d just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

This week’s topic is the Classification Cowboy, illustrated by BNI member Dan Fletcher.

A Classification Cowboy is someone who tries to take more than one profession within a chapter. If you try to take more than one classification in a chapter, you’re blocking the connections and referrals that can be brought to the chapter.

The best way to handle this is to address the problem before the person joins the chapter, rather than after accepting a person with multiple businesses as a member. A chapter with multiple attorneys with different specialties is much stronger than a chapter with someone who doubles as attorney and paralegal.

You can download the slides in the next post to show to your chapter.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 164 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, a Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you today?

Ivan:
Well, this week, I am at the South African BNI conference. As you know, last week I did a little safari, which was amazing; done it before; this was my second visit to South Africa. It’s such a beautiful country, and this week I am at the BNI conference for the organization in South Africa. Amazing group of people.

And again, whenever I visit your region, please come up and introduce yourself to me and let me know that you’re listening to these podcasts. I’d love to meet you.

Priscilla:
That sounds wonderful!

So what do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
I have a fun topic this week. It’s Classification Cowboy. Now, there is a PowerPoint presentation or JPEGs that will be up this presentation, so I recommend that if you’re at the Web site, open it up; if not, download the PowerPoint. And if you’re listening to this from a mobile device, print out the PowerPoint presentation so that you can see the slides that I’m talking about.

The first one is a great slide drawn of a Classification Cowboy. And I’ve got to tell you that this was all done by a gentleman by the name of Dan Fletcher, Dan Fletcher, F-L-E-T-C-H-E-R, Dan Fletcher. Dan is a BNI member, of course, in the United Kingdom, and his Web site is CartoonBox.co.uk, CartoonBox.co.uk.

Dan put this all together on his own, and so I really wanted to thank him publicly, because he had seen problems with this whole concept of the Classification Cowboy, and he wanted to draw something that would identify it and describe it.

Now, for those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, a Classification Cowboy is somebody that tries to take more than one profession.

In the past, in the past, we’ve used the term “Classification Hog.” Don’t do that. As you might suspect, Priscilla, makes people mad when they’re called a Classification Hog. So it’s not a term that we’d recommend that you use, but we like this concept of Classification Cowboy, and the artist on this, Dan, has done a great job of drawing his description what it is. And in his second slide, he talks about while most people accept one person per profession, that’s the spirit and the rule of BNI, the Classification Cowboy doesn’t. The Classification Cowboy insists on two professions, sometimes more, and there’s a great picture of him, Priscilla, with a little bubble over his head saying, “I’m a sharp shooter,” and then another bubble that says, “I’m a rodeo rider” and trying to take more than one classification, that they block potential members from joining the chapters. They deny the chapter of the connections, and that’s what’s really important is that if you try to take two, three, four classifications in a chapter, you’re really blocking the number of connections that can be brought by individuals.

On the eighth slide, he’s got this great diagram of blocking all the referrals that could be brought to [the] chapter over the years if they allowed other people in those classifications. And the Classification Cowboy claims that it is his or her right, it’s their job to take as many classifications as possible, but the truth is, it’s, as Dan says, it’s just darn rustling. It’s taking from the BNI chapter, which is his slide number 10. And he says, “Watch out. If you see him, don’t let him get too big for his boots and don’t bring him into a BNI group.”

This is a great PowerPoint presentation. I would urge members to print this out, take it to their chapter. I would urge members, this is a great educational coordinator’s presentation. It’s only about a dozen slides long. You can do this very quickly in just a few minutes and show it to people. Of course, give Dan credit. His contact information is there on the last slide.

But it really addresses an issue that, I think, when chapters get it – and particularly membership committees, because it’s the membership committees that control the classification issue. And membership committees should have this thing in front of them when they’re looking at a classification that somebody is applying for. Because if somebody’s taking multiple classifications, it restricts the number of people that are going to be in the group. And if it restricts the number of people that are going to be in the group, I guarantee you it will restrict the amount of referrals that are passed.

But even more importantly, I have found that when people try to find ways to work together rather than to compete with each other, that a lot of business can be done. I have seen multiple chapters – I was shocked once when I went to a chapter that had five, Priscilla, five attorneys.

Priscilla:
We have four!

Ivan:
You have four attorneys in your chapter?! I think you and I have talked about this once. That was shocking to me when I first heard it.

But as I start to talk to these attorneys, they tell me they pass more business to each other than any one other person in the group. Has that been the experience in your chapter?

Priscilla:
Yeah, well, they have very distinct categories.

Ivan:
Yeah, and they’re working with each other.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
It’s amazing how that happens, and so if you can get people in there who say, “Hey, look, this is really my area of expertise”…

Mind you, I’m not suggesting that you break your profession up on those core elements. I wouldn’t even necessarily say that you have to have more than one attorney, but the truth is, if an attorney does wills and trusts and their expertise is not family law, then they’re really different.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
Family law is a lot different than wills and trusts. And if you’re focus is wills and trusts, bring in a family law attorney. That family law attorney will send wills and trusts to you, and you can send the family law to them. And you end up really becoming working together very closely.

But the ones that are really frustrating to me are the ones that are really clearly different professions. It’s many kudos to your chapter for having four attorneys. That’s wonderful, and that’s an outstanding example of what I’m talking about.

But there are professions where the professions really clearly are two different professions; they’re not the same thing. And people are trying to take both categories, and that’s where it’s critical that that be stopped. And membership committees be active in being responsible for insuring that people don’t take multiple classifications.

Priscilla:
Yeah, it’s a difficult topic, because people will get a little bit defensive around that issue.

Ivan:
They do; they do. And if your chapter can coach them and guide them, that helps. And when push comes to shove, see, you’ve got to do this before you accept them. Once you’ve accepted them, then you’ve got a problem.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
Especially if you’ve accepted them under multiple classifications. Then you have to deal with it again when it comes up for renewal, and that becomes an angry situation that you want to try to avoid if you can.

So as much as possible, active membership committees who can address this issue before the person is made a member [are] much more likely to be successful. And there’s nothing wrong with the membership committee saying, “No, really, this is the classification. We’ll accept this one or this one. Which one is what you focus most on?” And it’s better for a chapter to say, “No, thank you” than to take somebody who has multiple – somebody who’s a Classification Cowboy. In the long run, that’s the better decision to make.

Priscilla:
Yep, I totally agree with you. [It] makes for a much stronger chapter.

Ivan:
Absolutely!

So everybody listening to this, print out the PowerPoint or the slides that we’ll have with this podcast. Feel free to share this in your chapter. And if you have a second, Dan Fletcher’s e-mail is on the last page. Drop Dan an e-mail, thank him for his efforts, because he contributed this all on his own. To me, this is a classic example of Givers Gain. He spent a lot of time doing this because he thought it was an important issue. I want to personally thank Dan, and if you take a look at this, drop Dan a e-mail and thank him as well.

Priscilla:
Okay, great!

Ivan:
Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you, Dr. Misner.

I think that’s it for this week. I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

Peter Smith
Derby Business ICT

Dr. Misner is recording this podcast early because he’s going on Safari in Africa this week.

Here are some suggestions on how to use social media effectively.

• If you have a social media expert in your chapter, talk to them.
• Schedule your time with social media and make it part of a strategy.
• Find the right social media for you. Facebook is not the only network.
• Respond to comments. Retweet. Social media is a dialog.
• Use non-productive time (when you don’t usually work) for online networking.
• Use tools like Ping.fm, HootSuite, and Seesmic to save time.
• Remember that V/C/P still applies. Building relationships on social media takes time.

Here are five common mistakes businesses make on social media:

1. Spending too much time on sites you enjoy without evaluating their value to you.
2. Visiting a site for work and getting distracted by interesting posts.
3. Not recognizing when it’s time to delegate certain social media responsibilities.
4. Not providing consistent fresh content on your blog.
5. Forgetting that social media is about engaging in a conversation, not about selling.

Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 163 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have about networking.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you today?

Ivan:
Well, we’re recording this one a little bit early, Priscilla, because I’m completely out of touch with the world this week. I am in South Africa on safari, and I have no telephone this week, so we’ve recorded it a little bit early.

Priscilla:
That sounds fantastic! Will you come back and tell us what you saw?

Ivan:
I would love to do that.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
All right.

Priscilla:
What do you have to share with us about social networking?

Ivan:
This week I want to talk about the Dos and Don’ts of Social Networking, and I really, I think, learned a lot over the last year about social media. I’ve had on as a guest, Mirna Bard, who has helped me in developing my social media. And I wanted to talk a little about it, because, for me and BNI members, it’s not a either/or thing, it’s not face to face networking or social networking or social media; it’s both/and. I think they both work well together, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about that today.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
I think people have a tendency to get online sort of – and what I want to do is give suggestions or recommendations to members on how to use their social media effectively. The first thing is, if you have a social media expert in your chapter, talk to them, because these are experts, and run some of the ideas that I’m going to be talking about by them and get some ideas from them as well.

I think people have a tendency to get online at random times and just start clicking away, and that’s a mistake. You really have to schedule your time with social media. One of the things I discovered is that sometimes I’ll get online and I get onto my fan page, on Facebook, which leads me to some link on some other Facebook page. And then there’s a link to some other page that now I’m on LinkedIn, and then I click on that and now I’m on YouTube and I’m watching some video. And some crazy thing has happened to the space/time continuum, and two hours have gone by and I have nothing to show for it. And it’s really easy to fall victim into that trap. And so it’s very important to really, I think, have a schedule for your social media.

The key to successful social media is to outline a strategy which considers the amount of time you can realistically dedicate each day to your online marketing efforts. If you plan your activities and you use timesaving tools and you make sure your return on investment, your ROI, expectations are reasonable, now you’ll be in a good position to succeed in your social networking.

By the way, I’m not crazy about that term, “social networking.” It’s something that’s come out of the Internet and it’s an Internet phrase. When I talk about social networking, I’m not talking about networking for social purposes; I’m talking about networking online, so your online networking efforts.

The first thing is to find the social media that’s right for you. Everything that follows and what I’m going to say hinges on that point. And let me add that it’s not just about Facebook, although I dragged my feet getting into Facebook. I was really not a fan of getting into Facebook until I was at an event where somebody who I really respected – I respected his knowledge about social media – stood up and said, “You’re all idiots if you’re not on Facebook. That’s where your customers are.” When I heard him say that, I was like, “All right. I better look at Facebook.” And interestingly enough, in a fraction of the time, I have infinitely more followers now on Facebook than I do on LinkedIn and many other sites that I’ve been on. So it was a good move for me.

But it’s okay to concentrate on some other Web sites, depending on what business you’re in and who your target market is. And there are other social media outlets to focus on. You can’t do them all, but there are several that you should look at, like LinkedIn, which is really the classic business Web site; Ecademy.com, which is my personal favorite online business network, Ecademy.com; XING, which is mostly based in Europe, it’s spelled X-I-N-G, X-I-N-G.com. These are great. And of course, Twitter. Great sites to take a look at.

So plan ahead – planning ahead really makes you efficient in working these types of sites. Make out a weekly schedule that outlines the specific days and times you’ll spend on social media. Figure out what’s realistic, what makes sense for your company.

For example, here’s a sample weekly schedule. Every day post something in the morning, 9:00 a.m., maybe one at l:00 p.m., one at 5:00 p.m. Post two or three times a day. I mean, you may think, “I don’t have time to post two or three times a day.” Well, we’ll come back to that, because I have a recommendation that will help with that a lot. Schedule maybe Mondays and Wednesdays to do 10 minutes responding to comments and direct messages.

Remember, online social media is a dialogue; you can’t just be doing one-way communication, and this is a struggle for me, because I get so many comments and so many messages. But you know, it’s really important, as much as possible, to be engaged in the dialogue.

And then maybe Tuesdays and Thursdays you dedicate 10 minutes to re-Tweeting people’s comments and thanking people for mentioning them in your Tweets, if you’re on Twitter. But have a schedule and try to stick to it.

Here’s another idea. Use a non-productive time to do some of this, if you can. Have a schedule, but let’s say you’re behind and you need to do something. Don’t do it from 9:00 to 5:00 if that’s your most productive work time. If you’re at home and you’re sitting down and you’re watching American Idol or some version in your country of some entertainment show, pull out your laptop and do it while the TV is on. You can integrate that into non-productive work time and really get a fair amount done.

So these are just some examples.

Now, use some tools to save time. Remember, I said you can post at 9:00 a.m., 1:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. Well, there are tools that will enable you to do that. For example, sites like Ping.fm, P-I-N-G.fm. You can get on there and with one message, send all your sites, send it to LinkedIn, XING, Facebook, Twitter. So you don’t have to log onto each and every one of them. There’s a new site called Hootsuite, H-O-O-T-S-U-I-T-E, that does that. Seesmic.com, S-E-E-S-M-I-C.com. These sites will enable you to literally make one message and send it out.

And schedule it. So for me, I’m in 24 different time zones. If I send out a message on Facebook or on Twitter at 12 noon my time, that’s midnight someplace else where I have BNI groups. And so I try to schedule them in the middle of the night, because middle of the night for me is the middle of the day for somebody else in BNI.

Priscilla:
Wow!

Ivan:
There are also Web sites like AtomKeep.com which will allow you to link multiple Facebook and Twitter accounts into one desktop application. Sites like CoTweet.com that will allow you to schedule updates like we’ve been talking about.

So the bottom line there is, leverage your time. There are techniques that will allow leverage your time so you don’t have to spend as much time, but yet you get better results.

Now, let’s talk about your return on investment expectations. Once you have a strategy in place, you’ll no doubt be anxious to start seeing a return on your social media investment. It’s important to remember one thing. Networking takes time. Rather than expecting to see a surge in sales, you should hope to see people interacting with your brand and with you. Building relationships with people and credibility for your brand doesn’t happen overnight. V/C/P still applies. This is about creating visibility and credibility before you start to get profitability.

Here are five, I’m going to give you five common mistakes that – I know we are running out of time. I’m going to give you five common mistakes that people in businesses make when it comes to social media.

One is spending too much time on sites you enjoy but are not fully evaluating whether or not that particular site is effective for you.

Second is visiting a site for work and then running down rabbit holes getting distracted by interesting posts.

The third is not recognizing when it’s time to delegate certain social media responsibilities to a consultant, an agency, or another person in-house possibly. For example, I use somebody who does all my Facebook requests, Friend requests. I try to respond to the specific questions myself, but the requests, I can give directions to one person and tell them the kind of people are okay or not okay and what to look for. I don’t have to do that all myself.

It’s important to set up a blog and then keep it populated, be consistent and provide fresh content. Just letting people know that you’re at Starbucks isn’t enough. Have some good content in there.

And don’t forget that social media is about engaging in the conversation. It’s not just about selling.

If you do these things, you will really be building a good social media side to your networking campaign, and I wish everybody luck in doing that.

Priscilla:
That’s some great information. I especially appreciate that you are offering the names of those sites where you can get multiple postings from one post.

Ivan:
Right. And I recommend them because we use them, my office uses them, I use them, and it’s something that’s been a value to us.

Priscilla:
Yeah. I’m going to look into that. Thank you so much.

Ivan:
Yeah, you bet. And just one last comment before we wrap up. Remember V/C/P still applies. You’ve got to establish visibility, then you’ve got to get that credibility with people. And only when you’re at credibility can you really expect to get any kind of business in your online networking. So it’s not a get rich quick scheme; it’s another venue for your networking efforts, but it’s one that can absolutely add to your efforts in BNI.

Priscilla:
Perfect. Well, thank you, Dr. Misner.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
I think that’s it for this week. I’d just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

Dr. Misner recently received an e-mail from someone who wanted to get the benefit of BNI without actually attending the weekly meetings. This is like wanting to win an Olympic medal without having to go through exhaustive physical training. None of us can do less and get the same results.

In the early days of BNI, experiments showed that chapters that met twice a month passed 52% fewer referrals than chapters that met once a week.

There is no lite version that gives you all the benefits with less work. Only BNI members who dedicate themselves to following BNI’s proven structure will achieve the optimum results and the maximum referrals. If you want to be a master of networking, “Don’t go into the lite.”

Additional meetings outside the regular chapter meeting can be beneficial, but once a week seems to be optimum.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 162 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great today, Priscilla, and I have, I think, a fun topic that I want to talk about.

Priscilla:
Okay, great, tell us!

Ivan:
BNI Lite Just Isn’t Right. I recently received an e-mail from someone who visited a number of BNI groups over several years, and he sent this idea, and he was so passionate about it. This is what he said, I’m quoting from his letter exactly, he said, “I am interested in how I can provide my extensive list of contacts to a local chapter without having to actually attend the weekly meetings. I mean, we could attend a meeting once in a while, maybe once a month while I still want to adopt the BNI ethos and the principles of such a well structured program. How do I do that?”

And his request got me thinking, and this is what I thought, “I would really love to win the Tour de France, but I’m really not a fan of the endless exertion involved in riding a bike. I always thought it would be amazing to win an Olympic medal, but the workouts and the conditioning really – is that really necessary?” I thought about being a medical doctor, and I thought that would be really interesting to be a medical doctor, but then I’d have to deal with the whole mess of blood and internal organs and like. I’m not really into that.

And then there’s my dream, I would love to be a military general. I mean, how cool would that be to be a general, but do I really have to do boot camp? I mean, is that really necessary? And here’s my favorite. I would love to – the coveted achievement of all. I would love to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I think winning would be amazing! It would be my crowning accomplishment. The only problem is that I’d have to require to actually have really change the world in some incredibly dynamic way and save a lot of people. So surely, there’s something a bit less demanding that I could do to win that prize.

If only wishing made it so, but it doesn’t. The simple truth is none of us can do less and get the same results. It just doesn’t work. And I have gotten this question really many, many times over the years. This was a very well articulated letter and very serious gentleman. “I’d like to get all of the things that I can get out of BNI, all of the results. I just don’t want to put in all of that regular work. Or I can’t put in all that regular work.” Can’t or won’t, either way, he’s not willing to do it, or not able to do it, and yet, would like the same kinds of results.

Well, I’m afraid it just doesn’t work that way. I wish it did. And listen, if somebody can figure out how to get all kinds of incredible results without having the do the hard work necessary, please tell me, because from what I’ve learned, the secrets of success without hard work is still a secret. You know, it’s not out there. It involves hard work.

I think BNI is the largest, most successful networking organization in the world because of its ethos, its principles, and yes, its well-structured, weekly meetings. If we start taking apart fundamental portions of the program and expect the same results, we’re fooling ourselves. It’s a little like taking a wing off a plane and trying to fly. I’ve never told anyone that the BNI program is easy; it isn’t. It does, however, work if you’re willing to work the program consistently. And that means, of course, actually showing up every week and applying the ideas and concepts that we talk about. It may be tempting for people to gravitate toward some BNI-like model, but there is no diet version of BNI that gives you all the benefits with less work. There is no diet version, or BNI Lite, version that gives you all the benefits with less work. Only BNI members who dedicate themselves to actively following BNI’s proven structure are the ones who achieve the optimum results and the maximum referrals.

So for all of those people who want to be masters of networking, take heed to the phrase that I’ve heard spoken to patients on BNI Podcasts of ER when things are looking very grim – yes, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that my life as an MD will have to be lived vicariously through TV shows, “Don’t go into the lite,” is my message to you people. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t resist that one. But don’t go into the lite. BNI lite is not BNI, and it never will be.

Priscilla:
Um-hmm. Great one! Have you ever thought about doing BNI more than once a week? Do you think that’s too much?

Ivan:
I’ve never thought about doing BNI more than once a week. I haven’t. I have, however, done BNI less than once a week. When we first started BNI, we tested a number of different things, one of which was meeting twice a month. And we started looking at the results, and we discovered that chapters that met twice a month passed 52 percent less referrals than groups that met every week. And it became very clear that those regular meetings really forced people to think about each other more, and they tend to, then, bring in more referrals.

So there was an absolute direct correlation between showing up on a regular basis, following the program and getting referrals. And so, although we haven’t done anything more than once a week, and I don’t think it’s necessary to do something more than once a week, we have – although let me come back to that in just a moment. We have tried less than once a week, and it’s never had the same results, ever.

But now, doing things more than once a week, there are some chapters who have meetings, like maybe Power Team meetings, during the month, and so they might meet twice in a month or they may have social activities once or twice in a month. So from that perspective, yeah, additional meetings other than their normal BNI meeting are a one-to-one dance card with members. You know, those are additional meetings. So those kinds of meetings, yes, absolutely. But a regular BNI meeting, I think once is the optimum number.

Priscilla:
Um-hmm, I think you’re right.

Well, that’s great information. Thank you so much.

Ivan:
Thanks, Priscilla.

So just remember everyone, stay out of the lite; don’t go into the lite.

Priscilla:
Okay, great.

Ivan:
Thanks.

Priscilla:
All right. Well, I think that’s it for this week, and I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

I hadn’t worked with any of these members before so I entered this new phase of BNI with trepidation…

I had no need to worry I worked with Simon Davey from Simon Design for the design of a flyer and not only did Simon interpret my brief correctly first time but produced a fantastic looking flyer quickly, professionally and more importantly with attention to detail and such high customer service – I certainly look forward to passing more business Simon’s way.

After designing the flyer I asked Colin from Colinprint to quote for the print and as deadlines were tight (aren’t they always asked if he could print in 2 days.

Again the answer was yes of course and he kept me posted of progress from start to finish.

A amazing first time working with BNI members and looking forward to many more…

Thanks you both for the fantastic service received I couldn’t recommend you highly enough.

Dawn Spendlove @ Love Marketing Ltd

The fitting team arrived on the day booked and got on with their work promptly with minimal disruption. The work was completed in less than two days and to an impressively high standard. The mess created on fitting a window was tidied up after each was fitted.

We were more than impressed with the service we received, the quality of the windows and the skill and professionalism of the fitters. I would have no problem in recommending Frame Trade.

Peter Smith

Derby Business ICT

Here are some tips for networking with strangers—at a chamber mixer, or with visitors at BNI meetings. They come from Alice Ostrower’s article in Masters of Networking.

1. Get the person’s attention by showing interest. Ask questions.
2. Add interest. Respond to the answer, but don’t move the conversation to you.
3. Involve. Use the “Feel/felt/found” formula.
4. Tie it all together by connecting one person’s needs or goals with the resources, needs, or goals of another person.

If you do those four things, you’re going to make visitors feel welcome. You can also use these techniques in a one-to-one with another BNI member.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 161 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you today?

Ivan:
Well, I got back this week from United Kingdom and Ireland and Amsterdam. We did our last presentation in Amsterdam, and it’s always wonderful meeting BNI members. If I ever come to your region, if you’re listening to this, please come up and introduce yourself to me and let me know that you listen to these podcasts. I really appreciate it.

We wanted to make sure and get back in time for June 30. Do you want to know why, Priscilla?

Priscilla:
Yeah, what’s that about?

Ivan:
Because it’s my birthday!

Priscilla:
Oh, wow. Now everybody’s going to be sending you cards!

Ivan:
That’s okay. Drop me an e-mail. It’s both my birthday and my daughter’s birthday, who just turned 19. We have the same birthday, and so we wanted to make sure and get back in time.

Priscilla:
Great! Okay. Well, what do you have to share with us?

Ivan:
Well, today I’m going to be talking about Make the Connection. One of my employees, Erin Mellinger, who is my Communications Coordinator, told me a few weeks ago that she passed some advice on from one of my books to a relative of hers, a cousin, that was having a difficult time making connections at networking functions. And she told me that her cousin recently joined a Chamber of Commerce to promote his new business, and he really felt clueless as to how to form connections with the strangers that he came into contact with at mixers. And so my employee remembered reading at article by Alice Ostrower. Alice is a long-term BNI director, one of the really truly founding Executive Directors in BNI.

And in my book, Masters of Networking, she talked about some things that we passed on to Greg that I thought would really make a good podcast, not only for members to listen to how they can work a Chamber mixer, but also how can they talk to visitors at a BNI event during the open networking. Both of those are good; so this will work at Chamber mixers, and this will also work when you’re meeting people who are visiting BNI chapters.

Here are the four standard techniques that I think will work and that Alice talks about in my book, Masters of Networking. There are four techniques.

One, get the person’s attention. Show interest in them by asking questions. How are you? Where are you from? What do you do? Have you heard about … whatever, something that’s going on maybe in the community. Did you know, again, something that’s going on in the community, or something, that may apply to their business or their profession or that would impact them? Remember a good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them both proportionately. So listen to them; get them to open up and talk.

Number two, add interest. Respond to the answer, but don’t move the conversation to you. Elicit more information from the other person as much as possible.

Number three, involve. Use the “Feel/felt/found” formula. “I know how you feel. I felt the same way until I found out…” And that’s a great way to involve yourself into the other person’s message before you try to deliver your own message.

And number four, tie it all together by connecting one person’s needs or goals with the resources, needs, or goals of another person. For example, if you meet somebody that expresses some concern or need, introduce them. Especially if it’s another BNI member, introduce them right there. One of the questions I like to ask, and I know I’ve talked about this in previous podcasts, is once I’ve asked a handful of questions, I like to ask somebody, “Well, what are some of the challenges you have in business – or in this business?” And when they tell you, that’s a great opportunity for you to become a connector. And that’s really what number four is all about, is becoming a connector to say, “Hey, I know somebody that might be able to help you,” or “I read an article about that recently; would you like me to send you the URL?” And if you can, in some way, help and assist somebody – and I don’t mean, “Oh, let me sell you my product” as a way of helping and assisting them; that’s not what I have in mind – but I mean really connecting them with information or connecting them with another person.

And those are four things to remember when you’re meeting somebody at the open networking portion of a BNI meeting or a Chamber of Commerce meeting, that if you remember, you’re really going to do well. And again, these came from Alice Ostrower in my book, Masters of Networking, where we had contributions from many, many difference authors.

Let me just summarize, and then we can chat for a minute, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay.

Ivan:
One, get the person’s attention. Two, add interest to what they have to say. Three, involve, understand, show that you are interested in some way in what they have to say. And four, network or connect; try to find a way to connect that person with someone else in the room. And if you do those things, you’re really going to make a visitor to the Chamber or a visitor to BNI feel welcome.

Priscilla:
I think those are great ideas. The only thing I would add is that you can also use it on a One-to-One.

Ivan:
Yeah, good point. There’s no reason why you can’t use that on a One-to-One. In BNI, I like the idea of using the Gains Exchange as much as possible, because then you really find out a lot of information about each other, but then once you have that information using these techniques, I think [it’s] very valuable.

Priscilla:
When I went to the International Conference and I had some One-on-Ones with some directors, they asked me, “How can I help you,” and it was – I was so taken by that, that they cared enough to know how – to ask me how they could help me. And I think that’s kind of similar to what you’re talking about.

Ivan:
Yeah, you know, I think they’re the four or five most powerful words, “How can I help you,” five, five of the most powerful words that you can use when you’re talking to somebody. And you’ve got to mean it and you’ve got to really want to help somebody, but if you can find a way to help them, that’s a great way to start a relationship and make a connection with other people.

Priscilla:
Well, that’s great! I’m going to test these out

Ivan:
All right. Well, listen, again, for the listeners, if you have a chance, take a look at my book, Masters of Networking. That’s where this content came from. It’s a great book, and it’s got about 80-or-so contributing authors with lots of small stories on how to network effectively, and this came from Alice Ostrower.

Thank you very much, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay. That’s great! Thanks so much, Dr. Misner.

I think that’s it for this week, and I would just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.