According to one of the surveys conducted for Business Networking and Sex—Not What You Think, referral networks have an 82.8% success rate in terms of generating business, while online networks only have a 27.4% success rate. (See graph below.)

One reason for this might be that many entrepreneurs don’t have a plan for their online networking. If you’re not sure how to use networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and BNI Connect to your advantage, ask one of the many social media experts in BNI.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 241 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
I am at BNI HQ this week and we are bringing in Directors from all over North America and training them, new Director consultants. We’re training them at BNI. I made sure to be here whenever we do a training here at HQ because I think it’s really important to be part of the training process. I think education is a leaky bucket.

Priscilla:
What does that mean?

Ivan:
People put information into the bucket. There are holes. Some of it doesn’t stay in the bucket. When you train somebody, information leaks out. When you are training two or three generations- if I train somebody in how to do something and they train somebody how to do something, after two or three generations, you have half a bucket of information. What happens when you have what appears to be half the information? You start putting your own stuff in. It may not be the right stuff. So I am a real firm believer in education and getting it directly from me whenever possible. So there are elements of the consultant Director training that I still do to this day after 27 years. We’re doing it here at HQ now.

Priscilla:
That’s good.

Ivan:
Yeah. So this week I want to talk about online networks lagging behind. It’s based on an article that I wrote for Entrepreneur. I want to just tell everybody right up front. There was a lot of data that I was able to collect for the book, which I have mentioned in previous podcasts, that just came out, Business Networking and Sex, Not What You Think. There was a lot of data there that we couldn’t use in the book because there was just so much. We literally had hundreds of tables.

I wanted to use some of this in other places. I want to talk about it in other places, other than the book. You can’t find this information in the book, but it is based on the survey that we did of the 12,000 business people from all around the world. One of the questions that we didn’t use in the book was what kind of organizations do you belong to? They could pick more than one. We had a list of things like referral network, contact networks, online networks, social groups, women’s business groups, and service clubs. We also asked a question in the survey that was used in the manuscript in several places. That is has networking played a role in your success?

We got interesting findings when we cross-tabulated those two questions with one another. When we said has networking played a role in your success and what kind of organizations do you belong to? We expected the casual contact networks like the Chamber of Commerce and that referral networks like BNI would do fairly well, and they did. However, we were a little surprised with some of the other results. I thought it might be interesting to talk about that and why.

So here’s the bottom line. Don’t shoot the messenger here, those of you who are listening to this podcast. Don’t shoot the messenger. Online networks did pretty poorly in the survey, with only 27% of the respondents saying that online networking has played a role in their success.

Priscilla:
You’re talking now about things like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Ivan:
Yeah. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. Compare that to referral networks, in which 82% played a role in their success. Casual contact networks were like 51%. Even professional associations. Priscilla, is there a professional association for broadcasters?

Priscilla:
I am sure there are, yeah.

Ivan:
Okay. Even an association like that. They did better than online networks. They scored 33.7%. So online networks did pretty poorly with only 27% saying that it has played a role in their success. Now, women’s business organizations did worse, with 17.7%. Service clubs came in last with only 17.2%. That is, in relation to the question has networking played a role in your success, only 17% of women’s organizations and service clubs, people where in those groups said it played a role in their success. I am going to come back to those two in just a minute.

Let’s talk about what all of this means. Overall, people who got the most of results from their networking efforts seemed to participate in face-to-face casual contact networks like a chamber or referral networks like BNI. To a lesser extent, professional associations, like any professional body or society representing a particular industry. While online networks, women’s business organizations and social service clubs rated very low in success related to their networking, I think there is- I wouldn’t throw them out with the bath water.

I think there is still some benefits to participating in those kinds of organizations. Even though they didn’t fare well, I am quite and advocate for online networks, women’s business organizations, and service clubs. I think I will continue to be so. I did some thinking on the survey and why these groups came in with such low percentages compared to the casual contact and referral networks. In this podcast, Priscilla, I will give you the graphic so people can see what it is that I am talking about.

I’m inclined to believe that women’s business organizations and service clubs don’t so as well because they have another really important purpose that takes precedence over networking. Women’s business organizations often provide a place where women will support and educate each other. The mission of service clubs is primarily to provide service to the community, with networking opportunities being more of a byproduct. In terms of tangible success in members networking efforts in much more subtle groups like this may be one of the main reasons they didn’t do quite as well in the survey.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about online networks and their disappointing standing in terms of the respondents’ ranking of successful networking efforts. The results I think are indicative of a comment I have heard from many business owners who being to market their businesses via the growing number of online business networking sites. They will say something like, “I’ve got a profile and 1000 connections. Now what? What do I do now?”

I think a lot of our contributors jumped on the social media networking bandwagon and spent a lot of time and effort building their online social capitol in Facebook, Twitter- but they didn’t have a plan in terms of turning contacts into actual customers. I think it’s one of the areas that many entrepreneurs struggle with. By the way, I have had consultants- we have a lot of members who are social media experts. I have talked many of them. They are really good in BNI. They can give good info. I urge members to talk to those advisers and ask if they have any suggestions.

Another issue in the addition to internet marketing, including online networking, exponentially increased the number of marketing messages that the average person sees everyday. Literally thousands. You know, whether you are online chatting on Google Talk or looking up friends’ photos on Facebook, or watching a Twitter feed, you get this “Read this. Buy this. Try this. Connect with me. Like my business.” It’s easy to get distracted by these messages, particularly because those who have the time to put up the most messages drown out the smaller businesses or individuals.

I am a fan of online networking. As many members know, we have been developing an online network, BNI Connect. I believe it is the wave of the future. I believe you are going to see better results in the future, not only for programs like BNI Connect, which we are adding to and enhancing, but continued to programs like LinkedIn and Facebook. I think these are great organizations, and it’s a great place and one of the venues to market your business. But based on current results, they definitely lag way behind. I was a little surprised on their success according to 12,000 people who took the survey.

Priscilla:
I think it is confusing to know how to use online networks. I mean, I would love for their to be a podcast about how to use BNI Connect as a way for us to find each other and do business with each other.

Ivan:
You know, there absolutely will be a podcast on that. There are some things that we have been working on to get the program on the administrative side up to snuff and the social media side of it kind of had to take a back burner. But in 2012, the social media side of it is going to absolutely be developed to a much greater extent. When we are ready to really – when it’s really shining at the level we want it to be, I would love to do a podcast about it then.

Priscilla:
Okay good. We will look forward to it.

Ivan:
That’s all I have for today, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay. Thank you, Dr. Misher. 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. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

International Networking Week will take place February 6-10, 2012. There are events around the world, focused on bringing people together to network with each other.

Visit www.internationalnetworkingweek.comto find out more or watch our YouTube video:

You don’t have to have a big event to recognize International Networking Week. We recommend Meeting Stimulant #41: Bring one of your best clients to a BNI meeting. This person doesn’t have to be a prospective BNI member. The idea is to strengthen relations between you and your client.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 240 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Hi Priscilla. I am doing great. This week, I am with my Executive Management Team. I bring the Executive Management Team together from all over the world together a couple times a year to talk about where BNI is going. That’s what we are doing over the next several days. We’ll be doing strategic planning. Every company needs to spend time looking at what they as an organization want to do. This is one of those times that I do that with BNI.

Priscilla:
That’s great. So are you going to share with us?

Ivan:
Well, I would like to talk about International Networking Week. It’s a little bit early. It’s a couple of weeks before International Networking Week, but I wanted to give a heads up to all the BNI members. International Networking Week for 2012 is February 6-10. We are about a week and a half away, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up about it, so you can go into your BNI meetings prepared for International Networking Week.

For anyone who would like some additional information about it, there is a website, www.InternationalNetworkingWeek.com. International Networking Week will feature some events around the world. The goal for International Networking Week is to celebrate the key role that networking plays in the success and development of businesses around the world. The focus for these events will be to bring people together- business officials, even government officials, the community to network with each other and understand the benefits of good networking.

The big events will have speakers and International Networking Week is open to all people. It’s an initiative of BNI. IT’s our initiative, but it is open to all people. If you are not doing a big event in your region, we invite you to make sure that you are meeting the week of February 6 and that you talk about International Networking Week.

There is a video up on the BNI official channel of YouTube. You can also get to that video by going to InternationalNetworkingWeek.com. It’s about a 9 minute video. I would recommend if you have the ability to show the video at a meeting that would be great. If not, that’s fine. It’s a great concept. We talk about- I’ve got people on the video with me, Frank Giraffle and Hazel Walker, who co-wrote with me Business Networking and Sex, the book about gender. They talk about the material in there.

So this is a great opportunity. We would love for BNI chapters all around the world to make sure and recognize that week. One of the things that we are recommending you do for International Networking Week 2012 is to utilize meeting stimulant #41. That is bring one of your best clients to a BNI meeting. That’s why I wanted to do this podcast early. I wanted to just let everybody know that this is a great opportunity to bring clients to your meeting during International Networking Week.

We all know that it’s good to bring visitors because they add significant value to a chapter. We talkned about that, a little bit about that with the podcast we did with Linda Macedonio. So it’s very important to bring people in and it’s a great week to do it. We recommend that you find one of your best clients and invite them. They don’t have to be a prospective member. That’s important for this. Generally, visitors really should be prospective members. But here, they want you to bring in your best clients just to show another side of what you do. We want to give members an opportunity to show their clients how BNI networks.

We want to be able to strengthen the relationship between members and their clients. We want to create increased networking opportunities for everybody. That’s what this meeting stimulant is all about. It also gives members a way to say thanks to one of their best clients and publicly recognize them, so I would recommend that you bring in that client, and when you have a chance to introduce them, say, “This is my client. I love working with them. They are great and here is their business.” Then give them a chance to speak, just as a visitor would normally do.

Again, it’s meeting stimulant #41, so we can put an attachment in the podcast so you can see the whole meeting stimulant there. What I would suggest you do is take it to your chapter president and see if they would do that. You have enough time still before International Networking Week. Do that in your chapter.

We will literally have thousands of events all over the world. Big events and then regular chapter meetings where we are recognizing International Networking Week.

Priscilla:
Well, that sounds great. Dr. Misner, you are my best client, so I was wondering if you could come to my chapter that day.

Ivan:
I love it. I’ll tell you what, I’ll do a webcam with you.

Priscilla:
Really?

Ivan:
Absolutely. Any time

Priscilla:
Oh that would be very cool. Okay. I will have to see about that.

Ivan:
It would be my pleasure. A lot of regions are doing big events. We had over a hundred big events last year, where the region would do a big breakfast meeting or a lunch or evening meeting. We have had thousands and thousands of people go to the big events, and then, of course, thousands of regular BNI meetings. You don’t have to have a big event to recognize International Networking Week. I think a regular BNI meeting is great. Just do something special that week and bring in your best client.

Thank you for saying I am one of your best clients. I appreciate that.

Priscilla:
Definitely.

Ivan:
That’s all I have for today, Priscilla. Thank you.

Priscilla:
Okay good. Well, that’s it for this week. 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. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

Today Linda Macedonio, Executive Director of BNI Rhode Island/SE Mass, joins Dr. Misner to explain why bigger is better for your BNI chapter.

In one region of Massachusetts, the average of the top 5 chapters was over 50 members and the average business generated per member was $34,000. The average size of the  bottom 5 chapters was 19 members and the average amount of money generated per member was 12,000.

Chapters that double their size consistently triple the number of  referrals in their group.

So why does this work? It has to do with the 80/20 rule.

Chapters with fewer than 25 members spend 80% of their time inviting and recruiting new members just to stay alive and only 20% on building relationships and passing referrals. Groups with more than 25 members can spend 80% of their time on passing referrals.

Larger chapters also have more and stronger power teams, so one referral can go to multiple people.

Let us know how much business your chapter is generating and how big it is.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 239 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Hi Priscilla. This week, I am in Hawaii, visiting the BNI region here and doing a presentation for the new book that came out. We have with us a guest from the other side of the country. She is from Rhode Island. Her name is Linda Macedonio. Linda, welcome to the podcast today.

Linda:
Thank you very much.

Ivan:
Linda has been an Executive Director in Rhode Island and Massachusetts since 1998. She became involved in BNI as a member first. Almost all Directors were members first. She was representing her bookkeeping business. She currently oversees about 60 chapters and 1500 members. Over the years, BNI has helped her overcome her shyness. Linda is very nervous for this. She was a contributing author to Masters of Networking. If you have a copy of that book, she did the shy bookkeeper piece in that book. She’s also a contributing author to Masters of Sales. Linda really enjoys helping people in BNI and helping them achieve success. She is a great Director for the organization.

Linda, welcome to the podcast. You have an interesting topic. Bigger is better. Do you care to explain that to everybody?

Linda:
I would be happy to. As BNI Directors, oftentimes, we are talking to chapters and to members about growing their chapter. Sometimes we actually get feedback where they think we want them to grow the chapter to help BNI and this presentation was actually designed by Reed Morgan in Tennessee. It makes the point that when a chapter is larger, it is helping the members more than it is helping BNI as a whole.

What we did is we ran some number showing the financial return on investments for the members and kind of showing them by numbers that it is a numbers game and that bigger really is better.

Ivan:
You have some numbers that you are going to share with everybody, right?

Linda:
I do. I want to clarify that even though we talk about the chapter and the numbers, it’s never sacrificing the quality of the membership and the system just for the sake of a larger chapter.

Ivan:
Listen, you bring up a really good point. It’s not just about the number of people, the number of warm bodies, but quality people. You have to be focused on bringing in quality members into the organization. Otherwise these numbers don’t hold up, unless you are talking about quality people.

Linda:
Absolutely. We share that information as well. We do have some data from a few regions. One particular region, looking from the top 5 chapters and looking at the bottom 5 chapters of that region. The average of the top 5 was over 50 members per chapter. It was about 18 or 19 members in the smaller chapter. The difference in the amount of money generated per member per year is tripled. It’s under $12,000 per year for a member in the smaller chapters for the money that they are making compared to almost $34,000 per member per year in the larger chapters.

Ivan:
Let’s just recap that for everybody. I think it is important for people to hear this. This is a region in Massachusetts where they top five chapters in that region, a big area, the average number of members is about 50 members per chapter. They were tracking the amount of business they got, and they tracked that the average amount of business per member was almost $34,000. The bottom five chapters in that same region averaged about 18.5 members, and their average was under $12,000 per member. It was almost 3 times difference, certainly over two times the difference between the top five chapters and the bottom five chapters.

I think that is probably indicative of many regions. I think in your region, the numbers are similar, at least twice the amount of business is generated in a group that has 30-40 members compared to a group that is around 15 members. Is that your experience?

Linda:
It has been. There is another statistic with that regarding visitors. In the larger chapters, they have about 2.5 times the number of visitors come to their chapter. That is additional exposure for the member. Visitors will oftentimes make referrals of themselves or others. I think that also contributes to the amount of money that the members are making.

Ivan:
This has been a consistent number from the beginning of the organization, that chapters double their size from 15 to 30 will triple the amount of referrals that are generated in the group. That is a pretty consistent number over the years. Having dollar numbers to go with it, like you have done, and Patty tracking in Boston and Reed tracking his numbers, I think just gives credence to what we are saying in that bigger truly is better, as long as the bigger is quality members. Yeah?

Linda:
That’s true.

Ivan:
You have a few reasons why you think this works. Do you want to talk a little bit about that?

Linda:
I do. I think most people have heard of the 80/20 rule. This actually can apply in this case as well. Typically chapters that are under 25 members will spend about 80% of their time on inviting and recruiting and in some cases, just for the chapter to stay alive. Then only 20% of the time is spent passing referrals. To flip that, chapters that are over 25 spend about 80% on building the relationship, passing the referrals, generating the dollars and 20% of the time on inviting or recruiting.

Ivan:
That makes sense to me.

Linda:
Yeah, I think that kind of speaks volumes in where the focus is depending on the size of the chapter. Another piece with that is the contact spheres, it really does make everything easier for generating referrals and business. Again, bigger is better in that regard.

Ivan:
For contact spheres, we use the terms, both contact spheres and power teams in BNI. Contact spheres is a group of professionals who have a symbiotic relationship with each other, just for the listeners, in case you don’t know- like a lawyer, an accountant, a financial planner. They all refer business to each other. Contact spheres is the group of professionals who could potentially be symbiotic to you.

The power teams are the groups of business professionals that you have a relationship with. Within BNI, you are going to have a formed power team. The point I think you are trying to make, Linda, is the more power teams you have in a group, the more successful that chapter is going to be in generating referrals. Correct?

Linda:
Correct. We have actually noticed that it seems that probably close to 70% of the business that is being done in a chapter, especially with the stronger contact spheres and power teams, are coming from within their own power team or contact sphere.

Ivan:
You know, one of the reasons for this is that sometimes one referral can be for two people. If you have a really strong power team, and you’re talking about a wedding power team, if somebody comes in with a referral for somebody who is getting married, that may be able to go to the caterer, the florist, the photographer. It might go to two or three people. Sometimes one referral can go to two, three or four people. The stronger your chapter, the bigger the group, the more likely you are to have power teams that are bigger, where one referral can go to multiple people. That is one of the reasons why you see that. There is a real logical reason for the increase in the amount of business generated.

Linda:
Absolutely. That is exactly what we found. It comes down to working smarter, not harder, and that there is strength in numbers.

Ivan:
Listen, I think you have given a pretty compelling argument on the return of investment, what’s in it for a member to bring a chapter up. We talked about groups of 30, 40 or 50 members. It’s really at 20 members where there seems to be a critical mass point, where things start to come together. When you get groups that are around 30 or 40 members, that’s when the numbers begin to almost grow exponentially. Would you not agree?

Linda:
I would agree. One way to look at it as well is every member is attending a 90 minute meeting. Would you rather make $12,000 or $34,000?

Ivan:
I think most people would rather make $34,000. No doubt about it. Groups that have that size membership are definitely doing that. This is really helpful information, Linda. Is there anything that you would like to add before we wrap up?

Linda:
No, I think we have pretty much covered everything. I appreciate you having me on the podcast.

Ivan:
Listen, it’s my pleasure having you on. You’re a great Director for the organization and I think you are one of those classic examples of somebody who has come into BNI and was nervous about standing up and doing presentations, as you were. Yes?

Linda:
You knew me when.

Ivan:
And you now stand up and do public presentations at BNI conferences. You have done this podcast. It’s one of the things that I really love about BNI. You see people who develop a skill set that maybe a few years ago, they didn’t think they would ever want to or could do. I think you are sort of the poster child for that in the organization.

Linda:
Well, thank you.

Ivan:
Well, listen, we really appreciate what you do, Linda. This was great information. For those of you listening, just a recap. Groups that are 40-50 members are passing two to three times the amount of business and generating two to three times the amount of referrals. It isn’t just in these two or three regions that we are talking about. It’s multiple regions. It’s all over the world. It’s a consistent number. Linda, thanks for bringing that to our attention. We appreciate it.

Linda:
Thank you very much.

Ivan:
If you are listening to this podcast and you’ve had a similar experience, we would love to hear your comments. Drop us a note here on bnipodcast.com and let us know how much business you’re generating and what the size of your BNI chapter is. Thanks a lot. Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Okay great. Thank you so much, Linda, and thank you, Dr. Misner. 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. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

Dr. Misner is about to start his book tour for Business Networking and Sex—Not What You Think, which is about gender differences in networking. One of his co-authors focused on the man’s perspective, one on the woman’s perspective, while Dr. Misner took the networking expert’s perspective.

One of the important questions the book addresses is “Are men and women really so different?”

Both men and women want business from networking and both are willing to work hard to get it. But they approach it in different ways, and need to learn the style of the opposite sex.

Here are some tips for women dealing with men:

• When asking for help, communicate clearly what you want
• When speaking to men, try to impress them and share your accomplishments
• When spoken to inappropriately, speak up immediately. Don’t accept it.
• Convey an image that you’re a serious business person at all times.

For men dealing with women:

• Slow down. Build the relationship.
• Don’t assume that women don’t take their business seriously.
• Edit what you’re about to say. Filter out anything that’s not business-appropriate.
• Remember that women are at networking events for the same reason you are: to get business.

Find out more about the book here.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 238 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Hey, I am doing great. I wanted to remind everyone I did a podcast a few weeks back, #234, as to why I mention where I am. I think it’s really important for members around the world to know that I am out visiting you, visiting regions, talking to members. I am not sitting back at BNI HQ in an ivory tower. I am getting out there. It’s actually one of the fun things about what I get to do.

This week, I am in the Bay area for a conference and for the beginning of the Business Networking and Sex book tour.

Priscilla:
I am going to see you then.

Ivan:
That would be great because you are in that area.

Priscilla:
That’s right.

Ivan:
I would love to see you. Now, what I wanted to talk about this week was the title of the book: Business Networking and Sex. The subtitle is Not What You Think. I know a lot of people are going to be disappointed because it’s really not about sex. It’s about gender. It’s a really interesting book, and I think that this book is going to help give a lot of exposure to BNI (no pun intended), a lot of branding for the organization because this is one of the best books that I have done. What I wanted to do today is talk about some of the content.

There have been a lot of books written about business networking and referral marketing. I have written quite a few of those myself. There have also been a lot of books written about the difference between men and women, which is what this book is really about. However, it dawned on me and my co-authors a few years ago that no one has ever made the effort to combine the two subjects. So that is how this project got born. Business Networking and Sex, Not What You Think is all about the difference between men and women.

Over a 4 year period, we did a survey of more than 12,000 business people, including the analysis of it. We surveyed 12,000 business people and we asked a couple of dozen questions. After analyzing the results of the survey, which was open to the public and we had respondents from all over the world, every populated continent. We took these survey results and developed the book because of it. My fellow networking experts, Frank Girafle, he writes from the male perspective. Hazel Walker writes from the female perspective. I take the expert prospective. So every chapter is kind of split into three sections: The Survey Says, which is my content, which I try to do as much as possible in a gender-neutral way. Then Frank talks about the He Says. He does anything but gender neutral. He takes the male perspective. Then Hazel does the She Says. Again, it’s not gender neutral. She talks about it from the female perspective.

Priscilla:
What are some of the questions that you asked?

Ivan:
There were a lot of questions that we asked. Most of the questions really didn’t apply to gender so much. They were about basic networking. How much time do you spend networking? What kinds of organizations do you belong to? Where are you located? How many hours do you spend? How much business do you generate? Just basic networking questions that we wanted to compare and contrast the differences between men and women.

It was our desire to understand the communication issues that occur between men and women in the networking process. The three of us focused on combining our personal networking experiences and the data to interpret it in a way that gave meaning to the readers. One thing that we explored in depth was the following very basic question. This isn’t a question that we asked people but a question we went into the book with. Are men and women really so different? Or do we have a tendency to focus on what makes us different instead of how we are similar? Coming to an answer that we could all agree on probably became the foremost concept of the book.

As it turns out, men and women are alike in many ways, as it comes to business networking. They just seem to get to the same place using different roads. If men and women could just understand some basic fundamental points of their different styles, then they can certainly be more successfully when referring the opposite sex.

It’s interesting that our study revealed two very distinct facts, seemingly at odds with one another. The first is that men and women want to get business from networking and are willing to work hard to get it. The second is that they seem to make things so difficult for themselves by only networking in the style that their own gender prefers and understands. This is counterproductive as a professional relationship between a man and a woman based either on what the man wants and is looking for or what the woman wants or is looking for. If they both want to stay connected, they quickly figure out that it takes more to make the other person work effectively with them than what it would seem at first glance.

A lot of men need to get to the point where they no longer offend women. These are some of the things that we came up in the book with- or are no longer misunderstood. Until that happens, they will continue to miss out on the potential to do business with women. The fact that almost half of the world’s population obviously is women and more and more women own businesses and work in companies as sales people.

On the other hand, the guys may sometimes act offensive. Most women need to realize that they play a big part that enables men to continue that behavior without even realizing it. Here is where some of the stuff gets a little controversial with the he said/she said. They certainly play that part every time they have been offended by an off-color comment and yet said nothing and sulked away. They do it when they have been ignore, discounted or rudely referred to but instead of speaking their mind, they just vowed not to do business with that person any more. They do it every time they have ever worn an inappropriate outfit to a business function and then felt offended that no one was taking them seriously, or worse yet, people were asking them out on dates instead of listening to their business ideas.

These are some of the things that we talk about in the book, so it’s a little controversial. We started out with a warning that this book may push some buttons. I just did an interview with a newspaper and the reported said, “Wow. You have tackled issues head on and give a pretty unvarnished position on not only the survey results but the male and female perspective.

What I am sharing with you here, Priscilla, by the way, is not just my perspective. It is the perspective that Frank and Hazel bring to it. I actually have the easy stuff. I am just talking about the data. They get to talk about the more controversial things.

Here are some tips that we give in the book to help people in their networking with the opposite gender. Women, when asking for help, communicate clearly exactly what it is that you want. When speaking to men, try to impress them and share your accomplishments because men have a tendency to impress one another. We talk about that in the book. They start a conversation with what they do, who they are. Women don’t tend to do that, so to deal with men sometimes they need to do that a little more directly. When spoken to inappropriately, speak up immediately. Don’t accept it. Convey an image to others that you are a serious business person in all that you do.

For men, slow down. Build the relationship. Don’t assume that women don’t take their business seriously. Edit what you are about to say using filters to sift out what is not business-appropriate, and comments that aren’t business-appropriate just virtually never go over. It’s interesting that some guys just don’t get that. Remember that women are at networking events for business just as they are. They are looking to generate business just as men are, and they need to be treated the same way in terms of a networking perspective.

Those are a handful of the recommendations that we have. I would invite members listening to this podcast if you think the topic sounds of interest to you, take a look at BNI.com for the book, or Amazon or local book stores. It literally comes out this week, and I think this will be a huge brand builder for BNI because I will be, along with Frank and Hazel, doing literally hundreds of interviews over the next 6 months to a year. Anytime we do an interview, we’ll have an opportunity to mention BNI. This is going to be great exposure, no pun intended, for the book.

Priscilla:
That sounds great. What an interesting book. I am looking forward to reading it.

Ivan:
Thanks. We were pretty excited. It was a lot of fun to do. It was really interesting to do. Just interviewing people for the book was really so interesting. We interviewed John Gray, who wrote Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. He is in the book and also did an endorsement of the book. We have many other people, people who have been on my podcast and good friends of the organization, like Susan Roane. She contributed to the book. We interviewed her. She gives some great insights. One of the things that we put in the book from her was that women have a tendency to- she in particular reads the sports page everyday. I may have talked about this in a previous podcast, but she reads it everyday so that she can have a conversation with men. Men don’t do that kind of thing. We got that concept from Susan.

A lot of great stuff. We tried to integrate some data in there. For example, one bit of data that we think is really important is how much time should you spend networking? We found that people who are successful at networking spend an average of 6.5 hours a week. The people who are not successful in networking spend less than 2 hours per week. Men or women. It’s pretty consistent, although one gender spends a little more time than the other. I plan to talk to you about that in a future podcast. On average, it’s about 6.5 hours a week for people who are successful in networking.

There is a lot of great data in this book, integrated into it. We ended up taking on almost 90% of the tables that we had produced because we didn’t want it to be a book on just statistics. There is not a lot statistical stuff out there, but there is some and it really substantiates or supports the positions that both Frank and Hazel take in their gender perspectives.

That’ all I’ve got for today, Priscilla, other than I want to give a website out to the listeners: www.businessnetworkingandsex.com. If you want to get more information, a free chapter of the book, and listen to some of the stuff that Frank and Hazel say, go to that website. Thanks Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thanks so much for sharing that. 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. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

A power team is a group of professionals in BNI who work in non-competing, related fields and have developed relationships so they can refer customers to each other.

Here are ten questions you should ask potential members of your power team to strengthen your connections and make it easier to pass referrals.

1. How did you get started in your business?
2. What do you enjoy most about what you do?
3. What separates you and your company from the competition?
4. What advice would you give someone starting out in your business?
5. What are the coming trends in your business or industry?
6. What strategies have you found to be the most effective in promoting your business?
7. If there were anything about your business or industry you could change, what would that be?
8. What is the next big event coming up for you?
9. What’s your biggest challenge at the moment?
10. What type of customers are you looking for? How will I recognize a good prospect for you? What kind of situations are your prospects facing?

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 237 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, and happy new year to you.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla. I appreciate it.

Priscilla:
So you have something to share with us about power teams. What might that be?

Ivan:
I do. I think with the new year and the beginning of the new year around the world, it is a great topic to start the BNI year with. That’s power teams. Power teams can really make a difference in a BNI chapter in terms of the success of that chapter. We have found that several strong power teams tend to generate more business within the group.

A power team is a group of people that are in complimentary professions. They work with the same client but they don’t take business away from each other. Great examples of these are found in the real estate and wedding industries. A realtor, a mortgage broker, a building inspector, title agency, real estate attorney. All service clients looking to purchase property. Now, a wedding planner, a photographer, and a florist all cater to the bride to be. If these professionals form a power team, when one person in the team gets business, then he or she can refer the client to every other member in the team.

Now, many people have heard me talk about power teams and contact spheres. A contact sphere is like a concentric circle. The contact sphere is all of the professions that are symbiotic to you. They are compatible, noncompetitive professions. The power team is the group of people that you actually have the relationship with, So contact spheres are basically a list of professionals that you may have that are symbiotic to you. The power team is the list of professionals who you have a relationship with, you are in a referral relationship with them.

Successful members in BNI have the ability to select and cultivate those mutually beneficial relationships with high quality strategically important business categories. I think it’s an important core competency for success for many members in a BNI group. The question is how do you cultivate those relationships? It’s really important that you find out as much as possible about those referral partners so that you can send the the right kind of business.

In one of our podcasts, we talked about transaction versus relation. This podcast is all about how you go deeper in building the relationship with your power team. The referrals will come as sort of an outgrowth of that relationship. As you build the relationship, you want to help one another, you’re working with one another and you’re finding out about one another. The referrals will come, but first you have to build the relationship. So I am going to give 10 important questions that you should ask your power team partner as well as some tips for the full advantage of information you gain.

This comes from the book, Money on the Table that was co-written with Lee Abraham and I. Lee did a wonderful job of putting together a lot of great content and I contributed to the book with my content as well. From this, we have these ten questions. If you have a chance, take a look at the book, Money on the Table. These questions come from there. When you sit down with your power team partner, here are the questions that you ask:

1. How did you get started in your business? This is a great ice breaker question. Sometimes knowing what motivated your partner to get into their particular business enables you give stronger testimonials about him or her. For example, I met a chiropractor once who told me he had gotten into chiropractics because of the serious injuries he had and how he couldn’t get well until he started seeing a chiropractor. Chiropractic care got him into that industry. That was a very compelling story. If you didn’t know that you wouldn’t fully understand what a believer this guy was in the power of chiropractic care.

2. What do you enjoy most about what you do? Telling a power partner about what you love and why you love it in detail is really important in helping people understand how to refer one another. If you can understand where they are coming from or what they love about what they do, it is easier to refer them.

3. What separates you and your company from the competition? That’s a good one. Now you’re getting a little deeper after hitting those ice breakers. You’re looking for bullet points that can be told quickly and easily to the prospect to illustrate why you can be trusted to do a good job. So remember when you are asking these questions that you are getting this information. Why? So you can refer your power partner. You are getting this so you can refer them. The more you know about them, the easier it is to refer you.

4. What advice would you give someone starting out in your business? Asking for advice shows respect and it’s essential for building credibility, I think, with your networking partner on the road to driving to profitability in the VCP process.

5. What are the coming trends in your business or industry? This is a really good question because it enables you to find out things that maybe you didn’t know about that business. If your power team partner gives detailed information and strategies on how to profit from upcoming trends, you may learn something of value from your own business. Remember, you are in compatible professions. The things going on in their industry could help you or harm you in some way but knowing about it is very important.

6. What strategies have you found to be most effective in promoting your business? That’s a really important one because again, you are in symbiotic businesses. This question leads to brainstorming for each other’s businesses and stimulates the exchange of marketing and promotional ideas as well as business building in general.

7. If there were anything about your business or industry that you could change, what would that be? That’s a really interesting question because it gets people thinking, really thinking. This question in addition to building rapport allows your power team partner to discuss business freely and provides you with the opportunity to suggest solutions or at least gain a better understanding of what challenges that individual may have.

8. What is the next big event coming up for you? This question almost always results in referral opportunities if it is followed up correctly. It could be an event like a trade show, but it could be a holiday, a season that they often do or don’t do business in. Any of those things that I am talking about, what is coming up for you seasonally, or an event.

9. What is your biggest challenge at the moment? The answer will provide insight into your networking partner’s business and what is going on in their business life. It will help you understand him or her as a person as well as possibly uncovering some money on the table in terms of referral opportunities with that person.

10. The last question that you want to ask is: What type of customers are you looking for? How will I recognize a good prospect for you? What are some of the specific situations that your targeted prospects are experiencing? These are all related questions. There is really more than one question there, but in essence, it is the vivid picture that your networking partner paints about who and what they are looking for. The more they do that, the greater the probability of you recognizing their targeted prospects. They are all part and parcel. You’re basically trying to find out what the ideal customer is for your power partner.

If you sit down and have this kind of conversation- we’ve talked about the GAINS Exchange in another podcast. That’s a real good opener for the average person that you are doing a one to one with. But these questions, I think, are the go to questions for your first meeting with a power partner or potential power partner in a BNI chapter. I urge BNI members to print this out and take it to their BNI meetings and start talking about these to they can build the relationship. Remember, it’s not the transaction. It’s the relationship that gets to the business.

Priscilla:
Beautiful. I think those are great questions. The only thing I would add is that using someone’s services in some way or another really is revealing and you get firsthand experience of what they are like to be worked with or receive something from. I find that to be really useful.

Ivan:
Yeah, that firsthand experience is important. You bring up a good one. The power partner may not have actually used the service at the point where they are having this conversation, but if they had, that is something that should be added to the equation. The good and bad. I think if you really have a power partner that you trust, you want to hear what went well and what could I have done better?

Priscilla:
Yeah, right. You could get feedback. Okay. Great.

Ivan:
That’s it for this week, Priscilla. Thank you very much.

Priscilla:
I hope this is a beautiful year for you, Ivan.

Ivan:
As well for you. I just want to say I appreciate all the work you have done over the years. You produce a great podcast, and I thank you. I look forward to another year.

Priscilla:
Okay great. Well, you are my favorite client.

Ivan:
And this is about relationships, not transaction. Remember that, Michael.

Priscilla:
Okay great. That is it for this week. I would just like to remind you listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting BNI Podcast of The Official BNI Podcast.

Scott Simon returns this week to talk about how to cultivate business relationships in your BNI group.

To paraphrase Stephen Covey, you cannot talk yourself out of a situation you behave yourself into without far greater consequences. So here are some guidelines for behaving your way into visibility and credibility in BNI.

1. Showing up early
2. Being prepared
3. Dressing professionally
4. Talking about business during open networking
5. Passing quality referrals
6. Following up on referrals you receive
7. Attending Member Success Program and advanced training
8. Givers Gain mindset
9. Inviting visitors
10. Productive one-to-ones

Many people don’t understand how important the MSP training and the one-to-ones are. The people who do the most one-to-ones are the ones who are making the most money. (See BNI Podcast 191.) But the most-overlooked behavior is probably showing up early, which shows how much you care.

Nine behaviors that destroy your credibility are

1. Arriving late, leaving early, or not showing up at all
2. Unprofessional or unprepared sales presentation
3. Wearing yesterday’s clothes
4. Airing your grievances during open networking
5. Wasting your referral partners’ time with leads instead of quality referrals
6. Not following up on referrals
7. Poor service quality
8. Having no visitors
9. Trying to sell to members and guests

Too many people use networking as a face-to-face cold-calling opportunity, and that is not the way to build a powerful personal network. Remember that even though everyone wants to buy, nobody likes to be sold to.

The most surprising behavior among BNI members is not following up on referrals.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Scott Simon of the Metropolitan St. Louis BNI, who manages more than 100 BNI groups, joins Dr. Misner to help show BNI members how to work smarter, not harder.

Here’s some important background information:

• According to Stephen Covey, who spoke at the BNI International conference this year, trust is an economic driver. It speeds up the sales process. (See the book The Speed of Trust for examples.)
• Most companies spend almost all their money on traditional marketing and advertising when a small fraction of that money spent on networking would get the same results. (It takes 200 cold calls to get an appointment.)
• 98% of businesses rely on referrals, but only 3% have a strategy to get them.
• Since most people know about 1000 people, joining a BNI group with 24 members is like having access to 24,000 people.

An examination of chapters in Scott’s region showed that participation in BNI yields an average of 1 new customer per 5 hours invested versus 1 new customer for every 32 hours expended using traditional methods.That makes BNI membership 6 times as efficient as cold-calling—and a lot more fun, too.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

A survey of 12,000 businesspeople that Dr. Misner conducted for his upcoming book, Business Networking and Sex (Not What You Think), showed that people who focused first on relationship and then on business scored much higher in success than those who focused first on business and then on the relationship.

Also according to this survey, men are much more transactional than women are, which is why women are usually more successful at networking. This is part of why Dr. Misner created the GAINS Exchange: because he’s not good at being relational. And the reason Dr. Misner starts each BNI Podcast by saying where he is that week is to show members that he takes meeting BNI members in different chapters seriously.

Networking expert Susan RoAne reads the sports page every day in order to be able to start conversations with men—even though she hates sports. How many men read Cosmopolitan or Home and Garden in order to be able to talk to women? But if you make an effort to be more relational, it will pay off in your networking.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast BNI Podcast 234 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Thanks, Priscilla. I am doing great and I am going to tell you where I am at the end of my podcast today because I want to talk a little bit about why I say where I am and why I think it’s important. I am going to connect that, believe it or not, to this topic. Transactional vs. relational.

I recently got a message on this podcast from Michael. I won’t give his last name. You are going to love this one, Priscilla. This is an interesting one. He says, “You people are real blowhards. I don’t need to hear you people bloviate about your navel.” By the way, very good vocabulary, Michael. I am very impressed with your vocabulary. “ I don’t need to hear you bloviate. I know you think you’re important. I don’t give a care where you are, what you are doing or anything else about your life. All I need to know is the information, not how important you find yourself.” How do you feel about that, Priscilla?

Priscilla:
Oh wow.

Ivan:
If it’s any consolation, he is talking mostly about me.

Priscilla:
No, I think he is talking about us and our little banter back and forth.

Ivan:
That’s possibly true. First, I want to talk about why and then I want to come back to another email I got, interestingly enough, on the same day. That will take us to our topic of transactional versus relational. So why do I say where I am in the world? Let me tell you why. It’s done on purpose. I, for a long time, would have members send me emails and they would be really upset and talking about where are you and how come I haven’t met you? Where are you? Are you in your ivory tower in BNI? Are you on the beach drinking margaritas? No! I travel a lot. I think it’s really important to meet directors and meet members. It’s part of the job I love. I love traveling around and telling people how they can increase their business.

So the reason I start off every podcast with where I am is to give people a sense of just how much I travel to regions and care about and want to connect with members around the world. Listen, anybody who has done business travel really knows I’m not bragging. Business travel isn’t a lot of fun, but it’s the career I have chosen, and I love doing it. I want members to know that I am out there meeting people almost every other week, sometimes every week for months at a time and that’s really why I say it.

There’s no need to wait for a class reunion to network with your former classmates. Admittedly Dr. Misner has never passed a referral to any of the other 9 people in his first graduate school class, but he’s more connected to his high school classmates today than he was 10 years ago, thanks to Facebook and Twitter.

Here are three steps to help you reconnect to old school friends.

1. Contact your school’s alumni services department
2. Reconnect using online networks (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook)
3. Seek referrals GENTLY. People will un-friend you if you adopt a pushy, hard-sell approach. It’s usually safe to announce a special event occasionally.

Brought to you by Networking Now.