Filed under: Marketing | Tags: BNI, business, Marketing, referrals, word of mouth
Yesterday my local BNI chapter (Business Networking International, BNI – see www.BNI.com) held a visitor day. Our chapter has 22 members who meet every week and we pass referrals to each other based on the trusted relationship we develop by meeting together every week and working together outside the BNI room. So we had over 30 visitors in the room yesterday, it was a great day! 50+ business to business owners talking about what they do and looking for word of mouth referrals.
I invited some of my clients and I had 9 visitors in the room. I was glad to see some of them get really excited about the opportunity put before them. In BNI, you only have one member from a business category, so if you apply and you become a member of a chapter, you don’t have any competition! You get a chance every week to educate your 20+ new sales force and send them out looking for new business they can refer to you. It’s a great day when one of them calls you up and says ” hey I was just talking to my (friend, family, client, vendor, supplier……) and he asked me if I knew who he could get to do (….whatever you do……) and I gave him your business card. I told him you’d give him a call today…………. There’s no better way to get a business lead than word of mouth referrals.
A couple of my clients filled out an application to join the BNI chapter yesterday, and a couple more are thinking about it – because they found the excitement and promise in building referral partners. What about you? What’s your marketing strategy for the next six months? Does it include building your referral partner base?
Networking groups like BNI and local chambers give you the chance to build trusted relationships with like minded business people. Take the opportunity to ask how you can refer business to them, then do it………it’s a “givers gain” world. You give them business, and they’ll want to give you business in return.
For more information about BNI or to find a local BNI chapter - check out www.BNI.com and www.BNI-Indiana.com
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Creating referrals from those networking events geneates great income and as you stated, those referrals often arrive after you have given selflessly!
Comment by ronmasoncoaching July 24, 2008 @ 1:51 pm