How to Get More Referrals at BNI
Larry: Why are we here in BNI versus some other type of networking event? Generally speaking, people go to network events, they go to trade associations or networking events where people meet each other. When you go to those networking events, what do you get?
Male: A lot of business cards.
Larry: A lot of business cards. Yes, you do. Buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, a whole lot of that, but the goal of BNI is different. This group is not about buy my stuff. This group is about know me well enough so that you pass my name on to others, so that you can give me referrals. I don't want to sell to all of you. If I do, wonderful, but not the goal. The goal is to get into your worlds, right? If I get into your worlds, now I don't get one sale, but I get 10, 20, 50, whatever that number is of the people in your world. That's our goal. Make sense? The goal is not the transaction. The goal is the relationship. The goal is not to sell. The goal is to get someone to give you referrals. Make sense so far?
In the best case scenario in this chapter, what happens is one person hunts, four people eat, right? I'm out there. I'm trying to close my deal. I talk to my client and my client's saying, "Oh, this all sounds great. I appreciate it, Larry, but by the way I want to work with you but I'm having some trouble right now in my own family, and it's slowing me down."
"Trouble in your family?"
"Yeah, a little bit."
"Really?" Talk to him. Boom, all of a sudden a referral comes.
Now Julio talks to him. I was talking to Julio and he says, "One of the things is I want my son to get to leave, to get out, to get his own place," boom, referral. Get his son a rental, and not just that, "I'm going to move my business," boom, referral. All of a sudden, four people ate off of one person hunting. Does it make sense? That's our [inaudible 00:01:56]. That's our best case scenario. Well, how do we do that? We do know that we refer because right person, right job, right? Not even close.
We refer for three reasons. Because we know someone, obvious. Because we trust them, critical piece, critical piece. Now what if Julio wasn't the right person for this man? What if he wasn't the right person? Would I refer Julio anyway? What if I don't know? Yeah, I would because I trust him, and I know that if he's the wrong person, Julio will do the right thing. He'll pass it off. He'll say no. He'll change it. He'll tell me. I trust him enough he'll do the right thing. Even if he's not the right person, I'll still pass it because he'll take care of the guy that I give him. Does it make sense? Trust is critical. I got to be here enough to know you and trust you. I pass that referral.
The third piece I got to think about you. I got to think about you. If I don't, I'm sitting here for my client, my client says, "Oh, I'd love to work with you, Larry, but I'm a little bit worried about now about my family." I go to the book with that. Write me a check, done. It's all I do. I get my close. I walk away.
I'm sitting in the [inaudible 00:03:10] train going, "Oh, you know what? That might have been good for Julio. Oh, well," I didn't think about it. I've got to think about you. Does that make sense to everybody? Know, obvious, but trust and think about. What can we do in this room to make sure that we are known, that we are trusted, and most importantly, that we're thought about? First things, three things I talk about today. The first one is commercial. You got to be here and give your commercial. I'm going to tell you how you want to give a great commercial, most important things. I want you to stop telling people what you do. It doesn't help, doesn't help at all. We all forget. We don't remember.
Now people have said many times, "This chapter is your sales force." You've heard that before, right? It's your sales force. It's not true. It's not. I don't expect you to go sell for me. You sell for yourself. This chapter is my introduction force. That's a nuance but that's a critical nuance because if you're my sales force, if I want to sell you, your construction company, what must I know about your company?
Male: A lot.
Male: Everything.
Follow all the discussion on our BLOG - https://goo.gl/BAcXXH
Social Medias
LINKEDIN: / 231290
LINKEDIN PERSONAL: / neosage
TWITTER: / theneosage
FACEBOOK: / theneosageforum
G+: https://plus.google.com/+TheNeoSageU
G+ PERSONAL: https://plus.google.com/1063253139860...
https://plus.google.com/1161467416815...
DIRECT CONTANCT: [email protected]