The Four Pillars of a Successful BNI Chapter

From March 2018

This month's newsletter is about the 4 Pillars of a successful BNI Chapter.  In Podcast # 520, Dr. Misner and Tim Paulin, National Training Director and Executive Director for BNI Louisiana and Mississippi discuss this topic.

Here are the 4 Pillars:

1. Many visitors or guests at each meeting. Not all of them have to qualify to join: bring people who can do business with members.
2. A well-run professional meeting. Pay special attention to the hidden elements. (See Episode 9 and Episode 16 for more about the hidden elements of a meeting.)
3. Follow-up post meeting. The leadership team needs to follow up with visitors and guests, and members need to follow up about the business they've passed.
4. Accountability for the chapter members. One of the most important parts of accountability is attendance, and it's up to the membership committee to maintain this.

So for #1, what is many visitors/guests.  That depends of the size of the chapter.  For an average chapter of 24 members, it is suggested to have 4 to 7 visitors/guests each week.  4 on the low side and 7 on the high.  For larger chapters, there should be more visitors/guests.  According to Tim who teaches this to his chapters, not all of the visitors have to qualify for membership. Bring guests. Bring people that can do business with the members of the chapter. If you stop focusing on folks that can join the chapter and just bring people who can do business with the members of the chapter, you can get that many visitors/guests each week.

#2 - Once you have many visitors and guests in the room, we have to run a professional meeting, a well-run put together agenda that is provided by BNI with a special attention that is paid to the hidden elements of the BNI chapter meeting.  (For more on the hidden elements of the meeting and their importance, listen/read Podcasts #9and #16).  We talk about everything from entering the meeting 15 minutes prior to the start of the meeting, being there, being prepared to welcome your guests and your visitors through open networking and through each point of the agenda, taking special attention and care to introduce that portion of the agenda, run it professional, and as the meeting concludes, to make sure that we are doing a great, spectacular orientation with our visitors and guests and offering them the opportunity to be considered for membership by filling out an application.  Professionally run, that is the core of a good BNI group- running a great meeting.

So with #3, as that meeting concludes, our job is follow up. Not only is a chapter, leadership team and members to follow up with the visitors and guests to answer any questions that they might have, to invite them back for a second look at our chapter meeting, but also for our members to follow up with each other about the business that was passed at the chapter meeting that week. Make sure that you are following up on the referrals that you received, that you are following up on the referrals that you have given to make sure that the person that you have referred gets the right care and the right treatment from your BNI members. Follow up is key to success in this organization.

Tim goes on to say that, One of the things I ask my members is if you gave a referral to someone who didn't follow up with it, do you give them a second chance? Would you refer them a second time? Most people would not.  So follow-up, follow-up, follow-up.

With #4, which is our last pillar of a successful BNI group, we talk about accountability in and around the chapter. Now, the accountability is provided by our membership committee for our chapter. One of the most important things that we are accountable to is attendance. Being there each and every week on time so we can participate in the meeting appropriately. Participating in the meeting appropriately is bringing visitors, bringing guests, bringing referrals, being prepared for your Weekly Presentation, being prepared for your Spotlight Presentation when it is time to do so. All of these things come into play in that accountability to making sure that everyone in the group is participating and making the group successful comes from the membership committee.  The groups that are most successful are the ones that 'get it' that accountability is key. They have accountability with their groups, including things like attendance.

Tim goes on to say, that to help your chapter get better, get involved.  Step up into a support or leadership role.

Ivan concludes, hit all four cylinders on this and you will have a successful chapter. The four pillars, again, are - #1 have many visitors, #2 have a well-run professional meeting, utilize the hidden elements (check out episodes #9 & #16, if you would like to know more about hidden elements), #3 follow up after the meeting, and #4 accountability. Do those four things, do them well and you are going to have a successful chapter.

 

To listen or read this podcast in it's entirety - Click here.