VCP - The Basics

The VCP acronym is one you will hear about in BNI quite a bit and there are many articles and podcasts on these principles, i.e. Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability.  Let’s examine the basics from the perspective of becoming a new member in a new chapter or core group. 

Visibility – In order for the other members to get to know you, you have to show up.  Attendance is key.  In Podcast #329, Woody Allen said that 80% of success is showing up.  In BNI, you’re not just a name on a roster.  We have an attendance policy which is to help all the members.  You paid to be part of a group that works together to help each other to grow their respective businesses. Visibility is the first step in getting referrals and training your referral team.

Credibility – Think of someone you trust.  You probably trust that person because you know they will do what they way.  Building your credibility in BNI, is building relationships with your fellow members by doing what you say you will do when you say you’ll do it.  It starts with showing up for your meeting each week on time or being early is even better.  Dressing the part, even on Zoom.  And being prepared with your part of the meeting and your weekly presentation.  After all, this is your time to train your referral team.

Also, consistently inviting and having visitors is another great way to build credibility with your referral partners, because visitors equate to possible business for someone in the group and possibly a potential member. 

The third element of VCP is Profitability – That’s what we’re all here for, right?  To get referrals.

-       You cannot have profits if no one knows you

-       You cannot have profits if no one trusts you

How do we measure VCP?  By the referrals we receive.

So, in order to get the results you desire, you must learn to do the activities efficiently and effectively.  Statistics have shown, the more you learn, the more you earn.  Be open to learning how to network differently and more effectively.

So, ask yourself these questions…

-       Are you willing to do the activities, i.e. the Key Performance Indicators to get the results you say you desire?

-       Are you willing to accept feedback to improve your results?

-       Are you coachable?

-       Are you willing to be held accountable?

This is a process that’s all new to most of us.  For the process to work, we need to be ‘all in.’ 

BNI provides us most everything we need to be successful; we just have to come with a positive attitude, be prepared each week to learn, and work the process.

In appreciation,

Annette

Area Director

Balance = Retention

Does your chapter keep adding new members and you keep to seeing about as many leave?  Yes, life does happen and sometimes members move, change jobs, have health issues, etc. that necessitates them having to leave BNI.  But what about the ones that decide BNI wasn't right for them.  What do you suppose the reason was for them leaving?  Studies have shown it may be because they didn't have an equal opportunity to receive referrals.  How can that be you ask, if BNI provides all of these resources and the member takes full advantage and does all the activities that are suggested?  It may be that the chapter is not balanced.

So why is balance important to BNI Chapters?  For years BNI has said 'Grow your membership in order to make more money.'  Which is true to a point. in further research and tracking results for many BNI Chapters, what has been determined is that the more balanced the contact spheres are in a chapter the more opportunities members have to receive referrals and thus have the potential to make more money.   Why is that?

A member tends to receive 60 to 70% of their referrals from their contact sphere.  If they only have a few members in their contact sphere, then they are not going to get many referrals.  

Here are some examples of balanced and unbalanced contact spheres and their stats:

In the above example of an unbalanced Chapter, the Home Services Contact Sphere has the most members followed by the Trades and Financial Services Contact Spheres.  However, the Marketing and Health & Wellness Spheres have few members.  In this example, there are 36 members, the TYFCB reported was $420K and there is a retention issue.

In this example of a more balanced Chapter, the Home Services Contact Sphere is still the largest, however the other spheres aren't that far behind.  In this example of a 36 member chapter, the TYFCB was $1.2M and there is no retention problem.  Why? Because the contact spheres are more balanced and gives members more of an equal opportunity to receive referrals.

So, in order for a Chapter to give their members more equal opportunities to receive more referrals, make more money, and stay and renew, Chapters must ensure their Contact Spheres are as balanced as possible.  

Here are the steps to create balance:

• The first step to creating balance is to figure out where you are.  Doing a spreadsheet like the ones above will identify which contact spheres (CS) are lacking in members and need to grow.  
• Second is to devise a plan to even out the contact spheres by working to grow the smaller spheres to the same size as the largest contact sphere in the chapter.  Looking at the examples above, for the unbalanced chapter, the home services team has 13 members. The goal would be to grow the other contact spheres to 13 members each, starting with the smallest ones first.  To grow out the other CS would mean adding 41 new members.  Even the balanced chapter example has opportunity to grow and balance even more. To balance their CS would mean adding 13 more new members starting with the smaller CS of Marketing/Events. This needs to be an ongoing exercise in order to know at all times who the Most Wanted are for your chapter.  Typically this falls to the Membership Committee and the Community Builder which includes the Growth for the chapter.
• Once you determine which CS needs more members, then comes the task of determining which industries are needed.  Which industries can the members in that CS pass referrals to.  How do you find out?  Ask.  Seems simple, yes it does.  Are they currently passing referrals to other members in other chapters?  If so, to what industries?  Are they passing referrals to people outside of BNI?  If so, what industries?  Also ask, who is typically sitting on your referrals?  Meaning who can pass you referrals?  And who are their good referral partners?  
• After asking the above questions, compile your list. There will be industries that are mentioned by more than one member.  Give that industry more weight. Rank your most wanted with the CS with the least amount of members at the top of the list.  For example, in our unbalanced chapter above, the Marketing/Events CS only had one member, so focus would need to be put of this CS and the industries needed to grow that CS, i.e. event planner, photographer, gift service, travel agent, etc.
• On your most wanted list, determine the Top 5.  Have your Membership Committee announce during their report each week, who your Top 5 most wanted seats are.  It plants the seed in the minds of the members as well as the visitors. If a visitor is there who could fill one of your Top 5, that's a nice way to say, 'We want you in our Chapter!'
• Publish your Most Wanted on your Facebook page.  This publishes to a larger audience of those people who 'Like' your page but aren't members of your chapter.  They may know someone they can refer.
• Post your Most Wanted on the Notably Green page.  There may be members in other Chapters who have business colleagues who are looking for a BNI Chapter.
• Each time you add a new member, take their photo of their induction and announce on your Facebook page.  'We are very excited to have Jane Smith joining our Marketing & Events team filling the Event Planner seat. We are still looking for a Photographer, gift service, and a travel agent to pass referrals to.'  People who follow your Facebook page will want to help you find prospects to fill these seats.
• Ask on social media, do you know, i.e. 'I'm looking for a good family photographer, who would you recommend?'  Usually you'll get many referred and many recommended more than once.  Take those that are recommended the most, give them a call and tell them that you belong to a referral group who is looking for a photographer to pass referrals to.  Would they be interested in meeting your referrals partners?  If they say yes, invite them to your meeting.  If they say no, ask who would they recommend.
• Have 'Focused Inviting' Days.  Invite prospects just for a particular Contact Sphere, i.e. Marketing & Events.
• Have 'Stack Days.'  Focus on inviting one of two from a particular industry, i.e. photographers and travel agents.  Usually you'll have several from each industry.  Which is usually a good thing because it creates a sense of competition and often one will submit an application.
• Use your Most Wanted list and have a full blown Visitor Day. By focusing on just the industries needed for the chapter, rather than come one come all, it will lead to a more focused approach and be a more successful event.
• Keep track of where you are as you add new members and as members leave.  Adjust your focus accordingly.  It will take time to get your chapter more balanced, but the more balanced your chapter, the more of an equal opportunity for ALL the members to receive referrals and make more money, thus a happy member.  Happy members renew and stay thus the chapter has higher and better retention and thus more growth.

Growth and Retention go hand and hand.  You can't have one without the other.  New Members are great, however renewing members mean you have a happy member that has seen the value in their membership.  Statistics have shown that the longer a BNI member is a BNI Member the more successful they are.

Here are some additional resources for Creating Balanced Chapters and Contact Spheres

Growth is NOT the Goal - Dr. Misner & Tim Roberts

Growth is NOT the Goal - Tim Roberts presentation from BNI U

Why you want to have a Visitor Day - Jamie Stein

I've Invited Everyone I Know

How to Bring a Visitor into the Room

For previous articles refer to my Notably Green Blog.

And join the Facebook Group - Notably Green

I encourage you to access the podcasts via BNI University so that you show up on the Leader board for your Chapter and your area.  To make it easier, you can also download the app to your smart device.  It's available from ITunes and Google.  Also, be sure and report your CEUs, 1 hour = 1 CEU.

Let me know if you have any questions and how I can be of help.  

 

To Your Success,

 

Annette Mason

Area Director Consultant

Definition of a Good Referral

"A Referral is an opportunity to do business with someone in the market to buy your product or service."

It is not a guaranteed sale, but an opportunity to discuss the possibility of doing business.

In BNI we are all about Referrals and Lead is considered a four letter word.  What most people sign up for is to give and receive qualified referrals, not leads.

What is the difference in a Referral and Lead?  

- A Lead - The prospect is not expecting a call and it's really not much better than a cold call.
- A Referral - You've been given the prospect's contact information.  The prospect knows who you are and what you do.  The prospect has talked to your mutual acquaintance and is generally expecting your call.  They know you'll be calling and they know what the topic will be.

There are three people involved in a referral - 

-  Referer or the Qualifier - This is the member who is giving the referral.  The member who is asking the questions to qualify the referral.
- The Receiver - Is the member who will be receiving the referral and is expecting the referral to be qualified.
- The Referral - The person is wanting/needing the product or service.

There are Three Key Ingredients of a Quality Referral - 

1. You talked to the prospect about your fellow BNI Member
     - Bonus - You gave a testimonial about your fellow BNI Member.
2. You asked permission for the BNI Member to call/contact the prospect
     - You gave them the BNI Member's card/contact information
3. You gave ALL the pertinent information, i.e. Name, phone number, email, details of the referral, and level of interest to your fellow BNI Member.
     - via BNIConnect in a timely manner.

Anything short of the description above, send an email to your fellow BNI member and tell them that you passed their card or information to someone (give their name) and if they contact them, to please let you know so you can turn it in as a true referral.

Remember the philosophy of BNI is Givers Gain.  You receive what you give.  By giving quality referrals, you will receive quality referrals.

So what do you do if you get what you consider to be a bad referral?  Read the blog post - 'What to do when you get a bad referral.'

Let me know if you have any questions and how I can be of help.  

To Your Success,

 

Getting More Referrals - Having Effective One to Ones

From March 2019

 The purpose of having One to Ones is get to know your fellow members in order to build relationships which build credibility and lead to profitability, i.e. to give and receive more referrals.  Statistics show that members who are having 3 or more one to ones per month receive twice as many referrals.

So where are you with your fellow members?  

- Visibility - I remember you and I may know your name and what you do.

- Credibility - There are two parts of Credibility

- Early Credibility - I know more about you and I like you

- Deep Credibility - I trust you and I may pass referrals to you. 

- Profitability - I refer you consistently because I trust you and know your business so well.  When I win a client, you win a client.

 

So how do we move the relationships with fellow members from Visibility to Profitability?  By having more effective One to Ones. i.e. Getting to know your fellow chapter members at a deeper level, getting to know more about their business, what good referrals are for them, and who are good referrals partners are for them.  So how do you do that?

Most One to Ones are more 'coffee talks' and are not effective one to ones.  

An effective One to One takes planning.  Here are the steps:

1.  Schedule ahead of time allowing at least an hour especially for the first One to One.

2. Start first with the members who are in your contact sphere because 70% of your referrals will come from your contact sphere.

3.  Complete the GAINS profile sheets.  This step is extremely important.  (GAINS stands for Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks, Skills)

a. The GAINS profile sheets include a list of your last 10 clients. The sheet has areas for notes about one. All of this information helps your fellow member understand the type of work you do. Rank your last ten clients on a scale of 1 to 10 (#1 being the best) according to good, better, best. Make notes as to why the top 5 are the type of clients you're looking for. Share this list as it will help your fellow members understand the type of clients you are seeking. Even letting your fellow member know what are NOT good referrals is good information.

b. Also, part of the GAINS profile sheets is Contact Spheres. Contact Spheres are businesses or professionals that provide a source of referrals for one another. They are good Referral Partners/Sources. For example: A good referral source for a chiropractor would be a Personal Injury Attorney. A good referral source for a pressure washer would be a painter. A good referral source for a home inspector would be a Realtor. Don't just think of who you can get business from, but who can refer business to you. Share this list also. (You can also use the Referral Hub for this). Many times an introduction to a Referral source will lead to a referral that just keeps on giving. And guess who gets the credit for TYFCB.

4. Send your completed GAINS profile sheets and your bio to the person you have a One to One scheduled with.  Send these a couple of days ahead of time to give each other time to review and make notes for questions, discussion points, etc. you would like to have.

5. Plan to meet at a location that is not loud and you won't be interrupted.  Meeting at a fellow member's office/work is always good.

6. Time for a One to One - Typically a good One to One can be done in an hour.  This gives each member 30 minutes to explain their business and answer questions.  Please be considerate and don't monopolize the time.

7.  

THE PURPOSE of a One to One is to learn about the other person's business so that You can identify and find referrals and referral sources for them.  

 

IT IS NOT to try and sell them your product or service. Your fellow referral partners will be turned off by this tactic. By asking who do they know who would be interested in your product or service, they may refer themselves. But NEVER try to SELL to your fellow BNI Members. You will receive 0 to no referrals by doing so.

8. Questions to ask: (Remember you are there to find out how to refer business, find referral sources for this person, and to strategize as to who else you need to invite to be part of your referral team, so ask questions that will help you understand who to look for.)

1. From your review of the other member's GAINS profile, you may have questions for clarification.
2. Ask what you should listen for?
3. Ask what questions you should ask a potential prospective client for them?
4. What are good conversation starters?
5. Ask who are their 'bread and butter' clients?
6. Ask what would be their dream referral?
7. Who are good referral sources?
8. Who else would they want as a member of their Power Team?

9. Agree on a plan of action. For example, that could be an introduction to a potential referral partner and/or inviting a potential referral partner to your BNI meeting for an introduction.

10.  Schedule a time to follow-up and your next One to One.  Things change in a person's life and business.  It's good to have One to One's with your fellow members on a regular basis to get to know your referral partners better and to strengthen the relationship, especially your Power Team members as well as find out what's new with their business.

Here are some additional resources:

Effective One to Ones 

Getting to Profitability

Getting More Referrals

Doubling the # of Referrals

Why Have multiple One to Ones

Effective Questions to Ask

I encourage you to access the podcasts via BNI University so that you show up on the Leaderboard for your Chapter and your area.  To make it easier, you can also download the app to your smart device.  It's available from ITunes and Google.  Also, be sure and report your CEUs, 1 hour = 1 CEU.

Are You in Profitability?

From November 2018

VCP - Visibility + Credibility = Profitability

 

What is this formula and what does it mean?

 

Visibility is pretty self-explanatory. People know who you are and may know what you do.

 

 

Credibility means that people know who you are and understand that you do a good job at what you do. They may use your products and/or services.

 

Profitability is when someone knows, likes, and trust you, uses your products/services, and gives you referrals.  You will know you are in 'profitability' when you are getting tier 3, 4, and 5 referrals that resulted from your involvement with BNI.  

 

We all became a part of BNI to increase our business, get referrals, and make more money. Depending on a person's industry and how well they follow the BNI formula for success will depend on how long it takes them to get to Profitability.

VCP is a referral process, not a sales process. If the majority of your clients aren't giving you referrals, then you are only at Credibility with your clients, not at Profitability. It's possible that you can have a lot of Visibility and a lot of Credibility, but NOT have Profitability. Rather than a formula, VCP is a continuum. Profitability does not result automatically from Visibility and Credibility.

Getting to Profitability takes time and work. Here is one BNI member's story when asked does BNI work.

A member was asked about the investment and how much money he made in BNI as a member.  The member responded with... "In my first year in BNI, I made 4 times my membership fees investment.  It wasn't until my second year where I saw the real difference.  This year I have already made over 20X my investment and the year is only half way through.  It took me a year to learn how to talk about my business effectively, learn how to give and get qualified referrals, and conduct enough 1-2-1's to understand the other members in the room.  See BNI takes time.  There are no quick fixes and fast results here.  It takes time and work to do anything worthwhile and to build strong lasting relationships.  The VCP model takes time to move from visibility to credibility and it took longer to move from credibility to profitability.  I am now in profitability with my best referral partners."

 

Mike Barbieri, Executive Director adds - There is "WORK" in Networking.  We have many 90-minute members in BNI.  Where some of our members are present for the 90 minutes during our weekly meeting and forget about their BNI team until next week's meeting.  We are all busy.  That is not an alibi nor excuse.  I hear people say, "I do not have time to work on BNI."  What I hear is... "I do not have time to work on my business."  No matter what excuse you are telling yourself, you should not be working on BNI in the first place.  You should be working ON YOUR business.  Do you tell people that you are working on your CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system?  No, because that is a business software tool.  Why do you say I am working on BNI?  Isn't BNI a framework, a platform or a tool to help you and your business be accountable and generate more money for you and your team?  Maybe we should change how we think about BNI.  So, block some time each week in your busy schedule and work on your business.  Go out and network, meet new people make new friends, develop new relationships, invite new visitors, learn more, and generate more money.  They say that your net worth and your network is the new currency.  It is not always what you know, but who you know and sometimes how well you know them.

Here are some additional resources:

Podcasts - #420 - V+C Does Not = P

#580 - Keeping the VCP Process ALIVE

#528 - How many networks - How many hours?

Power Of One Podcast #233 - What is Missing in VCP

I encourage you to access the podcasts via BNI University so that you show up on the Leaderboard for your Chapter and your area.  To make it easier, you can also download the app to your smart device.  It's available from ITunes and Google.