I belong to BNI (Business Network International) in Western Pennsylvania www.bni-westernpa.com . My relationships in my BNI chapter (Circle of Excellence) provide me with nearly 98% of my business. No kidding! And all of this business is coming from word of mouth. It certainly didn't happen right away. I had to develop strong, key relationships to work the system. I needed to learn the system of effective word of mouth marketing. I took the Certified Networker course and soon found myself as the master trainer for the course in this area.
Last night, in a session of Certified Networker, we were discussing the different types of networking groups to consider. Ed Lackman from Guideline Printing, belongs to BNI and made an analogy for how Certified Networker can impact a BNI member's performance. He said something like this ...
"Picture BNI as a stove top. When you become a member, you turn on a burner. But as a new member, you're sitting on the burner next to the one you turned on. You might get a little warm from heat transfer, but not much. So, then you take MSP training and you move closer to the hot burner. But, you're still only getting radiant heat. If you start to take Advanced Training, you're sitting half way on the hot burner. You're starting to feel the impact of the heat because you're simmering. Certified Networker puts you dead center on the burner and it begins a rapid boil for your business."
The rapid boil is the state that really produces a high return on your networking investment in BNI. What actions and steps are you taking to get you and your business to reach a rapid boil?
1 comment:
Great analogy, Michelle. I hope you don't mind if I use it here in Toledo!
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