One of the highlights of my BNI month is attending the Chapter Success Forum! I attended my first one out of shear curiosity back in February of 2010. I was new to BNI and wanted to see what the Forum was all about. Man, was I impressed! Clement Muwele was the moderator and the group met at Mimis on Euclid in Anaheim. I was visitor host at the time and ironically the topic was "how to make the visitor host position more effective!" I took away MANY helpful ideas and couldn't wait until the next one. Well the next one was headed by Nancy Board...great, but different! My keen investigation uncovered the fact that each Forum is headed by a new director each month AND the Chapter Success Forum used to be the President's Success Forum until the attendance became diluted and others subbed for the Presidents. What has emerged is a GREAT way to expand your Visibility, meet other chapter members as well as directors and enhance your BNI "givers gain" experience! Yesterday's meeting at Mimis on 17th in Tustin was headed by Todd Hansberger, SoCal Director, a member of the Yorba Linda BNI and owner of a pest control company. Todd's wife Kris, a member of Platinum Coast (a small start-up in South County ;)) was also in attendance. Great job you two! You know the Forum is well presented when another director, Lem Bucago attends!
The two topics well discussed were Inviting and the Hidden Visitor Opps of your BNI Meetings:
Inviting: (consider these ideas)
Place emphasis upon it in meetings
Check our attitude before opening our mouth
Use social media marketing to attract visitors (LinkedIn, Facebook, and Meetup, etc.)
Follow your dollars
Would you pay $1000 for $20,000 in new business?
Convert a cold call on you to a visitor
Use your business blog to attract visitors
Use MS Tags as an inviting technique
Stack Days, Stack Days and more Stack Days
Remember your role as President...your are a visitor host on steroids!
Meeting Visitor Hidden Opps: (consider these and make your meetings shine!)
Arrive early...visitors do
Use open groups vs closed groups
Create a "buzz" during open networking with a question
Early bird prizes
Keep the meeting distraction to a minimum
BE PREPARED...motto of BSA...but true in BNI
Wear your name badges...paper badges for those who forgot confuse visitors
Recognition
Consider attending a Forum! You will not be disappointed.
No comments:
Post a Comment