We have a new, joint newsletter- check it out

John Suarez (Director, South St. Louis County/Southern Illinois)and I have combined efforts along with Teresa Simon and Scott Simon. Please check out our new newsletter (this one is becoming inactive) at:

http://www.bnimissouri-illinois.blogspot.com/

Huddle Time: The Language of Recruiting, The language of Inviting

Here is a photo of myself, Reed and Kathy Morgan. We took these at the BNI International Conference in San Diego, California this week. They are the Executive Directors for our neighbor to the east, BNI Middle Tennessee, Kentucky-Southern Indiana.

Reed and Kathy had an excellent presentation about the Language of Recruiting vs. The Language of Inviting. Here are some interesting points you may be able to use in your chapter:

All Prospects are Visitors, but all visitors are not prospects

Both Inviting and recruiting have (2) distinct "languages" or "mindsets"

On the language of Visitors:

Visitors are like tourists to your city...they are really potential customers, clients, or patients for your members. Like tourists, they may not "move in"...but they probably will spend some money while they are in town. So how many visitors do we want to have in our chapter every week? 4-5 could work. Keep this in mind, they do not have to be potential members (even though that is great). What if they were:

• 
  
  Somebody interested in this weeks speaker


• 
  
  your substitute


• 
  
  your customers


• 
  
  your business associate from the office


• 
  
  your employees


• 
  
  a relative


• 
  
  a church or club member

Bring someone from your profession as a guest and have FUN watching them buy products or services from your chapter members. You can make your guest feel comfortable because you speak the same language they do..and you KNOW they can't get business from YOUR members...YOU are the BNI member supported by your chapter!

TARGET visitors to the weekly speakers. Bring potential customers for each speaker. Train members to use their 60 second presentation for 2 weeks prior to the 10 minute speaking date to talk about who they want as visitors on "their day."

Keep this in mind: Inviting is a "FUN" Language!......So is Recruiting, but it is a little different

Here are where Prospects are different than visitors (or where visitors become prospects)

1. They are candidates eligible for membership
2. They are looking for an opportunity to market by word of mouth
3. They sell quality and service, not a low price
4. They want to build their business through strong relationships and reputation
5. They want and need continued business growth (10-25% annually)

Qualities that you should look for:

1. Qualified
2. Trustworthy
3. Enthusiastic
4. has connections
5. giving

Categories that chapters should target:

1. Last dropped category (replace as quickly as possible)
2. Last non-renewal (even if that person had been a member for a number of years, we need someone else for our sales team- they should have a shot at the business as well)
3. Power Team expansion
4. Grow Chapter with a new category or better yet, a new power team

Qualifications that should be required to join your chapter:

1. Attitude, Attitude and ..........Attitude!!
2. Desire to contribute
3. Willingness to participate
4. Commit to "BNI System"
5. Practice "Givers Gain"
6. Pursue 20% Business Increase
7. Geographic proximity to Chapter

Qualifying questions to ask:

• Are you prepared to grow your business by 20% or more next year?
• Will you make the investment to do so? (4-5 hours weekly +$700-$900)
• Are you willing to "Give Business" in order to "Get Business"
• Are you willing to commit to others in order to get their commitment to you?

Conversations or presentations which are comfortable and effective to use:

• My Sales team has 36 members who are looking for a (profession) to refer our clients and prospects to when they need service. Would you like to meet my team?
• I am part of a business group of 36 professionals who are looking to add (profession) to our roster. If you are a member, we will all look for new customers to refer to you regularly. Are you interested in being invited to come meet my group?
• The Membership Committee of my BNI Chapter is interviewing candidates for the (profession) in our group. Typically, members get about 20% or more of their new customers referred by our members. Do you want to schedule an appointment to interview?
• I work with a group of business professionals who develop referral relationships with each other. We are currently looking for a (profession) to pass referrals to. Would you be interested in meeting my associates to see if this is something that would work for you?
• Do you want to grow your business by 10-20% next year? Would referrals from other business professionals be beneficial to you? I would like to introduce you to my chapter of BNI, the world's largest business referral organization. Would you like to see the BNI program and decide for yourself?

Notice that the language of recruiting is the language of a job interview. RECRUITING= direct, specific, targeted, time bound, decisive and professional.

Are you fluent in both languages?

To Our Success,

MLT

October Production Numbers Released: 417 Business Builders-Springfield Top Chapter in Franchise for October

Congratulations to BNI 417 Business Builders-Springfield for achieving "Chapter of Excellence" status for the month of October. Not only were they the top chapter in BNI Central and Southern Missouri, but were tops in the entire alliance! (90+ chapters) Way to go!
Our wing, BNI Central and Southern Missouri, also tied for top wing in franchise, along with BNI Southern Illinois/South St. Louis County- Way to go everyone!!

Top 10 Chapters in BNI Central and Southern Missouri:

1. 417 Business Builders-Springfield (#1)
2. Bigger Net Income-Springfield (#6)
3. S.M.A.R.T.- Springfield (#8)
4. River City (#9)
5. O'Fallon/Tri-County (#10)
6. Success Alliance-O'Fallon (#12)
7. Business Power Network-Springfield (#13)
8. St. Charles West (#14)
9. Givers Gain-St. Charles (#18)
10. St. Charles (#20)

Top 3, Area 6:

1. River City
2. O'Fallon/Tri-County
3. Success Alliance-O'Fallon

Top 2, East Central

1. Leaders Alliance-Franklin County
2. Washington

Top 2, Mid-Missouri

1. Columbia Breakfast
2. Hannibal/Quincy

Top 3, SW Missouri

1. 417 Business Builders
2. Bigger Net Income-Springfield
3. S.M.A.R.T.

Top 5, Most Referrals:

1. O'Fallon/Tri-County 223
2. Givers Gain-St. charles 190
3. St. Charles West 125
4. River City 117
5. Success Alliance-O'Fallon 111
6. Springfield Business Connection 111

Top 5, Most Visitors:

1. 417 Business Builders-Springfield 42
2. Hannibal/Quincy 34
3. Tiger Team-Columbia 23
4. Branson Business Builders 21
5. Springfield Business Builders 15

Top 5, Show me the money (closed gross sales)

1. River City $941, 699
2. Success Link-Springfield $688,891
3. Springfield Business Connection $524, 642
4. Wealth Thru Referrals-St. Charles $369, 441
5. Business Power Network-Springfield $319,282

Way to go everyone! for a full stat report, go to the documents section of the bnistl.com web site. Log in using your username and password and go to documents for a full report (.pdf)

To Our Success,

MLT

BNI Gold: Debunking the Six Degrees of Seperation

Do you believe that anyone in the world is only six people removed? Here’s why that theory’s wrong and what it means for networking.
What do Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and Six Degrees of Separation have in common? People around the world believe in them.
Since I don’t want to do an exposé on Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, I’m going to tackle the six degrees of separation theory, instead. This is the widely held belief that any person is connected to any other person through no more than six intermediary connections.
I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but it just isn’t true. The myth stems from several “small world experiments” conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s and ’70s that involved sending folders or letters from a group of people in one part of the country to a specific person they didn’t know in another part of the country. The people were told to get the material to someone who might know someone that would know the individual.
It was, in fact, found that the letters or folders took, on average, between five and six connections to reach the intended recipient. Though the average number of links was five or six, the majority of the connections ranged from two to 10 links. What’s more, the overwhelming majority of people in Milgram’s studies never got the material to the intended recipient. His most successful study yielded only a 29 percent completion rate. In one study, the number was only 5 percent.
So we aren’t “all connected” to everyone else by six degrees of separation. But why would I, who has devoted most of his professional career to business networking, be telling everyone about the inaccuracy of this iconic concept upon which a lot of networking pros hang their hats?
There are two reasons. First, I believe this myth creates complacency. The notion gives some people a false sense of expectation that connections are bound to happen sooner or later, no matter what they do. If this were the case, you wouldn’t need a networking columnist, would you?
Secondly, and most importantly, the studies’ findings clearly indicate that some people are better connected than others. This means networking is a skill that can be developed. With reading, training, and coaching, people can improve their networking skills, increase their connections and become part of the roughly 29 percent of people that are, in fact, separated from the rest of the world by only six degrees.
Milgram’s work was revolutionary. It opened up a new world of discussion and understanding. It has, however, been romanticized. The mythical version of his findings doesn’t serve anyone well. It gives people a false sense of security and an erroneous understanding of the networking process.
The good news is that it’s still possible to be a successful networker. By understanding that you can be connected to anyone through the power and potential of networking, you can set yourself apart from the competition. Just remember that being able to make connections isn’t an entitlement.

Called “The Father of Modern Networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest book, Masters of Sales, can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.

Welcome to the Region: BNI ThinkBIG!-Nixa

Here are some photos from the BNI ThinkBIG!-Nixa chapter Open House. They are the 13th chapter in SW Missouri and their Open House was on November 13th- how wild is that!
Dr. Michael Shanks did an excellent job keeping the operation on task. As you can see from the photos, it was a tight room. Like all of our planned open houses, we were able to keep with the plan of 3: within (3) seats and within (3) minutes.
Check out the pre-made name tags this chapter decided to have ready for all of the visitors who were pre-registered. They also have started a chapter brag book. Every time they have a testimonial for another member in the group, either personal business or referral business, they are typing out testimonial letters and adding them to a chapter "brag book" that all the visitors can see when they register.
They are off to a great start. If you get a chance, pay them a visit. They meet on Wednesday mornings 7:00-8:30 in Nixa, Mo.

To Our Success,

MLT

BNI Columbia Connections holds Open House- chapter is growing!

Congratulations to the BNI Columbia Connections for the great Open House! They are growing as a chapter and have a goal of getting over 20 in the next several months.

Chris Kespohl (chapter President) is the person in the photo keeping the operation on task. Special Kudos to Kent Reid who brought the most visitors (7 total!). They managed to get out on time, even with their Director as the featured speaker!

To Our Success,

MLT

Huddle Time: Setting Chapter goals using "Show Me The Money"

Check out this cool goal setting sign! How would you and your chapter like to set some goals this year? Here is an idea that you could use in your chapter that is being implemented at BNI Springfield Business Connection.

Step One: Have all of the members consider how much closed business (gross) they would like accomplish this year in BNI (make sure to consider not only Tier 1, but also Tier 2, Tier 3, and repeat business)

Step Two: Bring this goal written on a note card to the next meeting. Collect these and come up with one large goal for the chapter. You need a end date, so probably 1 October 2008 would work. Once you tally the results, you now have a "Macro" goal for the chapter. Here is what is great about this goal: It is OUR goal, not some arbitrary goal developed by a couple of people. All of us now OWN this goal- isn't that great?

Step Three: Put some kind of process in place so that the goal is spoken, seen, and read, and talked about every week. If you use a sign, like the one above, you are using something called a "reticular activator". This chapter likes to display it close to the visitor sign in table. Think about this: What is the purpose of the Vice President report that we read every week? What if we were to use the V.P. report section of the meeting to tie in with how we are coming along with our goals?

Here is something else that BNI Springfield Business Connection did that I found interesting. They developed a "Operations Manual" for the chapter. It is professional, and in a three ring binder. It is loaded with all of the BNI materials available (i.e. how to invite visitors, Contract for Profitability, etc.), a referral tracking sheet (both received and given), a calendar month by month for the entire year, and positional goals.

How do you eat a 8 million dollar elephant? One bite at a time! in the binder, towards the front, they have their goals broken down like this:

Year ending 10/1/2008

• $8 million in Closed business in 2008
• 25% increase in membership
• 250 visitors

Monthly Goals:

• $667,000 in Closed Business
• 2 new members
• 21 visitors

Weekly Goals:

• $154,000 in Closed Business
• 5 visitors

Step 4: Have people involved in the implementation of the goal process. Due to the fact that this goal is every ones goal, everyone and every position is involved in one way or another. You probably noticed that they also set a goal on growing the chapter as well. You can plan on losing 1-1.5 members per month on average. Get a plan set in place now to grow your chapter.

What do you think the chances of this chapter hitting their goal this year? I think it will probably be late summer (I am an 80/20 person). We should make a big cake with a 8 million dollar symbol on it when it is achieved- have a party! Everyone gets a piece of the 8 Million Dollar cake! Isn't that what this is really about? It is not about the largest amount of gross sales. It is about EVERYONE making money this year- from the commercial real estate agent to the cosmetic sales person.

Where are you at with your goals? How could you use something like this in your chapter? Our goal is helping you and your chapter achieve your goals, so let us know how we can help!

To our Success,

MLT

Special thanks to Herschel Macey, Zach Miller, Dr. Steven Baca, and Kirk Reisner and everyone else that was involved in sharing this information. Thank you for your spirit of "Givers Gain"

BNI Tiger Team-Columbia holds Incredible Open House

Here are the "action shots" of the BNI Tiger Team open house this week. They had a great open house- there must have been over 45 people in the room- great job!
What I think will make this Open House a success for this chapter is the fact that they spent a lot of time working on the question "Who do we want to add to our Chapter?" and also "Who do we know?" instead of "Let's get the yellow pages out and invite anyone with a pulse." You could tell by the quality of the visitors they had in attendance- good job! They should get some great new sales team members added to the chapter in the next few weeks.
Michael Pitts (Ultra Mortgage Group) did an excellent job as Chapter President keeping everyone on task, and D.W. Cole (Awareness Management) did a MOST EXCELLENT investment to join. Way to go BNI Tiger Team!

To Our Success,

MLT

BNI Gold: Contacting Prospective Customers

Your referral source has done her job. Now it’s time to contact the prospect.

But be careful: The purpose of your first contact is not to make a sale or even ask the prospect if he has questions about your business. If–and only if–the prospect asks, you should present your products or services during this initial contact.

The purpose of the first contact with the prospect is:

-to begin to build the relationship
-to get to know the prospect better
-to help the prospect get to know you better
-to position yourself to make your next contact
-to see if the prospect fits your source’s description of her

Before making contact, do your homework. If you don’t have them, ask for copies of all correspondence your source sent the prospect on your behalf. Find out from your source the best way to make your initial contact–by telephone? Letter? E-mail?

Meet the Face

When your source gives you the green light, don’t let the opportunity grow stale. Make your first contact with the prospect within 72 hours of getting the go-ahead.
If your source can be present, the most advantageous contact is a face-to-face meeting at which your source can introduce you. This introduction should be more than just, “Harry, this is Jerry. Jerry, this is Harry.” Your source should give the prospect a more thorough briefing about you, your business, and your products or services. For example:

“Harry Prospect, this is Vic Vendor, whom I was telling you about last week at our club meeting. Vic and I have known each other for more than five years. For the past two years, I’ve let him handle all my travel arrangements, and I can’t count up all the dollars he’s saved me, not to mention bench time in airport lounges. Vic’s really active in the community; we’re going to give him our service award at our next chamber meeting. He’s also a good golfer, and he skis a lot in the winter, although I find it hard to believe because he’s never broken a leg.

“Vic, Harry’s been a very special customer of mine for at least fifteen years. His daughter and mine went to school together, and he let me cater her wedding three years ago . . . .”

During this first contact, your prospect may likely have questions for you. But he typically won’t ask them during this initial meeting unless he has an urgent need for the kind of products or services you provide.

Drop a Line

If your first meeting with your prospect can’t be in person, your best bet is to write–a letter, a card, or email, for example–rather than to phone, as you did your prospective source.
Writing gives you a better, more controlled opportunity to convey what you’ve learned about the prospect. It helps develop your relationship to let your prospect know you find him interesting enough to have taken the time to learn a few facts about him–not the fact that he needs your products or services, but the fact that he’s a member of the Downtown Executive Society or that, “Tom told me you’re a great chess player.” Express an interest in meeting him, and advise him you’ll be calling to schedule a mutually convenient appointment.
When you start composing your note to him, keep in mind that he may not have read, or remembered, the materials your source sent him. So start by naming your referral source, a name he’ll recognize:

Dear Glen:
Joan Irvine, whom I understand was one of your students, recommended I get in touch with you. Joan tells me you’re an avid butterfly collector . . . .

Don’t send business literature or your business card with your first correspondence. Your stationery should have all the contact information your prospect needs to reach you. Avoid giving the impression that you’re interested in him primarily as a prospective customer.
Give the prospect some time to receive your correspondence before you follow up with a phone call. When you do, and if your prospect agrees, try to schedule a face-to-face meeting. Even if your prospect isn’t receptive to that, offer to send more information, and if the prospect indicates he’d like this, send it right away–and don’t forget to send a copy of your correspondence to your referral source.

Ring Up

If your source recommends it and can guide you as to the best time to do so, you can make your initial contact with your prospect by phone:

“Hello, Ms. Clearchannel. I’m Dr. Mark Star, and I’m calling you at the recommendation of Trudy Grossman.”“Oh, hi, Mark. Trudy told me about you. She’s quite impressed with your book, which she sent me a copy of. I’d like to have you on my show. Can you come to my studio two weeks from today?”

The above situation isn’t just a fantasy–your prospect could decide immediately to do business with you. If you’ve prepared the ground well, and if you’re lucky, your efforts may pay off on your very first call. Most often, though, the prospect–even a referral lead–will need more time or express an interest in talking later about your products or services. (And even if they put you off, you’re almost certainly better off than if you’d made your first contact by cold call, mass advertising, or direct-mail campaign.)

Follow Up

When building relationships, it’s always important not to let much time lapse without following up the first contact. Within two to three days, you should send your prospect a note expressing your pleasure in communicating with him. It’s still too early, though, to send business literature or make any move toward sales promotion.
So follow up early, but don’t push beyond the prospect’s comfort level. Once the prospect has expressed an interest in your products or services, you can provide information about them, but don’t force it on him. Continue presenting your products or services, but avoid the hard sell. Focus on fulfilling his needs and interests. Your goal should be to keep your prospect aware of your business without annoying him.
Remember, to secure long-term loyalty of your prospect and convert her into a customer, you must first build a relationship. It may take a while, but if you’ve selected and briefed your sources well, and if you follow my recommendations, you’ll speed up the process.

Called “The Father of Modern Networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest book, Masters of Sales, can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.

What I like most about BNI: Kirk Reisner, Advisor Insurance Agency, LLC

Here is a great testimonial about what BNI can do for your business when you make it an active part of your weekly marketing/sales plan. Kirk Reisner is a member of BNI Springfield Business Connection.

To Our Success,

MLT

BNI Gold: Conquer your fear of public speaking!

Don’t shy away from a networking group because they ask you to do a presentation.
By Dr. Ivan Misner

Q: As a management consultant with a training background, I have no problem interacting and doing a 10-minute presentation when asked to do so in the networking group I belong to. I have a colleague, however, who is terrified to give a presentation about her business. She’s great in one-on-one situations, but a long presentation paralyzes her. It’s not the content of her presentation—it’s the process of getting up in front of a group of people and speaking. What advice can you give to someone with this great fear?

A: In the many surveys I’ve seen over the years, people have ranked the fear of public speaking higher than the fear of dying! Standing and talking to an audience can be frightening, especially if it’s for more than a couple minutes.
Here are five suggestions that I have for people who are nervous doing presentations at their networking groups:
Prepare, prepare, prepare! Don’t wing it! Prepare an outline of what you want to say and practice it.
Be specific and talk about the things you know best. Don’t try to teach people everything you do. Focus on no more than two or three areas of what you want them to learn about. Most importantly, cover the topics you feel you understand the best. This will reduce some of your stress
Use handouts, visuals, or PowerPoint slides to support your presentation. For people who are worried about stage fright, these props can help carry them through the talk.
Remember, you’re the expert. Think about ways that help show that and are not threatening for you.
Be creative. Think of some way to communicate the information in a way you feel comfortable.
Many years ago in Business Network International (BNI, the networking organization I founded in 1985), I met a CPA who asked me if she absolutely had to do the 10-minute presentation that members did. I told her that everyone in the group needed to do them. She then informed me that in that case, she quit! As you might suspect, I was taken off guard with that and I asked her why. She told me that it took everything in her power to stand and do a brief 60-second presentation.
She then, in no uncertain terms, informed me that if she was required to speak for 10 minutes, she would have to quit because it was too stressful for her. I told her not to quit and that we wouldn’t “make” her speak if she didn’t want to. This seemed to alleviate some of her anxiety, and we continued talking. I told her that if she didn’t do the presentation, it would eliminate an important opportunity to educate the members about what she did. She acknowledged that, but insisted that speaking was just too stressful for her.
I then changed my approach and asked her how she felt about giving a test. I asked her if she could come up with 10 true/false questions about the tax law and small business and asked if she could just read the questions and read the answers. She thought for a moment and said yes, she could do that easily enough–as long as she didn’t have to do a speech. I said no problem; this would be informative and helpful to the members.
Well, the day she read the test was hysterical. About three questions into her test, she started becoming more and more animated. As the test went on, she went further and further off her written answers and responded to questions and discussions in a very professional, humorous, and informative manner. After 15 minutes, the president running the meeting had to nudge her along to wrap it up because she was going over the allotted time. She was shocked! She had totally lost track of time and completely lost her fear because she wasn’t doing a “speech,” she was doing a “test.”
The bottom line is this: You should do a presentation that you feel comfortable with. Think creatively about what you know and what you feel comfortable doing to express that knowledge. You’ll discover that you don’t have to pass up an opportunity to talk a little longer to the networking groups you belong to.
For additional information on this subject, I recommend taking a look at the many books and tapes that specifically talk about public speaking. In one of my books, Masters of Networking, there is an excellent contribution on the subject of public speaking in a networking context by Joe McBride (beginning on page 103). If you have this book, I recommend you read that section.

Why our region RULES!: BNI Leaders Alliance-Franklin County promotes chapter and helps the environment for Earth Day

Electronics recycling with BNI-Leaders’ Alliance of Franklin County

October 27th, 2007 marked a great day for our region! BNI– Leaders’ Alliance partnered with WITS
www.witsinc.org to collect 2 semi-trailer loads of “e-waste”. Around 250 cars from throughout Franklin
County donated computers, monitors, TV’s, stereos, washers, dryers, freezers, cabling, machinery,
mowers, lawn equipment, motors, transformers...anything with a cord, battery or motor. Says Erik Askviken
(Leaders’ Alliance) “We have been planning this event for 8 months, but the logistics weren’t set in
stone until 2 weeks before the event! Our team really came together to produce a quality event. By
noon we were talking sequel!” Earth Day 2008 is just too juicy a date to pass up to help the community
and promote our BNI Chapter. Michelle Mendenhall (Mid-Missouri Office Machines, Shana Cillo
(ReMax Gold First), Jane Held (BJC Home Care), Jamie Kuenzie (JuicePlus+), Tim Larrison (Matt Tobben
Insurance Agency), Mary Mebruer (The Body Natural), Tim Sarlone (Sarlone & Associates), Gina
Scego (Franklin Mortgage Company) and Sondra Simpson (Partylite) all contributed to make this event successful. Great Job!

Huddle Time: How many MOM's Should Our Chapter Be Doing?

How Many MOM's Should Our Chapter Be Doing?

By John Suarez, Director- South St. Louis County/ Southern Illinois

www.bnisuarez.blogspot.com

Our monthly production reports illustrate two things: 1) many chapters dramatically under report the number of MOM's their members actually do; and 2) many members don't make enough time for MOM's.Both of which contribute to the myth that you can be successful in BNI without actually building depth to your relationships.There is a word for people who are looking for the shortcut to building relationships...I call them "ex-BNI members", and if they are not, they will be. The shortcut doesn't exist. MOM's are the absolute minimum essential cost of doing business via relationships.In terms of chapter production, nothing drives the mechanism for achieving results better than getting your members invested in each other's lives. The simple truth is...1) If you want to generate more referrals for your members, do more MOM's.2) If you want to get more referrals, do more MOM's.3) If you want to get a faster return on your BNI investment, do more MOM's.4) If you want to build trust with your members, do more MOM's.5) If you want your networking activity to become more efficient, do more MOM's.There is just no getting around it.As leadership teams begin the process of setting goals for the 2007-2008 year, it would be wise to consider the chapter's past performance in terms of the number of MOM's reported each month. Use the "green activity sheet" for recording purposes, and encourage people to participate in the reporting process.Based on our reports, chapters whose MOM's for the month approach or exceed four times the number of members are bound to be among the most productive. It makes sense, because it means that members are taking the time to learn more about how to help each other. They are taking a proactive approach to finding referrals instead of waiting for referrals to happen...which of course, rarely happens.How many MOM's should your chapter try to do each month? It depends on what level of performance you are trying to achieve. Do you want your chapter to be average, below average, or a top performer? Use this form to plan your chapter MOM production, and watch all the other performance indicators improve as well. Challenge members to improve this one part of their BNI game plan, and everything else takes care of itself.Many chapters are setting Show Me the Money Goals for the year...I've heard some as high as $8 million. To the extent that those chapters recognize that MOM's are the gateway to better and more profitable relationships, I have no doubt they can reach those goals

About the photo: This is a photo of an actual "Power Team Meeting" with the BNI Springfield Business Connection Chapter Insurance/Financial Services Power Team. They schedule these as a standing meeting every other week and pick a different person at each meeting to work on. This has been a key to the success of not only the Power Team, but also the chapter.

To Our Success,

MLT

Mid-Missouri Area News: New MSP dates and regional meetings announced for 2007-2008

What a great photo of our Mid-Missouri Area Leaders! This was taken at the Leadership Conference in St. Louis, MO. in September.

We are excited about the new year and the possibilities we have in front of us. What can we accomplish, together, this year? Could we go from "Good" to "Great"? What new opportunities lay in front of us, right in our very own BNI chapter?

We are looking forward to working with everyone in the Mid-Missouri Area this year. We have made a few changes and are very excited about them.

I. We have moved the MSP to Thursday evenings and changed locations. We SO APPRECIATE all of the generosity of everyone at Awareness Management in Columbia. Our next MSP training date is:

Thursday, November 8th

5:30-8:00 p.m.

Residence Inn (next to Hooters Restaurant)

1100 Woodland Springs Ct.

Columbia, MO. 65202

MSP has streamlined and is better than ever. What if we had most of our chapter at this one? Would it help all of us to close more business this year? All you need to attend is to be pre-registered with the regional office so we can know how many to seat. Just let us know.

Click HERE for a 2007-2008 MSP Mid-Missouri calendar

II. We are starting regional meetings every month at Shakespeares West (near Hyvee). Our next meeting is Thursday, November 8th, 11:30-1:00. We will be discussing Vice President and the role of an effective Membership Committee. We are also going to continue the theme of "Chapter Goals". Everyone is welcome to these meetings, see your Leadership Team so they can give me an accurate count of who will attend. The Pizza is excellent, and the commentary between the Leaders and Director very valuable.

Upcoming Discussions:

November: Vice President/Membership Committee/Goals

December: Sec/Treas./ Chapter Power Team Development

January: Visitor Recruitment Team- Visitor Host/Marketing Coordinator

Click HERE for the entire 2007-2008 schedule

III. We are looking for stories about your Chapter or members in your chapter. My favorite is "Why our Region RULES!". It is about the above and beyond activities our members do outside of BNI. If you have a story, please submit it via email with a photo. I will do my best to use it to promote the people involved as well as the chapter.

To Our Success,

MLT

East Central Area News: MSP dates released, BNI Washington gets traveling Area Trophy for month of September

Congratulations to BNI Washington for achieving "Top East Central Area Chapter" status for the month of September. Michelle Mendenhall (left) from BNI Leaders Alliance-Franklin County (August recipient) is presenting the trophy to Sharon Monzyk (right) from BNI Washington. Overall, our Area had a great month. BNI Leaders Alliance and BNI Union both had very strong months, but BNI Washington was "tops" for September- way to go!

This is a new trophy, and was the "brain child" of Erik Askviken (Leaders Alliance). It will go to the top chapter in the area every month, and will be awarded at the monthly regional meetings in Union.

We are pleased to announce our MSP dates for 2007-2008. Click HERE for a full schedule. Our next MSP will be on Wednesday, December 5th, 5:30-8:00 p.m. at the Hawthorne Inn in Union. Our chapters are contributing to make this a catered event, so everyone will get a chance to "dine and learn" at the same time. Members from other areas are welcome, but they will need to contribute $12.00 to help offset the cost.

Also, we would like to extend an invitation for all of our East Central Area members to attend our monthly regional strategy session meetings. Our focus next month will be Vice President and Membership Committee. Click HERE for a 2007-2008 schedule.

2007-2008 is going to be our best year ever! I wish everyone in the East Central Area a prosperous year.

To Our Success,

MLT

Why our Region RULES!: Kathy Gallegos, Coldwell Banker Vanguard

Here are some cool photos of Kathy Gallegos. By day, she is a residential real estate agent in Springfield, MO and chapter President of BNI 417 Business Builders-Springfield. By night, fashion show model participant.

The Fashion Show was for the Women's Council of Realtors, Springfield, Missouri Chapter and benefits Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks of which she is on the Board of Directors.

Although in BNI we do not have a philanthropic agenda (it would get in the way of business during the meeting), it is great to note what our members do outside of the meetings. This is proof that we have some of the best business people across the state in our BNI Central and Southern Missouri Region. Way to Go Kathy!!

To Our Success,

MLT

We are looking for stories about people in your chapter. If you have someone, please email me a photo and a story at miketobin@bnistl.com We will work our best to publish it and promote your chapter and your chapter members. MLT

BNI Gold: Busting the myths about customer referrals

Learn the truth behind these six common networking misconceptions

I’m was working on a new book with two business associates, Mike Macedonio and Mike Garrison of the Referral Institute. In the process of working on our book, the thought came to us that many entrepreneurs have perceptions about referral marketing that aren’t based on reality. In fact, they’re delusions.
With that in mind, I’d like to share with you some of these referral “truth or delusions.” See if you can tell the truth from the fiction.
Truth or Delusion? If you provide good customer service, people will refer business to you. This one’s a delusion. Many, many entrepreneurs think that good customer service is the number-one way to cultivate word-of-mouth marketing and referrals. But it’s not! It’s a good policy and one that’s vital to the health of your business, but it’s not at the core of building a referral-based business.
People have come to expect good customer service. In fact, they demand it in today’s marketplace. When considering customer service and its role in the referral process, it unfortunately works much more effectively in reverse: People are more likely to talk about your business when they’re unhappy with you than when they’re happy with your service.
So if you want to build your referrals, you must actively cultivate your referral sources and not rely on good customer service alone.
Truth or Delusion? For maximum referral impact, you should cultivate relationships primarily with the movers and shakers in your community. This one’s also a delusion. The common perception is to look for influential individuals who will hopefully be able to provide large referrals for your business that will result in big sales.
I once heard a very interesting story that really brings this point home. A few years back, I was chatting with a local business owner I knew about the impact that all types of people can have on our referral business. The man owned a window covering business. During our conversation, he proceeded to tell me about a referral he got from a rather unassuming man he knew. It seems that this man’s friend, an elderly woman living nearby, had one small window on a back door that needed a roll-up screen and he could find no other window covering business that would be interested in coming out to her house to measure and quote her on such a small job.
My acquaintance continued this story by recounting how he willingly agreed to take care of the job, much to the man’s relief. About two weeks later, a large, black stretch limo pulled up in front of his store. A very well-dressed man in a custom-tailored suit and fine Italian leather dress shoes stepped out and came into his store. It was this little old lady’s son! He had been very impressed with the work done at his mother’s house and wanted to do business with my friend. He had just purchased a 6,000-square-foot house in Malibu and wanted my friend to handle all the window coverings on an unlimited budget (visualize with me all the windows in a really large house right on the ocean).
This is a great example of how a seemingly non-influential individual could provide you with a great contact. The point is to stop networking like a big-game hunter and approach networking more like farming. Cultivate all types of relationships with the clear understanding and knowledge that this is how networking works. You never know whom it is who knows just the right person to introduce to your business.
Focus on the quality of the relationships you develop and cultivate those relationships on all levels. The diversity of your contacts is much more important than looking for the “big guys.” You’ll be amazed how much better this approach works in the long run.
Truth or Delusion? People who like, care and respect you will refer business to you. You guessed it: This is absolutely a delusion! How often do you regularly get a referral from your mom? Yet you’d certainly be right to expect a referral relationship from those closest to you, such as friends, family members, and other close associates.
The problem is, we don’t remember that we need to train the people with whom we have the closest relationships on how to refer business to us. It’s true! We need to educate them as well on how to listen for people who might need our products.
Teach those closest to you to listen for the “language of referrals.” When people say words like “I want,” “I need,” “I can’t,” “I wish,” or “I don’t know who,” whatever they say next could be a referral. When we teach our referral sources how to listen to the language of referrals, then we provide the tools for them to refer business to us.
Truth or Delusion? It’s best to limit the number of networking groups you belong to. Truth! Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. This means you need time to cultivate the contacts you make. In a recent survey of almost 1,800 businesspeople my company did, almost 32 percent of respondents attended eight or more networking events a month. One-third of that group attended between 12 and 20 networking events a month!
Building your business through word of mouth is not a contest to see who can attend the most meetings. It’s about building the best relationships! Therefore, you must be selective about your efforts and focus not only on attending meetings but also on building bonds with the people you meet at those meetings. Unfortunately, it’s all too common for businesspeople to focus on breadth–not depth–in their networking.
Truth or Delusion? The best way to ensure referral success is to follow the Golden Rule: Treat your referral sources the way you would want to be treated. Unfortunately, again, this is a delusion. While this may seem like a “trick question,” it’s not. All too often we deal with our referral sources the way we’d want to be treated. If we want to strike a chord with them, however, we need to keep in mind that it’s important to remember what they want and need. The referral process is more emotional than it is factual. It’s crucial that you find out what’s important to the referral source in order to maintain and develop the relationship.
Truth or Delusion? Referral marketing is the safest form of advertising. This one’s definitely a delusion! When you give a referral, you give a little of your reputation away. If the business you’ve referred someone to does a good job, it helps your reputation. But if they do a poor job, your reputation may be hurt.
The payoffs of referral marketing are immense–when done right! But it involves a really big risk: giving away a piece of your reputation every time you give a referral to someone. When you tell a valued customer that a friend of yours is going to take good care of them, you must have confidence in that friend.
But what happens if your friend lets your customer down? It comes back to haunt you. Your customer begins to lose faith in you, and because of that loss of faith, you just might lose that customer down the road. This is why it’s so important to develop strong relationships with those to whom you’re referring business and vice versa. Once those strong connections are forged, you can rest easy, knowing when you tell someone a business associate or networking partner is going to take good care of him or her, that will happen.
These are just a few of the “truth or delusion” examples we’ve come up with. If you can think of others, feel free to send them to me.

Called The Father of Modern Networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest book, Masters of Sales can be viewed at www.MastersBooks.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company. He can be reached at misner@bni.com.

BNI Business Power Network holds "Power Team Symposium" at Chapter Meeting, BNI Springfield Business Connection helps out

BNI Business Power Network-Springfield had a great meeting on Tuesday. The theme of the meeting was "growing your chapter/ growing your business thru effective Power Teams. We opened up the meeting with an excellent educational coordinator moment from Beth Bennett, (Metropolitan Bank). We have a video of her presentation above (sound quality is not the best-you will need to turn the volume up). She used the Power Rangers-Power Team analogy. Here is a thought from that presentation that was most excellent: having your power team members phone numbers loaded in your phone- what a cool idea!
Later in the meeting, we had an opportunity to really "roll up our sleeves" and have a discussion about power teams. We had Zach Miller (Murney & Assoc) and Kirk Reisner (Advisor Insurance Agency), members of the BNI Springfield Business Connection Chapter, share thoughts about how they have grown their Chapter and businesses with the use of Power Teams. Here are some of the thoughts that we came out with:

1. We need to establish which power team we are in (this is where BNI members get the majority of the business they close in their chapter). Are we in just one? Maybe two? We need to know because these people are calling on the same clients as ourselves!
2. We need to figure out what we are doing with these power team members (have we earned enough trust to be referable to? If we have not, or do not know, maybe we need to work on that first). Springfield Business Connection has been working on expanding the G.A.I.N.S. profile program, as well as doing bi-weekly, structured Power Team meetings (in addition to the normal weekly BNI meeting)
3. When we meet with our power team members, we need to train these people to be sales people for us. (who we need to be in front of? How do we go about saying what we need to say? How do we move from an "Advocate" of referrals to a "Creator" of referrals?)
4. We need to come up with a plan to add the missing Power Team people to the chapter. Who are the best people to do this? People in our Power Team- they know who best to add to the chapter

We could have gone further with the Power Team concept. Due to time, we had to conclude. I would like to share with everyone a stat that we talk about in MSP: Chapters that get over 20 members and chapters that get over 30 members have a large increase in closed business. The stat that was used in the east coast study was approx 232%- not in referrals, but actual closed "Show Me the Money" business. We have been working on a similar study in our BNI Missouri/Illinois Alliance and have found similar results. Have you ever considered why? Imagine a chapter over 20 or over 30- several Power Teams are well established. The more complete Power Teams you have in place in your chapter, the more business your chapter will close. And what goals do all of us have for this year? 1.) close more business 2.) close more new business

A special thanks goes out to Kirk and Zach. They could have been elsewhere, but chose to help share their special knowledge with another BNI chapter. This is the spirit of "Givers Gain", and shows why our region has not only some of the best Chapters, but also some of the best people.

To Our Success,

MLT

Welcome to the region: BNI Branson Business Builders

Congratulations to the BNI Branson Business Builders Chapter! They celebrated their Open House on Monday at the College of the Ozarks (what an EXCELLENT facility).

The chapter is looking to grow, and accepted several new applications at the event, with more to apply next week.

Judy Blaha (UPS Store) did an excellent job keeping the meeting "on task", and the group was able to hit our goal: within (3) seats and within (3) minutes!

A special thanks goes out to Jerry Haefeker (Off the Wall Billboards), who was able to secure this most excellent facility- Thank You Jerry!

If you are in Branson on a Monday during lunch time, be sure to pay them a visit! Welcome to the BNI family, BNI Branson Business Builders!

To Our Success,

MLT

BNI Gold: Building a Think Tank for your business

Q: I’ve heard the term “knowledge network.” What does it mean, and how does it fit into my business networking efforts?

A: As a business professional, you need a constant supply of information to achieve success. You must stay aware of trends and issues and keep up with rapid economic and technological changes to become an