Be a Personal Marketing Champion
by Don Morgan, National Director, BNI Canada
The BNI marketing program will work for virtually any business person who sets his or her mind to working the program. BNI is a sophisticated and highly effective marketing system that is supported by a business franchise structure. The program entails word-of-mouth referral marketing through a variety of individual networks of people. Each member looks for opportunities to refer their network partners to an appropriate BNI member.
This last part is what requires individual determination, creativity, tenacity and commitment. Members always have to be on the look out for referrals. Finding referrals for members is what fuels the program. The speed of this marketing system is highly dependent on the effort exerted by members to find lots of high quality referrals.
We want you to succeed. As a marketing organization and business, BNI's success is contingent on your success. BNI staff members are doing all that is possible to bring to your chapters the most support, guidance and direction to increase your business. However, the program will only work if you work at it.
Think about converting your BNI chapter into a "marketing engine" for your company. Your BNI chapter should not be thought of as a volunteer activity or an interesting add-on. It is your marketing thrust. You get out of it what you put into it. Without a marketing engine, your business will stay in the parking stall. The fuel for your BNI marketing engine is you. The speed of your marketing engine depends on how much fuel you add.
Imagine a highly successful athlete. Let's say a NBA basketball star or an Olympic Gold Medal runner. Did the NBA star or the gold medalist, succeed by reinventing basketball or running? No. Did he or she become a champion by sitting on the sidelines watching the game? No.
Champions succeed by following the guidelines of their coaches. Over time, and with lots of practice, tenacity and desire, they became champions at their sport. If you want more information about how to speed up your marketing engine, speak to your BNI Directors. They have the information you need. Follow their guidance. It really works, as is demonstrated by the member comments in this and other issues of SuccessNet. One chapter in Vancouver, Canada, tracks their net commissions and finds $40,000-50,000 more money in their pockets each month through BNI referrals. How fast is your chapter fueling the marketing engines of your member?
BNI is not passive marketing. The program requires active participation by each member. The most successful members are very effective at utilizing all of the component parts to the BNI marketing system. I am sure that if you ask a member for suggestions, you will get many. Realize that when you meet a BNI member who generates lots of new business through the BNI process, you are also meeting a personal marketing champion.
Let's all work together and aim to be champion personal marketers. |
