Business by referral. 

It is a wonderful experience when a stranger rings you up, and says that you have been recommended to him by one of your customers!

What about when one of your customers rings you up and gives you the name and number of a hot prospect. Your customer has already told the hot prospect about you and your services, they have even told them that YOU WILL CALL – so the prospect is expecting your call – how easy a call is that to make?

If you HATE COLD CALLING, then referral business is for you.

“Word-of-mouth marketing, getting new customers by referral from others, has been around since the first flint chipper began trading spear points for mammoth meat. What there has never been, however, is a truly systematic way of planning for, generating, and monitoring referral business.” - Business by Referral by Ivan Misner.

Imagine that you are in a meeting with 5 business owners and one of those business owners says a phrase which is key to you. Something like;

“My accountant is terrible I MUST find a new one” – If you’re an account, that is music to your ears!

“My business needs a big push as I’ve been on the edge of success for months” – If you’re in marketing, FANTASTIC!

Now imagine that you have available to you 20 – 30 business owners who are actively looking for business for you, actively listening out for YOUR key phrase (as well as their own!)

Now put into that same image, the fact that YOU are the ONLY accountant, marketing person, dentist or plumber for whom they are looking for work – That’s what the BNI gives you – exclusive access to a large number of business owners, and via them to a HUGE number of other businesses who are either now, or in the not too distant future, looking for YOUR product or service.

We’ve all heard the horror stories; the website that cost an arm and a leg, but can’t be found or updated, the electrician who made a hash of the alarm installation, the cleaning company that didn’t turn up – if any of these describes how you run your business, then the BNI will not work for you!

BNI members are professionals, they open themselves up to the scrutiny of their colleagues freely, because they want to be trusted – would you introduce a business you couldn’t trust into YOUR biggest customer? – I know I wouldn’t, so trust is paramount, without it you cannot build up the level of loyalty that is required.