Building Ties that Bind

As the size of a BNI chapter grows, one of the common challenges faced by all members is the ability to understand everyone’s business. We know that in order to increase referrals and to find opportunities for business collaboration, building strong ties with members is critical. Just like the intelligence of a person is dependent on the links between the memory cells in the brain called synapses and not the size of the brain, the strength of a BNI chapter is also dependent on the ties between members and not merely the number of members.

 As time is a constraint faced by most people, group dance cards will be more efficient as compared to the traditional way of 1-1 dance card.  To maximise the result from group dance cards, below are several suggestions on conducting effective group dance cards:

 1. Show-Case melody

 Each member given 10 minutes to talk about their business & ideal client profile. Be very specific & time-conscious about how the show-case is being done. The objective is to get to know in greater detail about each other’s business goals, ideal client profiles & how to get referrals for them. Some specific things to talk about:

 a. What’s the unique selling proposition for your company & its’ products/services? Why your company, not your competitors?

 b. Ideal client Profiles, and how they can benefit from your services.

 c. How do you propose you can work with the various members of your group?

 d. What are the improvements you hope to make this year about your business, personal and professional development?

 2. Speed Dance-Card

 a. Each write down their name on a slip of paper, put into two separate cups alternately, so that you split into two groups. Open all the slips in one cup, and get them to each in turn pick a name from the other cup. This will be the first round of combination.

 b. Each given 10 minutes to share their business. Be specific about the dance-card, to quickly state the unique selling points, how their services can benefit their target market groups. Then each given another 5 minutes to suggest how to collaborate with each other.

 c. Then rotate in order of group 1 meeting new group 2 person. Then finally one round together within the group.

 3. Chapter Improvement suggestions

 a. Break-out into 2 sub-groups and discuss about

 i. What suggestions you have to increase referrals especially for members who did not receive a lot of referrals and especially tier 2 referrals?

 ii. What are the suggestions you have to develop stronger business ties as well as relationship between members?

 iii. How can we as a chapter market our chapter members’ services more effectively?

 iv. What arethe things that have happenedinBNI that will make you commit to the Chapter and become a 10 year member?

 v. What are your suggestions on how we can improve BNI Renaissance further?

 b. Run a general discussion with each member given 5 minutes to speak about what areas of improvements can be made to the chapter. Get a facilitator to classify and group the points made. Then open to the entire group and go through groupings of suggestions and comments.

 4. Share about How Referrals and Visitors came about. This will help each other learn how to pass more referrals and bring visitors.

 5. Visitor Day! – Why not make it an occasion to invite visitors to your members’ group gathering. You can put together a social event, perhaps get a member to be MC and introduce other members and share what the BNI Renaissance is all about.