This week on the Engaging Marketeer, I’m talking to the Executive Director for BNI in Merseyside and the National Director for BNI in Portugal and Brazil, Terry Hamill. Terry has been a part of BNI for over 20 years, helping the organisation’s worldwide expansion and working closely with BNI founder and previous Engaging Marketeer guest, Ivan Misner. Terry and I are discussing a range of BNI-related topics, such as the process of bringing in new members, what makes a good referral and whether BNI chapters should be allowed to put their own spin on the classic meeting structure.
Terry on his first introduction to BNI…
Darren: What was your first experience of BNI?
Terry: In 1998, I was running a hairdressing group, a training group and a furniture group that was in Liverpool at the time. The furniture company said they’d love me to be their company networker, to go out, meet people, bring business there, so I said okay. I met a man who gave me the number of a woman whose company did office fit outs. She called me, we had a meeting and we sold £26,000 worth of furniture. She asked me which completely changed my life, she said ‘what are you doing next Wednesday?’ Fast-forward again, and we had half a million pounds worth of business done in the next six months of BNI.
…on reluctant potential BNI members…
Terry: If you tell people to turn up at 6:30 and you’re going to have to come every week and you’re going to have to do a presentation, they’re not going to want to come. The challenge is everybody gets so enthusiastic about this BNI thing. If they think you’re too enthusiastic, they think that you’re making money out of it. So I’m really casual, I say ‘could you handle more business?’ I’ve got a really good network of people that I’d like to introduce you to, and I’ll send you an invitation. Great, nothing else, because if they don’t like you, they’re not going to come anyway.
…on the importance of good referrals…
Terry: I remember how bad I felt in Southport 17 years ago (that’s how much I’m still hurting, right). I was in a group and some guy who was very transactional stood up and said I’ve got five referrals today, and everyone cheered. Somebody else steps up and says they’ve got one referral, people don’t care as much. That one referral was worth £1.2million. Nobody recognised the fact that that one referral was for 52 kitchens for a guy who was a great member, there was no congratulations because it was one referral, and I thought this is wrong, this is not about the numbers, this is about equality.
…on helping new members understand the point of BNI…
Darren: It’s imperative that we do something else something more to help the new members to get them to understand what it is that BNI should be doing for them and what they should be doing for BNI
Terry: Well, catching them early I think is. I think our retention is maybe 70% across the country, so it’s not it’s not an issue. We have one chapter which has got 100% retention, that’s also an issue because it becomes a clique, a group of people that never leave and do are they more mates than business? At the end of the day, BNI takes commitment to go, so if they’re not into that and they’re not getting the right flow, they’ll easily dip out.
…on the evolution of BNI chapters…
Darren: Me and Ivan Misner disagreed on whether you should be able to add things to meeting. Are things just different in America to how they are in the UK and Portugal, or is it that we should be evolving BNI to help people understand it better?
Terry: Ivan’s amazing, he built this thing, he built the machine. The risk is, and I know this from my own past experiences, if you are playing with this machine too much, it will break. I’ve introduced ideas to BNI that just didn’t really work, but new ideas and creativity can also help to keep things fresh. I get where Ivan’s coming from, but its important to recognise what works and what will not work.
…on launching core groups…
Darren: What’s your advice to franchise owners launching core groups?
Terry: Well, launch them. We went from a dozen groups to 50 groups to 90 groups very quickly, and then we plateaued for a long time. When you’re managing 100 groups and you’re in the groove, but the original idea of opening a lot of groups gets lost because you’re managing, you’re managing the data and the people and everything, so you take your eye off the ball.
Anybody that wants to reach out to Terry or BNI in Portugal can do so, but should be aware that almost all of those chapters are exclusively in Portuguese. Alternatively, Terry advises any aspiring BNI chapter leaders to book a Zoom call with him to gain some valuable information about the processes involved.
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