Synopsis -
In This Episode, Dr. Misner Interviews BNI Director Patti Salvucci On Her “Less Is More” Approach To Building Chapters.

Patti Has Built Over 100 Chapters With An Average Of 27 Members Each

Use The Practice of “Focused Inviting”

Only Invite People Who You Know Are The Best At What They Do

Ask Them To Do The Same In Turn

The Less You Say, The More People Will Participate

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 027 -

Frank Felker:
Hello everybody and welcome back to the official BNI podcast, brought to you by networkingnow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I’m Frank Felker in Washington DC joined on the phone today by Dr. Ivan Misner who’s calling in from the crescent city, New Orleans, Louisiana. What are you doing down that way, Ivan?

Ivan Misner:
We had our membership drive earlier this year and this is the U.S. membership drive weekend. We’re having a wonderful in New Orleans this weekend.

Frank:
It’s one of my favorite cities. I’ve always enjoyed going there. I understand you also have a guest on the line with us today.

Ivan:
I do. I have with us Patti Salvucci. I have known Patti for more than a decade. She is one of the best BNI directors in the world and that’s why I have invited her to be on this podcast. Patti has under her management 100 chapters of BNI. That’s amazing to me and as if that isn’t amazing enough, she has one of the largest average number of members per chapter regions in the world with approximately 27 members on average – that’s a statistical mean – 27 members per chapter, which is just phenomenal. Patti, it is great to have you on this podcast.

Patti Salvucci:
Thank you, Ivan. Great to be here.

Ivan:
Talk a little bit about how you got started. I think the podcast is a great opportunity for people to talk directly to members and give them some of the dos and don’ts of being successful in BNI.

We’re going to talk about how you built chapters. Clearly, you have been brilliant at building strong groups. That is really the topic for today. You have had a lot of success in BNI in this area so I thought that you might start off by talking about some of our original conversations when we opened up in Massachusetts. I worked with you by phone before we actually kicked off. I thought maybe we could start with that.

Patti:
Actually, it was back in 1985, and I think BNI only had about 300 chapters at that point. Ivan was my coach and one of the things that really struck for me was that Ivan said that you want to only invite people that you would recommend in a heartbeat. It would be somebody who returns phone calls and you would be proud to recommend.

I had a lot of friends and business but I thought you know what – there were only eight that I could think of that were really the best at what they did. I really wanted a lot of people there, so I started to think how was I going to get 100 people to attend a meeting?

I went to some people that were in the community that were very influential. One was the director of the civic organization and I call that person and said, “Joan, I need your help. Will you help me?”

She said she would be more than happy to. I said we were having a networking breakfast in town and I was looking for people who were the best at what they do. I think that was the key. It really made her think. I think one of the keys is focused inviting.

When I actually went to see Joan the following day, she had pulled out only the people that she thought were the best at what they did. Interestingly enough, when I called those people I didn’t have to know them. I called and said, “My name is Patti. You don’t know me but you are highly recommended by Joan.”

Ivan:
You say you didn’t have to know them, but she knew them and that was the key. It was the third party connection that made that approach work for you. Is that correct?

Patti:
Actually, the rapport had already started to be built in the conversation. I think saying less is more. I only said just a few sentences on the phone and I asked for permission to be able to send them an invitation to a networking breakfast were everybody in town was going to be there. We were only looking for the people who are the best at what they did and Jones said that they were the best.

Ivan:
Saying less is more. I think that’s so important because sometimes members just try to talk someone into joining and try to give them almost too much information. The truth is that the best way to get people to participate in BNI is to see a well run meeting.

I can bring up to really good points. One is that members have a tendency to invite anyone with a pulse and not go for the best. The second is that they try to explain everything without the person seeing it. Would you not agree with that?

Patti:
I absolutely agree with that. I think that they try to think about everything they possibly can in order to invite them and give them as much information as they need. At that point, the person doesn’t need to go to the meeting. I think you just want to put out the bread crumbs, so to speak. Just give them a little bit of information so that they always want more. That is something that certainly always worked for me.

Ivan:
Talk a little bit more about why you think less is more. Do you have any other observations on why that is better than trying to give all the information? For example, a lot of the members will not only give all the information that have, but they will hand over fliers and materials. For some reason members think that by handing a lot of materials, people are going to join. My experience is that nobody joins from a brochure. They join because they experience the meeting and they like the people there.

Patti:
I totally agree, Ivan. I think actually when I started, we didn’t have brochures. We had the book of The World’s Best Known Marketing Secrets. You absolutely need to come and see the professionals that are involved in this organization. I think if they are not willing to do that, they’re probably not a good BNI prospect. It’s important to tell them just a little bit. We’re looking for somebody who is the best at what they do, and we have twenty people who are looking to give business to a plumber. Are you interested? Would you be interested in attending.?

Ivan:
And those should be either people that you know or people who have been referred to you by somebody you really trust which is the way that you did it.

Patti:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I didn’t know the person after I had exhausted the referrals that Joan had given me. I thought who else in the community is influential? I thought of a director of a YMCA. I didn’t actually know this person, but I did know somebody who was in the rotary with this gentleman for fifteen years.

I called her and said, “Can I use your name when I call him?” And she said absolutely. I called him and I said, “You don’t know me but you are highly recommended by Jackie Brighton.”

He said, “I’ve known her for fifteen years. How can I help you?”

It was wonderful. I went through the same exact script that I had when I called the director of the civic organization. And he referred me to many people.

Ivan:
That goes along with the phrase that you use a lot in our conversations about this podcast. That is it’s not who you know but who you meet through who you know. Talk more about that.

Patti:
Well, I just think that sometimes members get stuck on thinking that they’ve already invited everybody that they know. That’s not true because there are so many other people that you truly have not met yet that are good connections for you by the contacts that you already have.

Even if you are looking for a great landscaper and you don’t know one, think of who you know in town who has the best lawn. Pick up the phone and call them. And just say who cuts your lawn? Call the person and say that they were highly recommended by so and so.

Ivan:
That’s kind of an example of thinking out of the box. Any other examples of that concept of thinking outside the box?

Patti:
One time, a chapter was having a really difficult time finding people because they said that their town was different. I thought well I don’t know anybody in your town. But I m more than happy to try something out.

We had an invitation letter that they were going to send out to invite some folks. I took that letter and stapled my business card to twenty invitations. It took one hour’s time and I walked into the businesses in that town and said “Hi, my name is Patti. You don’t know me and I am not here to sell you anything, but what I am here to do is invite you to a networking breakfast that we have here in town. Everybody’s going to be there and I just wanted to give you an invitation.” And I walked out.

I took one hour to do that with twenty invitations and actually three people showed out of that. One of the invitations went to a woman who owned a bridal shop and she called me the night before and said, “Can I bring somebody with me?”

I said absolutely. So she brought a woman who was an event planner. Altogether, we had four people out of those twenty invitations. The event planner joined and so did the bridal shop owner and one other person. So three out of four joined, and the event planner actually brought seven people into the chapter the very first month in membership.

Ivan:
Well. That’s incredible. Listen Patti, we’re just about out of time. Is there anything else you want to add? This is great material for members to hear.

Patti:
Thank you very much. I just think that there are always more people that you can invite. There is an endless list. Don’t get discouraged. Just think of the people that you haven’t invited or people that you haven’t met yet. So it’s not who you know but who you meet through who you know.

Ivan:
I think that’s powerful. This whole idea of “we are different in this area”- I’ve always found it very interesting. I find that most people who say we’re different – it’s really an excuse not to do something that people feel uncomfortable with. They really just don’t want to do what’s been said, or they don’t know how to do it. It’s really easy to say we’re different in this area, but my experience has been that the challenges in the chapters all around the world are consistently similar whether you’re talking about one part of the country or another or completely different countries.

What you just described I think will work in every country of BNI. Patti, I really appreciate you being in our podcast for the listeners here. For the listeners, I’m speaking with Patti Salvucci one of the top BNI directors in the world. She handles our BNI chapters in the Massachusetts and has about 100 chapters with about 27 members per chapter. She knows what she’s doing. Take these ideas and please share some of them at your next chapter meeting.

Patti, thank you very much. Frank, back to you.

Frank:
Thank you, Dr. Misner. For Patti Salvucci Ivan Misner, I’m Frank Felker saying we will see you next week on the official BNI podcast.