Synopsis

If you want a referral, your description of your business should be detailed and focused on a specific aspect of your business. When you say “I do everything,” it doesn’t mean anything to your fellow BNI members. People don’t need general jobs done, they need specific jobs done.

People fear missing out on possible referrals by being too specific, but remember, you have 50 meetings a year. You can mention a different specialty every week. Your referral partners build up the big picture of what you do from the details.

Remember that your goal at BNI is to train a sales force for yourself, not to make an immediate sale. Design a curriculum for the entire year with topics you think your BNI chapter should know about.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 080 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California , and I am joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great, Priscilla. Just got back from a whirlwind tour for The 29% Solution, visited groups, BNI regions in Orlando, Roanoke, Richmond, and the Baltimore area as well. I’ve been out and about meeting lots of BNI members.

Priscilla:
Well, that sounds like it’s fun.

Ivan:
It is, absolutely. It’s the best part of my job, actually, is doing this.

Priscilla:
Great. Well, what are you going to share with us today?

Ivan:
I’m going to talk about being a specialist and how being a specialist actually makes it easier for people to give you referrals. As a BNI member, you may perform a variety of services or offer a wide range of products, but if want a referral, your description of what you want to do really should be detailed and focused on a single aspect of your business. Each week, focus on something different. Your referral sources will find it a lot easier, your fellow members will find it a lot easier to get you an appointment with a prospect or to give you a referral if your message addresses the prospect’s specific needs.

So, let’s say you’re an office furniture wholesaler. That’s way too broad. You need to, instead, say you specialize in custom designed, made-to-order desk shelves and file cabinets. And I would even break that up into separate categories and talk about each one of them each week. If you do that, you’re going to snag appointments; you’re going to snag referrals a lot easier, because you’re giving information for people to hang their hat on.

It seems counter-intuitive to be this specific, but in reality, the more specific your description, the more likely you’ll receive referrals. People who tend to say they do everything, because they want to throw a broad net out as possible, really don’t catch any water, really don’t catch nearly as many people. You see, the problem is that a really broad net has big holes in it. So when you say, “I’m a full service printer; I do everything,” that doesn’t mean anything to your prospects or to your referral sources, your fellow BNI members.

What they’re thinking is, “I don’t need a full service job; I just need just this specific kind of job.” You almost never meet somebody that says, “I need a full service print job.” No, they’re going to say, “I need this specific job.” So the more specific you are and particular about the kinds of things you do, the easier it is, actually, to get those referrals.

Priscilla:
I know that some people would probably feel that if you get too specific, you’re going to miss out on all those other great jobs.

Ivan:
Well, you’re absolutely right. That’s the concern. The problem with that is that if you’re too general, then you’re really not educating people on how to go about referring you. You see, the beautiful thing about BNI is that you’ve got 50 meetings a year.

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
You have a chance to talk about a lot of things and really go deep. I mean, somebody comes down with a serious illness, it doesn’t help much to know that there are three hospitals in town. What you really want to know is which one has the specialist you need to cure you, right?

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
And that’s the kind of thing you’ve got to do in terms of teaching people how to refer you. When you tell a referral partner that you’re a full service provider, you’re asking them to mentally sort out all the people that they know and to cross tabulate what they do against the things you do, and that doesn’t work much. People aren’t computers.

Referral partners need to know the full range of your products or services eventually, but it’s better to build up to that. They get the big picture of all the things you do when they know the details of what you do. What they need to know immediately, and with some kind of precision, is the specific need of your clients that you can fill, because that’s what the customer focuses on in any given instance. They don’t focus on the grand picture.

So, if you say, “Who do you know who’s a sports enthusiast? Here’s how he can use my product,” then you’re letting your referral source do a simpler kind of mental sorting.

The more you can educate people about the different kinds of things you do one at a time, the more likely you’ll get referrals in the long run. And getting referrals in a specific area doesn’t mean you can’t continue to offer, of course, a broader range of products or services.

Priscilla:
That all makes sense.

Ivan:
So, when you’re operating in a referral network, your immediate goal isn’t to close a sale; it’s to train a sales force or referral team. You’re training people to refer you. And saying that you’re a full service provider and that you do everything doesn’t train anyone. You wouldn’t tell a salesperson for your company, “Just tell them we do it all.”

Priscilla:
Right.

Ivan:
As a specialist, you can more thoroughly articulate to your referral sources what you do and how to do it by presenting those specifics to them week in and week out. And I know that it’s counter-intuitive, and I’ve talked about that counter-intuitive nature of being specific in previous podcasts. It’s like telling somebody to turn into a skid; it feels counter-intuitive to turn into a skid, but that’s exactly the safe thing to do. And if you want to get referrals, the best thing to do is to be really, really specific and do that over time so the people will get the big picture eventually.

Priscilla:
Yeah, and like you mentioned, there’s all these different opportunities to talk about what they do in their business, so if you give them a little chunk each week, it keeps the interest going and makes your presentation a little better.

Ivan:
Well, you’re absolutely right. And what happens when people stand up and say every week, “Well, I’m a full service whatever; I can do it all,” then people aren’t paying attention, although it doesn’t much matter because you’re not really giving them any information. I mean, think about it. You’re saying you’re a full service whatever just about every week. You’re not saying anything that’s going to keep their attention anyway. So each week, you’ve got to focus on something. If you claim to do everything, your clients won’t rely on you for anything.

Priscilla:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
So you’ve got to be specific.

BNI members listening to this podcast, what you want to do is sit down and create a curriculum for the rest of this year; start with the rest of this year. At the beginning of the year, do a curriculum for the entire year week by week, cover topics that you think your fellow members should know about that you do. And then, you don’t have to actually write out what the curriculum is; you write out what the topic is, but you don’t have to actually do the content of it. Set a reminder on your computer so that a couple days before your meeting, you just get this little alert or reminder that says, “Here’s your topic for this week.” And then prepare for it on a week by week basis. Over the course of the year, you’ve done your Business 101, and you’ve really trained people how to refer you. I’ve seen BNI members do this, and it makes a huge difference in the amount of business they get.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Okay, well, I think that might be the end of our podcast unless you’d like to add anything else.

Ivan:
Well, I think the best way to remember it is to sharp shoot it; don’t shotgun it. Sharp shoot your presentation; don’t shotgun your presentation, and you’ll do a lot better.

Priscilla:
Okay, that’s great. Well, thank you, Dr. Misner.

Well, I want to just remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

 

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