Episode 181: “Turn the 80/20 Rule Upside Down”

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Synopsis

Jim Butcher from Capital Trust Realty, “retired” president of the East Texas and Houston East region of BNI, joins Dr. Misner to talk about how his chapter used Fast Track to ensure that every single member brings 3-4 referral every week. That’s more than 300 referrals per month, up from 100-150 before the program.

The Pareto Principle says that 20% of the people yield 80% of the results. Chapters that find themselves in this position are usually operating at the Visibility level of the VCP process. Once you get to Credibility, you can get 80% of the members bringing results.

One technique they applied is to focus their 60-second commercials on asking for referrals, and even asking for introductions to specific people.

Sign your chapter up for the Fast Track program at www.bninetworkingsecrets.com. Make sure to contact Flynn or Sara to arrange for additional coaching.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 181 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the web for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and who do you have with us today?

Ivan:
Thanks Priscilla, I am doing great and I have with us on the phone today Jim Butcher. Jim calls himself the retired President of the BNI Stategic Alliance. In BNI Houston East, he was the Chapter President, just transitioned. He is a commercial real estate agent, a fellow black belt in karate, and he has been a member of BNI for five years as of the recording of this podcast. Jim, I welcome you to this podcast. Thanks for being a member of BNI.

Jim:
Thank you, Ivan. I appreciate it.

Ivan:
Today we are going to talk abnout an interesting concept, turning the 80/20 rule upside down, and it stems from a program that you did called Fast Track. I know we have talked about it on some of the podcasts, and we’ll certainly talk about it towards the end. But a lot of the concepts that we are going to be talking about today really stem from that.

So let’s start if we can. How do you turn the 80/20 rule upside down? What do you have in mind there?

Jim:
What happens in our chapter is that we have 20% of the people doing 80% of the work. I am pretty sure that is standard across the board in a lot of BNI chapters out there. What we were so fortunate to do is have 80% of the people doing 100% of the work. So instead of people bringing no referrals, we now have every single member of the chapter bringing three to four referrals per week. We are talking with a chapter of 40 people, upwards of around the range of 250-300 referrals per month based on the the participation of the chapter members.

Ivan:
300 referrals a month, that is amazing. I want members to sit and think about that for a minute. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be in a group that is passing 300 referrals a month? That is outstanding. You mentioned the 80/20 rule. That is actually a part of the Pareto Principle and economic theory. It is a common concept that seems to work pretty consistently, that 20% of the people do 80% of the results. So you are talking about 80% of your people yielding 100% of the results. I love that. Continue on, I’m sorry.

Jim:
Basically what we have is every member of the chapter participates, and what this equates to in the VCP process is that every member becomes credible and even profitable within the entire group. What we have seen from it all, from some of the other chapters that I have been to, is that the chapters that are having a problem with the 80/20 rule are in the visibility category.

So once we are able to bring our chapter to the credibility and profitiblity category, we have a lot more participation and referrals.

Ivan:
Wow. That is amazing. Now, you have some results with retention in the group as well. Would you like to talk about that?

Jim:
Retention is just a part of people making money. We are in the business to give referrals but it is also great to receive referrals. When people are receiving referrals that they are looking to get, we have a lot of chapter members who feel a value of being there, that their time is well spent because the most important part of their membership is putting time and effort into it.

Ivan:
A lot of the successes that you have come out of the Fast Track thing that I want to talk about in a few minutes. Where would you say you started really focusing on turning the 80/20 rule around and started focusing on retention and your 60- second commercials, which we are going to talk about in a minute. Where do you think you started in this process? How many referrals month were you passing as a group at your low point to what you are doing now at your high point?

Jim:
On the average when we started, we thought we were pretty successful. We were passing about 150-175 referrals per month. Like I said, we thought we were pretty successful, and afterwards when we started implementing some of the strategies and really sticking to the curriculum, we just saw the results skyrocket through the roof.

Ivan:
You were literally passing double the number of referrals that you do. What were the membership-I am guessing membership went up. I am guessing it didn’t double but it increased. So what happened to your membership?

Jim:
Over the time that I have been there, back when they allowed the chapters to charter at 12-

Ivan:
Bad idea, we don’t want to do that anymore. Bad, bad idea.

Jim:
We chartered our chapter and 12 and then we grew our chapter up to 50 members. When we implemented the procedures for this, we were at about 30 members. And we grew our chapter up to about 50.

Ivan:
I don’t have a calculator in front of me, so maybe a 70% increase in growth but more than 100% increase in referrals. That is where I was headed with this. I didn’t know the numbers but I am not at all surprised because when chapters really tend to focus on the quality of the relationships, the quantity of referrals increases, and the quality of the referrals goes up with it. It is not necessarily direct. You don’t have to have 100% increase in members to have 100% increase in referrals.

Jim:
Absolutely, It brings out the quality of referrals to increase because now they understand those leads that you know makes us all cringe.

Ivan:
Talk to us about the 60-second commercials because you are doing something different with it as well.

Jim:
Sure. What happened in the 60-second commercials, what happened more in the visibility, pre-visiblity, is we would would try to explain our business. For example, I am in commercial real estate, so I would say, “I am in commercial real estate, and I am here to educate you on your commercial real estate. You know, they have a new law that is coming out…” After 60 seconds, I haven’t asked for a referral. In the whole 60 seconds after doing that, I haven’t asked for a referral. Now, instead of that, laser-specific- “I’d like to talk tell you about the Capital Trust property deal of the week. The property is located at XYZ and it is a beautiful location for a restaurant. This week, I am looking for introductions to Jean Smith who is the restaurant owner in the Clear Lake area, and also third tier contact spheres, James Madeline who heads the economic development for Webster. My name is Jim Butcher. I am a commercial real estate broker with Capital Trust Realty. Experience the difference, profit from the result.”

Ivan:
That is a great example. One of the things that I tell people is that specific is terrific. The more specific that you are in your education, the more likely you are to get a referral. I am guessing that type of specificity has yielded much better results in your chapter. Yes?

Jim:
Yeah, kind of counter intuitive, but actually, you know, people just go, “I don’t know that person per se, but I know this guy. Let me introduce you to him.”

Ivan:
You made a statement that I think I talk about a lot on one of the CDs. It’s counterintuitive. You are absolutely right. It is totally counterintuitive because people want to say everything you do and give the big picture, but when you do that there is nothing for people to hang an hat on anything or to jog their memory or thought process for you, your product or service. The specificity really makes a world of difference, doesn’t it?

Jim:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
Listen, Jim, what is the name of your commercial- We might as well give you a shameless plug because you came on with me here. What is the name of your commercial real estate office?

Jim:
Our boutique firm down here in Houston is called Capital Trust Realty.

Ivan:
Great. What is your website?

Jim:
www.ctrclearlake.com

Ivan:
Great. Jim, I appreciate you coming on and talking about how you have turned your chapter around. That is why we did this podcast. I wanted people to really see how you can take a good chapter and make it into a great chapter. You did that using the Fast Track program which we have mentioned a couple of times here and we have mentioned it a couple of times in the podcast. The Fast Track program is not a set of BNI CDs. It is a set of CDS done by BNI Del Fuego Company. The ladies who run Del Fuego- what I really love about this product is it is really not the CDs that make it worth it- it’s all their coaching and guidance. Wouldn’t you agree?

Jim:
I totally agree with that.

Ivan:
Anybody can put a couple of CDs out. But I love these people, and they believe in Givers Gain. Sarah and Flynn really believe in Givers Gain, and when a chapter engages in the Fast Track program, they don’t just prove them a CD set, but the do ongoing coaching and consulting. Can you give the listeners just a little feel for the kinds of things they do?

Jim:
Yeah, absolutely. Every Friday they – one Friday they have the EC training. And then the other Friday they have the Fast Track call. It is kind of a support group for all of us who are going through it, how to implement it and how to stay on task and goals and so on and so forth.

Ivan:
And your entire chapter went through the Fast Track program with them, yes?

Jim:
The entire chapter.

Ivan:
The results were amazing, right?

Jim:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
I appreciate you doing this podcast with me. Houston has had incredible success in the last couple of years. As a region, we have a traffic light region that we use. It starts with no light (black), then goes to red, goes to yellow, and goes to green. As a region, the Houston East region went, in the period of a year, from black to green, which is just unheard of in our organization, just unheard of to have this kind of growth. It is really, I think, because many of the chapters in that region are using the Fast Track sytem. I appreciate you coming on and talking about it. For any of the podcast listeners who would like to get more information on Fast Track, go to BNInetworkingsecrets.com. That is a website that was put up by the Del Fuego publishing company. BNInetworkingsecrets.com. But don’t just get a CD. What you want to do there is click on the “Contact Us” and ask Sarah or Flynn there what it takes to make Fast Track work in your chapter. I think you will see the kind of results that Jim is talking about here. Jim, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate you taking the time to be on the podcast. I will turn it back over to Priscilla.

Jim:
Thank you, Ivan.

Priscilla:
Well great. Thank you both. I think that is it for this week. I would just like to remind the listener that this podcast has been brought to you by NetWorkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us next week for the next exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.