Episode 191: One-to-Ones Equal More Referrals

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Synopsis

In honor of International Networking Week, Dr. Misner has brought in special guest Allen Buchanan from the Champions chapter of SoCal BNI to talk about how to get more referrals by having more one-to-one meetings.

When Ivan visited Allen’s chapter, he noticed that Allen won both the awards for the most one-to-one meetings and the most referrals given, and he wondered whether there was a connection.

Allen’s technique for a good one-to-one meeting is to start with general questions, then get more specific. If he thinks of a good referral for the person, he picks up the phone then and there, calls the referral, and makes the introduction on the spot.

Making all these connections and giving these referrals has resulted in a great year—the best in 26 years—for Allen, in spite of the recession, which has hit his business (real estate) particularly hard.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 191 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, CA. I am joined today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you and what are you doing? Where are you?

Ivan:
Well, this is International Networking Week, and I thought this would make a great topic for International Networking Week,one to ones and referrals. I have with me a guest, a BNI member, Allen Buchanan. Allen has been a member of BNI for about a year and a half. He has been with Lee and Associates, a commercial real estate company, for almost 27 years. So here is somebody who has been in their industry for a long time, who has been in BNI for just under a couple of years, and he had an experience that I really want to share.

Before I bring Allen on, I also want to mention that he has been married for 31 years, he has three kids, and he has a crazy cat named Yoyo, which I think is kind of funny. But there are couple of things about Allen. I met Allen in Orange County. He is a member in one of our Orange County chapters. I met him at an awards ceremony. Allen first received a star award from his chapter. I was standing up there taking pictures with all of the winners.

Then he came back up there again, getting another award for the most one to ones. Here is where things got really interesting. A few minutes later, he came up there for a third award. It was for the number one referrals, giving the most referrals. I said to Allen about it being ironic that the person who had the most one to ones also gave the most referrals and there is probably a direct correlation between those two.

That is the reason I inivted Allen to be on this podcast. I wanted him to be on here. Maybe, Allen, we can start off with I understand that when you joined BNI, you couldn’t afford the original investment. So why don’t we start with that and cover the one to ones and referrals.

Allen:
Ivan and Priscilla, I really, really appreciate you having me on. That’s actually accurate. I had to convince a client of mine to invest the initial fee to become a BNI member. So from the very first meeting, I was well invested and was well committed to make sure that that BNI experience was a successful one, not only for my chapter, but for myself.

My whole path to one to one meetings and ultimately the referrals that I was willing to give really stemmed from my industry being somewhat adverse to networking groups. We tend to be a part of a number of industry networking groups, but when it really gets down to other business owners and networking with them, the commercial real estate industry is typically not stellar in those areas. Consequently, I had never been a part of a networking group and didn’t know what they were all about.

I was enamored with the structure. I was enamored with the fact that I was surrounded by a lot of entrepreneurial, motivated individuals. As a result of that, I was very motivated to do as many meetings outside the chapter as I possibly could. I am somewhat fortunate in that my category is not adequately represented within BNI, and as a result, I went outside my chapter bounds as well as inside my chapter bounds and was able to conduct a number of one to one meetings.

Then an interesting thing started to occur. As I started having more and more meetings, I discovered that the DNA that is within a broker, which is you are matching peg A to slot B started to take over. I listened very carefully to what was needed, and through my 26 years of experience and contacts, relate those peg A’s of the requirements to the slot B’s of the referrals.

So in my case, the number of referrals that I was able to deliver was a direct component of the number of one to one meetings that I was about to conduct.

Ivan:
When you did the one to ones, Allen, what kind of things did you talk about? So you sat down with a member- what did you do? Did you do something like the GAINS exchange. Was it a little more informal?

Allen:
For me it was more informal. We ended up covering most of the items within the GAINS exchange, but it certainly wasn’t something that was from an outline. I can tell you that of all the one to ones that I have had, very few of them have been done with a written outline. All of them have been done with a mental outline.

In the first few meetings, I wanted to make sure that I had an understanding of who their perfect clients were and within my realm of contacts, how I could introduce them to either someone who could use their services immediately or someone that was a strategic partner for them for future business.

Ivan:
Not to sound too obvious, but you came into it looking for how you can help them, first and foremost.

Allen:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
So give me a couple of examples of what kind of questions you would ask them to start up the one to one conversation.

Allen:
I would say tell me about yourself. How long have you lived in Southern California? Are you married? Do you have children? Tell me how long you have been in your current business. Why did you choose to be in that business? What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it? The first part of the conversation would be based on that so that I was able to do a lot of listening as to who they were because as we all know, the aim of the conversation generally is am I going to be able to refer this person based on their ethics and if they are a BNI member, that is generally vetted beforehand. But based on personality also because I am a big believe that you have to match personalities for a good business relationship to occur.

Ivan:
I want to point out that you started, based on what you said there, with some general questions, which is a great place to start because if you find any kind of overlapping areas of interest, it is easier to maintain contact with somebody. But then you drilled down. There was a point in time that I would have said with networking just start with the facts, just stand up and say,”Just the facts, man, just the facts, that’s all I need.”

That was me at one point and I learned over the years that if you find out more about them as a individual, you begin to have these overlapping areas of interest, and you drill down into the business stuff. It sounds like exactly what you would do with the one to ones.

So you started doing these one to ones. You started being able to pass referrals. I am guessing that you didn’t pass referrals right there on the spot, maybe some. So how did the referrals work out? Did you just contact people later and say you just ran across somebody? What happened?

Allen:
Believe it or not, I am a proud owner of an iPhone and had one at that time. In many cases, if there was an appropriate referral, I would call that contact up and say I am in a meeting with a gentleman by the name of Ivan Misner. He has a wonderful networking group called Business Networking International. I really believe the two of you would benefit from knowing one another. Do you have a minute to talk to him? And I would hand the phone over. That is a very, very powerful way to make an introduction.

Ivan:
It is, and it;s amazing how many members don’t use that- where you are sitting in a one to one with somebody or you are talking to somebody, why not pick up the phone and make the introduction. I find that especially doing a conference call is a very effective technique of getting two people together. It’s a great strategy.

I think a lot of the listeners are going to be asking themselves one question, though. You had the most one to ones. Well done. You gave the most number of referrals. Pat on the back. Really good job. But how did that play out for you? Did you get referrals? Did you have a good year as a result of all the one to ones and giving the most referrals?

Allen:
Yes to both questions. We close our year end, and I am completing the best year in my 26 years in the business. I am happy to report that, very important to me, we are helping build the business of many members of BNI. I definitely have given much more than I have gained.

Ivan:
But you had a great year.

Allen:
I had a great, great year.

Ivan:
What is amazing to me is that we are still dealing with a recession and the fallout from the recession, and you are in a business that was hit as hard or harder than the overall majority. You are telling me that you had a good year, and as I understand it, you had your best year ever in 26 years.

Allen:
My best year ever in 26 years of business. It is very attributable to the BNI experience and not only what I do for a living, but understanding what I do for a living and how to communicate that very simply and powerfully to the people that I meet.

Ivan:
Recessionary economy, a difficult business in this particular economy, and you’re having one of your best years over. I have to tell you. I absolutely believe that it is because you did so many one to ones and were looking to help other people. I have said this over and over to members but if you go into this trying to help people and go into it in an organized and structured way, and most importantly, do it consistently, it is going to come back and help you.

I was just so pleased when I was at that Orange County Award ceremony and I saw you coming up for the most one to ones and then again for giving the most referrals, and then to hear later that you were having a great year- you made my week, and I really appreciate you taking the time to be on this podcast. Any closing comments that you have for members of BNI?

Allen:
I would just say that I appreciate the fact that I made your week. You certainly have made mine. I have really enjoyed getting to know you. I really enjoy getting to know the organization. I can’t wait until the next podcast and the next blog post. It has just been a tremendous experience. The more I drill down, the more I love BNI and what this organization is all about.

Ivan:
Allen, thank you so much. I can’t think of a better podcast for International Networking Week than this one. Last week, I talked about the networking disconnect, and this week is all about the networking connect and how one to ones build referrals. I want to thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. Thank you for being a member of BNI. It is greatly appreciated.

Allen:
The pleasure is all mine. Thank you very much.

Priscilla:
Before we close up, Allen, I was just wondering if I could ask you a question.

Allen:
Of course.

Priscilla:
When you did these one on ones, was it organized in a way that you set goals for yourself? Did you have a set number per week or per month? Or did you just arbitrarily invite people to do one to ones with yourself?

Allen:
Well the answer to the question is that I didn’t really have a set number of one to ones that I wanted to accomplish. I was strategic in the the people that I sought. I mentioned that my category is not terribly represented, so I was able to go outside the bounds of my chapter and it became pretty apparent to me that I needed to identify all of the attorneys, the CPAs, the bankers, the commercial insurance agents, the brokers and the wealth advisors because those five categories of professions would generally talk to the same customer that I would talk to. So I discovered that I would use synergies and knowing people in that category and vice-versa.

But then an interesting thing started to happen, as I won the most one on one meetings for my chapter came a long. Then I started to watch the statistics and seeing how the next closest person would be in terms of numbers and what I would have to do in order to be number one. My competitive juices took over, and if I need to do five to ten more one to ones in order to be number one, that is what I did.

I am happy to say that I did that for 12 months consistently until I became President of a chapter, and I have actually recused myself from the awards this year just simply because I think it is counter-productive to have the President win, but I still track the statistics, obviously.

Priscilla:
That’s great.

Ivan:
Great question, Priscilla. Thank you.

Priscilla:
You’re welcome. Thank you Ivan, and thank you, Allen, I really enjoyed that. I would just like to 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. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you will join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.