Episode 210: “Money on the Table”

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Synopsis

This week Lee Abraham joins Dr. Misner to talk about Power Teams and Contact Spheres, two of the main subjects of the book Money on the Table: Referrals in the Bank.

The book goes through 6 different contact spheres or industry groups and identify36 different business categories to provide examples of how to recognize referral opportunities and give better referrals.

Most referrals happen when a consumer experiences a lifecycle event. Six of these constitute key situations when it’s easier to gain visibility and credibility with your prospects.

1. Business builder
2. Getting healthy
3. Getting married
4. Relocation
5. New baby
6. Real estate construction

Brainstorm ideas on how the businesses on your power team can provide services to people in each of those key situations.

Get your copy of the book at the BNI Member Store and learn more at http://moneyonthetablebook.com/.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 210 -

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 am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan, how are you and where are you?

Ivan:
This week, I am in Baton Rouge, Louisiana for a Referral Institute conference, and I’ll be speaking, of course, to a lot of BNI members while I am out here as well. I’m doing a lot of traveling this year. You are going to hear me from all over the place trying to visit as many BNI members around the world as I can.

Priscilla:
That’s great. I wish I was with you.

Ivan:
Today, we have as a guest my good friend, Lee Abraham. Lee is my co-author on a new book called Money on the Table, Referrals in the Bank. It is really important to understand this book is really about power teams and contact spheres. Over the years, we’ve had so many questions about how do you use a power team effectively and what’s the difference between a contact team and power sphere.

Lee has really done a great job in working with me in developing some material that will help people with contact spheres. Lee got involved in BNI in 1993, so he has been in the organization for 18 years now. He became a Director in 2002 and I am really excited to have him on the podcast today. Thanks for joining me today.

Lee:
Thank you, Ivan. My pleasure. I appreciate the invitation.

Ivan:
I’m really excited about this book. I think members will be excited about it. When the podcast is finished, we’ll talk about where people can pick up this book. This book is absolutely targeted to BNI members and people who are trying to develop contact spheres within power teams. So let’s talk a little bit about Money on the Table. You know, that’s what we really see in the form of overlooked and neglected referral opportunities in every business category that I have seen in the BNI organization. Maybe you can give us a quick idea on what we call the six key situations in the book and how the six key situations make it easier to recognize referral opportunities and make it easier to give powerful testimonies.

Lee:
In fact, what I would like to do is a quick exercise. So as a heads up, grab a sheet of paper and a pen because in just a second, we’ll do a little exercise. Money on the Table is based on the premise that those referrals, regardless of the business or industry therein, is a result of a life cycle event. We have identified six life cycle events that we call key situations. If you had a power team, a group of networking partners who are making a commitment to actively network together around these six key situations. It becomes easier to gain visibility and credibility to the targeted prospects and, interestingly, sometimes by way of business categories that seem to be completely unrelated to each other.

If it would be okay, let’s do a quick little exercise.

Ivan:
Alright. I’ve got a pen and a piece of paper here, so I’m ready to go.

Lee:
Let’s draw four columns, and starting with the left column, moving to the right across the top, write “Key Situation” in the first column. Then we are going to write three business categories in the next columns. Write “Realtor” then “Security Systems” and then “Massage.” We are basically going to be creating a grid. In that left column where it says “Key Situation” we are now going to list the six situations or life cycle events that are what we call referral circumstances- situations that can create a lot of referrals.

Number one is the business builder. This is someone who is looking to build a business.

Ivan:
Can I say one thing real quick? Some people may be listening to this and think wow, I am not a realtor, or in security systems or whatever. But you can apply this to just about any person in your power team, correct?

Lee:
Absolutely. In fact, in the book we go through six different contact spheres or industry groups and identify 36 different business categories.

Ivan:
But that is just a sample. I want people to get that. Oftentimes, people look at this and go that’s not me. Don’t worry about it if it’s not you. Go on with Lee’s concept here and apply yourself to the concept.

Lee:
Exactly. That is how we are going to wrap up the exercise.

Ivan:
So start with business builder. That is number one in the left column.

Lee:
The key situation that we are starting with. Number two is getting healthy. Number three is getting married. Number four, relocation. Number five, new baby. And number six, real estate construction. So now we have a grid. Across the top we have these three example business categories and in the left column, we have the different key situations.

So Ivan, let’s focus for a minute on the first key situation, the business builder. Let’s brainstorm some ideas on how these three business categories can provide a relevant product or service to somebody who is looking to start a business starting with the realtor. Any ideas?

Ivan:
So key situation: business builder for realtor. Is that correct? So there would be some sort of commercial building.

Lee:
Exactly. If you are in a networking group and there is a realtor in it who is dealing with commercial property, and you are in contact with somebody who is looking to build a business to create a referral for your realtor, in buying, leasing, building commercial property would be a good referral.

How about the next column, security systems. What product or service might they have for a business builder?

Ivan:
Alarm systems, video cameras, secured access- things like that.

Lee:
Exactly. Now for a completely different type of industry group, how about massage? How could they work with a business builder?

Ivan:
Stress relief, relax, rewarding office chair massage. Things like that.

Lee:
Okay. So those are three good examples. Now let’s move to the second key situation, a very different life cycle event, getting married. Let’s take a look at the same three business categories and how they might provide provide a different product or service. Again, let’s start with a realtor with people getting married. How could they fit in?

Ivan:
Buying a new home for the first time, has got to be important.

Lee:
Sure, and from the agent’s perspective, they could be selling both homes that they currently occupy. How about security systems for the couple getting married?

Ivan:
Protecting the family. Protecting the spouse. That’s the key.

Lee:
So instead of protecting the business, it’s protecting the spouse. Finally, in the health and wellness industry, in your contact sphere with massage, how would they fit into someone who is getting married?

Ivan:
It could be a wedding party gift.

Lee:
Exactly. Or gift certificates. Any number of possibilities for a different product or service. So the idea is take a look at you business category. We should have had you draw a 5th column and put that out to the right and put your business category. How could you use your product or service for somebody who is building a business, someone who is getting married and so on. The idea is take a look at the other business categories that you are networking with and focus on your strengths and build a power team based on common target situations or key life cycle situations that you are focused on.

Ivan:
Okay. So let me just recap because we won’t be able to go through all of these categories. The six key situations that you listed: business builder, getting healthy, getting married, relocation, new baby, real estate construction/remodel. Then across from that where you have listed those six items, you have three business categories of realtor, security systems and massage. We covered the first two of all of those.

You, in whatever business you are in, can post another column and that is really they key column for you. How do these six key situations potentially apply to your business, correct?

Lee:
Absolutely correct. The key concept here is in focusing on life cycle events, what we recommend is to focus on the key situations and which ones are most aligned with your target market. It’s all about specific people and combinations of business categories in your particular network and which life cycle event is most closely associated with your targeted prospect. If you have any questions, Ivan will give you some information. Obviously, the book goes into quite a bit of detail on a vast array of business categories.

Ivan:
As one example,  if you were in the catering business and were working with people who are planning a wedding, you can show clients how the security system for their new place could protect their new spouse. The massage person could do a massage for the reception or gift  certificate or whatever. The idea is to take these categories and apply them in your profession, right?

Lee:
Exactly. If you understand the other businesses that you are working with- we make it very simple in the book by reducing the possibilities down to the six key situations. We look at each of the contact spheres in 36 specific business categories. It’s simply a paint by number step by step system in the book, Money on the Table, that will show you how to build a power team based on life cycle situations in your current business category. We really tried to provide a flexible but powerful tool for the  networking folks out there to use and apply to their own circumstances.

Ivan:
Lee, I have written  about contact spheres and power teams for a long time. The first time I wrote about them was actually in the late 80′s – 1989. They were in my book, The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret. I have been talking about them for a long time. This is the first book that is really devoted pretty much exclusively to how to you apply this concept of a contact sphere and a power team? What’s the difference between the two- I’ve talked about that in previous podcasts but we go into detail in this book.

You have done a wonderful job. It was a real pleasure working with you on the book. It’s called Money on the Table, Referrals in the Bank. It’s really about creating power teams from these six common everyday situations. You can really get a sense for how to effectively use your power team and contact sphere. It’s totally written for people in BNI. Any closing comments that you have?

Lee:
I just want to say thank you for all of your participation on the project. It was wonderful to work with you on the material, and I  just very excited about rolling out some of the training systems and applications that we have to help people integrate some of the concepts that we have into their own referral groups. Thank you so very much.

Ivan:
My pleasure. If you are in a power team in a BNI chapter, this is a must-read. I really recommend that you take a good look at the book. You can find the book at BNI.com and then go to  the BNI Store. Go to BNI.com and then click on the BNI Store. That will take you right to the books. You can also go to www.moneyonthetablebook.com. At both of those places you can take a look at the book. And of course, contact your local BNI Director. Many BNI Directors will have a copy of this book as well.  Thank you so much. I really appreciate working with you and I’m excited to have my first book exclusively for power teams and contact spheres.

Lee:
My pleasure.

Ivan:
Back to you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
That’s great. Thank you so much. That’s it for this week. 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 next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.