Episode 220: Culture of Recruiting

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Synopsis

Deanna Tucci-Schmitt, Executive Director of BNI Western Pennsylvania, and Bob Gambone, author of Pecan Pie: 32 Business Success Strategies Passionately Baked to Order, join Dr. Misner this week to talk about BNI’s culture of recruiting.

Businesses have recruiters, whose job is actively finding the right person for the right position. BNI has had a tradition of inviting new members, without qualifying them in advance. If all BNI members develop the mindset of recruiters, everyone will get more and better referrals.

Remember, culture eats strategy for breakfast. Keep your chapter’s culture in mind when recruiting new members.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 220 -

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:
I am actually in southern California this week at BNI HQ. We are doing our Directors Training this week. It’s very important. We spend three full days, 24 hours of training, going through about a 600 page manual on how to run effective regions of BNI. It’s a real important aspect of what I do, and I am involved in all of the training. That’s what I am doing today.

But I’m taking some time out to do an interview with a couple interesting people. I have on the line with us Deanna Tucci-Schmitt. Deanna is the director for BNI in western PA. She has been the Executive Director for 11 years. She is from my home town, Pittsburgh. I think I have mentioned that a couple of times in the podcast. It’s really interesting that Deanna learned about BNI when visiting Toledo, OH, which I think is really cool. She connected with her friend, Debbie Peters, who has been involved with BNI. From Debbie, found about about BNI and has really, really launched and grown western PA. Deanna is on really mostly to introduce who we have speaking today. Deanna, hi, it’s great to have you on. Tell us who we’re talking to.

Deanna:
I am delighted to be here. We love these podcasts. I wanted to bring on Bob Gambone who is a BNI member here in western PA and an Assistant Director. Bob’s corporate background gives him a lot of great perspective on how BNI works. He has some passion about recruiting and inviting.

Ivan:
That’s what Bob is going to be talking about today. Bob is actually a retired executive from Giant Eagle. I think that is really good because it shows that he has years and years of experience in business. He is a business coach. He wrote a book called, “Pecan Pie.” I gave an endorsement on the book. I really recommend it. When we are done with the podcast, I will give Bob’s URL and domain name so that people can go and check it out.

Bob, you wanted to talk about recruiting versus inviting. That is the topic of today’s podcast. I would love to hear what you have to say.

Bob:
Thank you. Thanks Deanna, thanks for the introduction and , Ivan, thank you for that, too. As we all know, BNI is a business. BNI continues to improve as a business by strapping in its culture. Recruiting is really a fundamental business culture. At BNI, we have a history of inviting. I really would like to see that evolve into a culture of recruiting. Now why is that?

In simple definition, recruiting is defined as to searching for new members, where inviting is defined as to requesting someones presence. Businesses do have formal positions called recruiters. They really don’t have people called inviters. So it is really a culture in business. Recruiting is really finding the right person for the right role. It’s really a qualifying process. BNI doesn’t have formal recruiters, so what we need to do is all BNI members need to be recruiters.

I would like to tell you a story about this and my success with this in identifying the difference. Al the painter ,who a few years back starting working for my wife and I and did a lot of painting in our house, was talking with me. I asked Al how was business. He said, “Bob, it’s not too good. I actually had to get a part time retail job ringing a register. Business is really down and I am running out of money for advertising. Advertising just isn’t working.”

So I listened to his story and found out that there was a need. I wanted to give him the same opportunity that I have had in BNI. We all say givers gain. I believe it really starts outside the meeting itself. I said to him, “Are you interested in building your business by referral?” He said, “Absolutely. I would love that.”

I said, “You need to come to a meeting with me.” It’s the basic ABCs of inviting that we talk about. Al came to a meeting and traditionally, as we all say, let the meeting sell itself. He was very impressed and he joined. I think he has been into it six or seven months now and his business has just skyrocketed. He is very successful now and no longer works his part time job. He has actually created a good relationship with his competition to the extent that they have called him a couple times to help them with their jobs. Now he is in the process of looking to hire employees.

So this is just one story. I have invited before. Really, I have invited people just to get them to the meeting. Some joined. Some haven’t. But the success I have had with sorting people first, kind of qualifying them and having that mindset of recruiting has really hit home. I think that really benefits and shows BNI members that we do invite but we just have that mindset of creating that culture. So that is kind of the background on it.

Ivan:
It’s really vital. You mentioned finding the right person with something else. I thought that was-

Bob:
Right person, right role.

Ivan:
Right person, right role. You want to find people who are a good fit in the organization. I think all too often, the only kind of test we give people is the mirror test. We stick it under their nose and it it fogs up we take them. I think you have to be really selective. Selective for the right reasons, not based on color, religion, sex, but based on a quality business professional. The real issue, and maybe you can take a stab at this, Bob- why is it so important to find the right person? What’s in it for the member?

Bob:
What’s in it for the member is they are going to be a quality member. They will understand a really get the whole culture of givers gain. If you get the right member, they are going to help grow the team and will be a quality member for the whole team. As we always say, when you do recruit, it’s about strengthening the team with new members. I find that really important.

Ivan:
Isn’t the bottom line about getting more referrals? You bring in more members, quality members and you are going to get more referrals and better referrals.

Bob:
Absolutely.

Ivan:
I think that’s the bottom line- because oftentimes, people will go, “ I don’t really have time to do this.” But we have to remember that bringing someone into your BNI group is actually a way of increasing your marketing. You are bringing in people who are going to bring you referrals.

Bob:
Yes, absolutely.

Ivan:
Good. What else, Bob?

Bob:
So how do we do this? How do we go from creating that culture of recruiting and transitioning from inviting, that mindset? We need to educate members on the definition and recruiting is to strengthen with new members. If we educate people that givers gain really starts outside the meeting. Give people the opportunity to come to BNI and experience your success. Givers gain really starts outside the meeting. All members should recruit and recruiting can happen everywhere. I love that saying, wherever you go, there you are. Recruit.

There are some great stories out there. I actually recruited somebody. I was in Panera. I gave the basic introduction. Where do you work? What do you do? I was interested in them first before anything became interesting. I just sis the ABCs of inviting and brought them to the meeting.

That’s some of those next steps that we need to live by. We can do them in educational moments, we can do them in assistant director presentations. I’ve done those. I have actually done a couple of those and it’s really been successful in some of the chapters that I oversee.

Ivan:
Bob, we are about done with the podcast today. We are almost out of time. What else would you like to share? Anything else?

Bob:
The next step, of course, is to create that culture of recruiting. I think as we create that culture, it is really strengthening our culture of givers gain. As you always say, Ivan, culture eats strategy for breakfast. So that is how I would like to end it.

Ivan:
I think that is a great way to end it. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. It’s so true. When you are part of an organization, and when I say organization, I am not just talking about the broader larger BNI, 6000 chapters in 50 countries. I am talking about the local chapter. That is a piece of the organization. That is an organization. So the culture of the chapter is critical. If you are part of a group that has a healthy culture, you could have a lousy strategy and still be successful. If you are part of a group that has a great strategy- you are really organized- but have a horrible culture, you are going to fail.

But if you are in a group that has a really great culture and you follow a strategy, and BNI certainly has the systems and the strategy. If you have a great culture and great strategy- and application of it- then nobody can beat you. You will be the best networking group in town because culture is so critical to the success of a group. And it is certainly critical in recruiting, wouldn’t you say, Bob? Nobody like to go to a meeting that is tense and unfriendly.

Bob:
Exactly. You said it. You create that culture, have that culture and it’s just a win-win.

Ivan:
Absolutely. Bob, thank you so much for being in on this call. Deanna, anything that you would like to throw in before we wrap up?

Deanna:
You have said it all well.

Ivan:
Deanna Tucci-Schmitt, Executive Director of BNI, Western PA. Bob Gambone. Bob is an Assistant Director in PA and also the author of the book, “Pecan Pie.” I did an endorsement of the book. I really recommend it. For more information on Bob, go to BobGambone.com. Did I get that right, Bob?

Bob:
Absolutely. Thanks Ivan.

Ivan:
Listen, my pleasure. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, everybody. When you listen to this podcast, write that down. I want you to go to your next BNI meeting and I want you to say, “ I heard on a BNI podcast that culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Then send people here to listen to this podcast. There is so much great content that is available week in and week out to members. Please share this with your members. Bob and Deanna, thank you so much for being on. Priscilla, back to you.

Priscilla:
Okay great. Thank you all very much.. 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.