It’s not the number of contacts you make that’s important, but the ones that you turn into lasting relationships. You’ll always get better results trying to deepen relationships with people you already know than starting relationships with strangers.

Here are some tips for creating closer connections:

1. Give your clients a call. Find out how things went with the project. Ask if there’s anything you can do to help. Don’t ask for a referral at this time.
2. Make personal calls to all the people who’ve helped you or referred business to you. Find ways to help them.
3. Put together a “hit list” of 50 people you’d like to stay in touch with. Send them a card on the next holiday, then follow up with a phone call 2 weeks later. Then you can ask for a referral.

If you’re having trouble making calls, start with the people you’re at “Profitability” with in the VCP scale.

Dr. Misner recommends reading Stephen M. R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust for more on this topic.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 150 -

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’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Hi, Priscilla. Well, this week I’m in Rhode Island and Boston meeting a lot of BNI members. I’ve had a chance to be up here before, and it’s a great group of BNI members, and I love visiting this region.

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

Ivan:
Well, today I’m going to talk about relationships being currency, and when I ask BNI members how many times have you seen an entrepreneur, maybe even yourself, go to a networking event, meet a lot of good people, then leave and never talk to them again, right? It probably happens too often. It’s not because the entrepreneur doesn’t like them; it’s really because they haven’t had system to connect. It’s really a shame because new contacts are really where future business is often born, visitors who come to a BNI meeting or if you go to a Chamber event of some kind, it’s meeting those new people and getting into visibility that leads to the rest of your business.

It’s, I think, important to understand that you can’t be misled. It’s not the number of contacts you make that’s important; it’s the one you turn into lasting relationships, and there’s quite a difference. So trying to make ten cold calls and introducing yourself, that doesn’t work so well. Now, call five people that you already know and tell them that you’re putting together a marketing plan for the next year and you’d appreciate any help that they might be able to provide in the form of either a referral or feedback, you’re much more likely to get that. Better results are always in Door Number Two, they’re in that second option. So you want to go with people that you have relationship with and try to strengthen those.

So here’s a few suggestions on how to deepen the relationship with people you already know to the point where they might be willing to help you out in the future. Here’s four quick steps to moving you in that direction.

First, give your clients a personal call. Find out things went with the project that they’re involved in. Ask if there is anything that you can do to help. Don’t ask for a referral at that point; just make connection with them.

Second, make personal calls to all the people who’ve helped you or referred business to you. Ask them how things are going. Try to learn more about their current activities so you can refer business to them.

Three, put together a hit list of 50 people you’d like to stay in touch with this year. Include anyone who’s given you business in the past 12 months, as well as other prospects that you’ve connected with recently. Send them a card on the next holiday. Just stay in contact; connect with them.

Here’s the fourth. Two weeks after you’ve sent those people cards, call them and see what’s going on. If they’re past clients or people you’ve talked to before, now is the perfect time to ask for that referral. If they’re prospects, perhaps you can set up an appointment to have coffee and to find out if their plans might include using some of your services.

That’s so much easier of a process, and after a few weeks, you’ll have more than enough social capital to tap into for the rest of the year. It’s not just the people that you’re meeting at an event; it’s the people that you’re making those contacts with. Social capital is really the international currency of networking, especially business networking. If you take as much care in raising and investing your social capital as you do your financial capital, you’ll find that the benefits that flow from these intangible investments will not only be rewarding in themselves, but will multiply your returns many, many times over in business.

Priscilla:
Well, that’s great. I just have one little comment to make.

Ivan:
Sure.

Priscilla:
Why is it so hard, I guess it’s a question, to call people? It just – somehow you feel like you’re bothering them or you can come up with a dozen excuses of why not to call them, and it’s just difficult. Do you have any idea?

Ivan:
It’s not as hard to call somebody that you’ve got a relationship or a connection with just to touch bases and see how things are going. I think if you focus on that, it’s easier to make the call.

If you don’t know where to start, here’s where I’d recommend. Start with the people you have profitability with. You’ve heard me many times in these phone calls say you really need to track your VCP. Take your database and figure out who am I at profitability with? Who am I passing referrals to and they’re passing me referrals? Who am I at credibility with? Who are people who would give me an endorsement, if asked? And who am I at visibility with? Who are the people that know who I am but we’re really not doing any business?

Okay, so don’t start with the people you’re at visibility with; start with the people you’re at profitability with. Have those kinds of conversations. Talk to those people. And then move on down the list to credibility, to visibility. And the people that you had visibility with, you need to build that relationship a little bit more before you can do some of the things we’re talking about here.

But making that phone call is easy when you’re talking about starting it with people that you’ve got some kind of relationship with.

Does that make sense?

Priscilla:
Yeah, I think that’s really good advice.

Ivan:
So Relationships Are Currency. There’s a book I’d recommend by a friend of mine, Stephen M. R. Covey. He wrote a book called The Speed of Trust, and I know I’ve talked about it in my blog, may have talked about it here on a podcast in the past. I’d really recommend that book. I know last week I recommended the book Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door by Harvey Mackay, but here’s another book that I really recommend, The Speed of Trust. And he uses a very similar phrase, that Relationships Are Currency; he talks about Trust Being Currency, that when you have trust, it is part of your social capital, and he’s absolutely right.

Priscilla:
Okay, great! All right. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Misner.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
I think that’s it for this week. I’d 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’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Until recently, Dr. Misner assumed that if he made an appointment with someone, he was going to be there, but there seems to be an emerging trend requiring people to confirm the appointment closer to the actual day. People have been saying “When I didn’t hear from you, I assumed it was off.”

Dr. Misner wants to state for the record that if you make an appointment with him, it’s firm, unless you hear otherwise. And he believes that should go for any BNI member: if you make an appointment, people should be able to count on you to show up.

BNI members who treat the BNI meeting like an appointment with prospects and business associates are much more likely to be successful. You don’t want to miss an appointment with your best referral partners. The chapters that understand this are the strongest.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 105 -

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 the beautiful 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, and how are you?

Ivan:
I’m doing great, Priscilla. And I still want to know, did I miss the memo?

Priscilla:
I think you might have, but what does that mean to our listeners?

Ivan:
Well, there seems to be a new trend in keeping appointments that I was completely unaware of until recently. You see, I’ve always operated under the assumption that when I set an appointment with someone for a meeting, a breakfast, a lunch, or some kind of face-to-face engagement that it’s presumed that I’m going to be there unless I notify them otherwise.

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
However, it’s recently come to my attention that I’m apparently no longer safe in assuming that that’s the case. Just last week I received this frantic call from a friend of mine who had confirmed a lunch meeting with me a few weeks earlier. And he called because he seemed uncertain if we were still on for lunch. I thought it was really interesting because he was about 90 minutes away by car, and he hadn’t left yet, and the lunch was in 30 minutes. So I was a little frustrated by that.

More and more I’m experiencing scenarios that are really similar to this, and there seems to be this emerging trend now. I’m beginning to see that if you schedule an appointment and don’t hear from the other party again before the scheduled date and time, this means that the appointment has been magically and mysteriously cancelled by the appointment fairies. Now, I’m not alone in this either, because my wife, Beth, had the same experience last week with a group of ladies that she was planning a brunch for. One of the women said, “When I didn’t hear from you over the weekend, I presumed it was off.”

Priscilla:
Yeah.

Ivan:
She was told that my one of the five ladies who didn’t show up.

I just want to know, when did this start happening? Did I miss the memo? Maybe it’s tied to the reminder call system that most of my doctors are using now where the front desk has the task of calling clients a day or two before their appointment to remind them that the doctor is expecting them at such-and-such time.

Now, my wife, Beth, told me that spas and beauty salons are now doing the same thing, but I really can’t vouch for that from personal experience. How about it, Priscilla, do they do that? Do the spas and beauty salons do that?

Priscilla:
Definitely. Especially the beauty salons; that’s what I can vouch for. Yeah, they do; they have to.

Ivan:
Well, if the doctors didn’t have the front desk call me to remind, or if the spas didn’t call you for you appointment and we went ahead and presumed that the appointment was cancelled because they didn’t call, I wonder if they would waive the no-show fee for not showing up. What do you think?

Priscilla:
No, I don’t think they would.

Ivan:
Probably not. So I’m just kind of stating for the record that if you set an appointment with me, it’s firm unless you hear otherwise, and I think that’s the way it should be for any business person. We’re all part of a networking organization, and we have to have a commitment to our fellow BNI members and to other business professionals that if we set up an appointment, we going to be there. Unfortunately, there seems to be some new trend coming on that when it comes to an appointment protocol and I’m just asking, “Can someone please send me the memo, because I must have missed the last one on this one.”

Priscilla:
You know, Ivan, I think it’s because we’re on such an overload, to be honest with you, that people are completely overscheduled and inundated with information, and it’s their way of handling things. That’s what I think, but it’s very rude, so I’m with you on that.

Ivan:
It is. And all joking aside, I am seeing it start to happen more and more, and I think it’s almost a self-sustaining kind of problem. Because it’s happened more and more, people are starting to call just to confirm that everything is still one, and so there’s this sense of, well, this person didn’t call, so it must not be on, which is just crazy to me.

And I think that this is really relevant in BNI, don’t you? Isn’t a BNI meeting a little bit like an appointment?

Priscilla:
It is like an appointment, and it’s one that you’ve made a commitment to for the whole year other than a few absences.

Ivan:
Yeah, I know that this is sort of a side issue from the main discussion, but I think it’s an important one. BNI members who treat the BNI meetings like an appointment with prospects and fellow business associates are much more likely to be successful in this program, because these are appointments. These are appointments with your best referral partners, and you don’t want to miss an appointment with your best referral partners. It’s very important. I think that the chapters who have this sense of accountability where the members understand that this is an appointment and you need to treat it like a good appointment should be treated, and you don’t want to just not show up and have a poor attendance at the – I think that those people tend to be stronger business professionals and more successful, and they certainly are going to build better relationships because of their regular participation in the local chapters.

Priscilla:
Yeah, I agree. So we all need to be there. I agree with you.

Ivan:
Well, I’m not going to send a memo, so this podcast is going to have to do the trick. So everybody, if you set an appointment, be there, and treat your BNI meetings like an appointment.

Thanks, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Okay, great, Dr. Misner. Thank you so much.

Well, that’s it for this week. I just want 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. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.

Dr. Misner has been communicating with BNI regions around the world via webcam. Contact bni[at]bni[dot]com if you want him to participate in one of your events.

This week’s podcast focuses on one of the golden rules of networking: staying in touch with your clients. Here are the six steps to success.

1. Spread out your contacts, but keep them consistent.
2. Schedule predictably: train your clients to expect to hear from you at certain times.
3. Make each contact lead to the next. Schedule the date for your next contact before you conclude the meeting.
4. Assume responsibility for making contact. Take the initiative.
5. Invite clients to networking events.
6. Create a plan and stick to it. Follow the system even if your client contacts you in between scheduled contacts.

Remember, the goal is not to sell something every time you call, but to check in and find out what’s working and how you can help.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 071 -

Priscilla Rice:
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 coming from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley California. I am joined by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hi Ivan. How are you?

Ivan Misner:
I am doing great, Priscilla. I just got off the phone before I called in for the podcast with Australia. I did a live webcast for our BNI members in Australia — which by the way, I put out to all BNI members worldwide. It’s difficult to go visit every region every year. And if you noticed, it’s difficult to visit every region every year. If I visited a different region of BNI every other week, a region not chapter entire region, it would take 12 years to visit them all. It’s hard to get out there but for the webcam — I love technology. It enables me to do things like this. I just did a live webcast with Australia. I am back in BNI headquarters. I had a webcam here and they had a camera there. I could see the audience there and have live interaction with them.

For you members are BNI directors listening to this podcast contact your local BNI director to find out what it will take to do a webcast and have your director contact my office for me to do a webcast in your region. They can reach us at bni@bni.com. We would love to do a live webcast for a big event that you have there if at all possible.

Priscilla:
That sounds great. But what are you going to talk to us today?

Ivan:
I am going to talk about one of the golden rules networking. That is stay in touch with your clients. There are six steps I’m going to give that are pretty straightforward. I think that most businesses understand that they thrive on getting new business in. Once you get business and make the sale, what then? You have to have touch points not only with potential customers but particularly with your existing customers, clients or patients. I wanted to get just a few ideas on things that you can do to stay in touch regularly with your customers. There are six.

The first is to spread out your contacts. Regardless of the type of relationship with your clients, regular contact is really good. Either short phone meetings or in-person meetings depending on what kind business you are in and whether most of your clients are local or not. Each meeting that you have becomes an opportunity to strengthen the relationship and enhance your visibility and recognition. Spread those contacts out but keep them consistent. One of the best- his company is a BNI member. He is going to be surprised that I say this on this podcast. One of the best BNI members who has been doing business with me – his name is Dave Getts. He is with Customzines, the company that does our newsletter. He is a master at regular contact. He spreads it out with email. He does a little email. He does cards. He always has thank you cards that are personally handwritten and then phone calls from time to time. He is in Chicago. I am in the LA area. Whenever he’s in LA, he sets up an appointment. He spreads it out so it’s not all at one time. He is really consistent at it. It’s that kind of thing that helps maintain a relationship.

Priscilla:
Can I just ask a quick question? What he contacts you is it just social, or how does he approach you and how much time to spend with you?

Ivan:
That’s a great question. You deal differently with different people and different behavioral profiles. I’m a high D, very assertive person. I have a lot of things going on. I have several companies and several businesses. I’m always pretty busy. So he never wastes my time. He understands who he is working with. When he contacts me, he’ll chit chat always a little. He is really good but he gets right to the point. Usually it is rare that he is asking for more business. It’s usually how are things going? Everything going well? Just wanted to touch base. Here is something you might be interested in reading. Occasionally, he might say here is a new service that we have. I know when he calls or sends an email to me that he is not going to waste my time. He keeps it very professional.

My guess is depending on who he is talking to, he will change it up a little bit. Some people want more of that social interaction and have time for it. Some don’t. I am guessing he probably changes it up a little bit depending on who is he talking to.

Priscilla:
Even thought he doesn’t have anything particular that he wants to talk to you about specifically, he just asks how everything is going.

Ivan:
Yes almost always. Everything going alright? Here’s something that he always says, which I am always impressed about. In everything, especially his handwritten notes, he says, “I really appreciate your business. You are an important client to me.” He says that in all of his correspondence. I am very impressed. If more people did that, they would keep their clients longer. We’ve been doing business with him for probably almost a decade. Nine years.

Now let me jump into the other six. The second is to schedule a predictably, stay in touch with your clients regularly. Train them to expect to hear from you at certain times. Depending on business, there may be certain times of the year that it would be important to call. For example, if you contact the customer during the first week of every quarter, they will come to expect it and they will budget the time for you. A financial planner of mine does that. Once a quarter, he calls my office and sets up a time to come in and show me the financials for the investments that I’ve got. He’s a BNI member by the way, a founding member of the first chapter of BNI, Mike Ryan. He’s still a member today after 29 years. He contacts schedules very predictably.

Third, make each contact lead to the next. Before concluding a meeting or a telephone conversation whenever possible — do this every time especially if it’s a face-to-face meeting — schedule a date for your next contact. In written correspondence, close by stating when a customer or client might expect to hear from you again. It might be something like I’ll send you a note or even e-mail by the end of the month, at the end of the quarter, (etc.). Having made a commitment, you’re more likely to follow through and the client is now expecting it. I think that is very positive especially if you’re not just asking for new business every time you contact them. I used to have a stockbroker that I knew the only time he called me was when he wanted to sell me another stock. It’s not a good idea. It’s good to have some other reasons for contacting your client other than buy more.

Four, assert responsibility for making contact. You can’t control whether clients will contact you but you can’t control whether you contact them. Take the initiative and stay in touch with their customers. This is especially important for your most important clients. When clients or customers don’t feel like they’re cared for, they’re more likely to try someone else. By staying in touch with them, you’re more likely to head off potential problems down the road.

Five, invite them to networking events. One way to make sure to stay in contact with your customers is to invite them to select networking events. Invite them to BNI. Invite them to a local Chamber of Commerce. Invite them into a service club. This is a great way to meet with them periodically while you’re getting out of your cave. You know, most networkers are cave dwellers and they keep bouncing back from their office cave to their home cave. Basically you’ve got network and at the same time you’re staying in touch with your best clients; it’s a very powerful technique to employ.

The last one, create a plan and stick to it. As you achieve a level of success in establishing routines with your sources, some of them may begin to take initiative in the contact. If you’re doing it consistently, they are more likely to connect with you. Don’t let that interfere with your contact schedule. That is, if you’re going to be contacting them quarterly but maybe they call you in the middle that, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to call them that quarter. You should still maintain a consistent contact. Don’t let their contact with you interfere with your schedule. Have a system and follow the system. I see some great results. Those are the six steps I recommend staying in touch with your clients. These are touch points that will help you succeed and maintaining relationships with the clients you contact.

Priscilla:
What if you’re a shy person and you feel like you don’t want to be too pushy? Is there something you could say to that?

Ivan:
That’s a great question to ask. I think you have to remember that the goal is not to sell something to someone every time you call them. Remember just said the only time I stockbroker would call what he wanted to sell something? The goal would be to ask how are things doing? Is everything okay? Are you satisfied with the service? How did this go or how did that go? You don’t want to just to be general. Are you happy? I’m not looking for that.

Let’s go back to Dave and Customzines. Sometimes he will contact me or one of his people — the woman who really runs or newsletter, her name is Bernice. She goes by Bernie. She contacts me to say. “Here is this month’s issue. Would you like to look it over? Do you have some things to add?” Just some very specific questions that are asked. “Here are the metrics for this month… This is what I discovered… By doing this, we found that…” It’s just regular contact asking specific questions and getting specific responses that maintains a contact which is powerful. Don’t just ask for the sale. Just make sure that what you’re doing is working. Here is the bottom line. How can I help you? What can I continue to do to help the service work for you? There are a few things I have in mind. Introverts can do that just as easily as extroverts because they’re not trying to sell them. They’re trying to help them.

Priscilla:
Right. I think if you come up with very specific questions, then it’s a mute point. It’s easy to do that. Okay. I think we may have used up all of our time.

Ivan:
Thanks Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you Dr. Misner. I just want to remind our listeners to this podcast has been brought to you by networking now.com. It’s a leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of the official BNI Podcast