What is BNI?
BNI is an acronym for Business Network International, the world’s largest referral organization and it is the most successful business and professional organization of its type in the world. BNI’s primary purpose is to help its members grow their businesses in a highly structured, positive and supportive environment.
Started in 1985 by Founder and Chairman, Dr Ivan Misner, PhD [read bio here], there are currently more than 5,000 chapters in operation with over 100,000 members. BNI is in over 50 countries and has a presence in every single populated continent on the face of the planet!
The success of BNI owes in no small measure to its founding principle of “Givers Gain” - when you give someone business referrals, chances are the recipient would want to reciprocate by helping you too! BNI is about building trusting and long lasting relationship amongst members and to refer business to each other. It is about farming for business and not hunting amongst each other.
How does it work?
Word-of-mouth has long been recognized as one of the most cost effective form of marketing. Unfortunately, very few really know how to develop it effectively. Two things are certain nonetheless, 1. You’d need to generate word-of-mouth yourself and 2. You cannot allow word-of-mouth to take its own course. What you need is a clearly structured approach specifically designed to systematize that process.
BNI trains its members how to participate in proactive networking. This means that members are taught to consciously listen out for specific words or situations that’ll point to a need for a referral. It is no surprise to realize that in the course of our daily conversations, we would invariably find people saying things that indicate a need one way or the other. This is where BNI members refer each other unconditionally.
This is achieved by building long-term and meaningful relationships among quality business professionals. What makes BNI unique would be its heterogeneity - no two members belong to the same profession or business. Once a profession or industry is represented, that category is locked out. This would also mean that the member representing that business classification earns an exclusive right to market his/her products and services within the group. Having people from a large diversity of industries will inadvertently extend your circle of contacts and the opportunities that comes with it.
What are the benefits?
There are no pretenses here. Members will enjoy a significant increase in business through referrals. Being in BNI is like having established business professionals as each other’s marketing team. Members would not hesitate to pass business to each other as long as trust is established. Trust that good products or services will be delivered and trust that everyone will positively support each other’s business growth.
At the core of BNI’s appeal is also its provision of a continuous education system. This is made possible through business workshops, seminars, forums and periodic networking tips via email. To further support a learned business community, members are also given access to BNI’s bi-monthly newsletter, Successnet, which focuses on business / networking skills. Books are also readily available.
In fact, BNI’s reference is crystal clear. That is as long as we come together with a strong sense of community and moving towards a common direction, we can’t help but to succeed in the best possible way.
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