Casual Contact Networks
The first of the six types of networking groups are casual contact networks. These are business groups that allow many people from various overlapping professions. There are no restrictions on the number of people represented in any profession. These groups usually meet monthly and often hold mixers where everyone mingles informally. Casual contact networks may hold other meetings where there are presentations by guest speakers on important business topics or discussions on issues concerning legislation, community affairs or local business programs.

The best examples of these groups are the thousands of Chambers of Commerce and similar groups active worldwide. These groups offer participants an opportunity to make valuable contacts with many other entrepreneurs in the community. They offer significant breadth to your goal of developing a word-of-mouth-based business because they enable you to meet hundreds of other businesspeople.

Strong Contact Networks
Strong contact networks are groups that meet weekly for the primary purpose of exchanging referrals. They often restrict membership to only one person per profession or specialty and tend to be more structured in their meeting formats than casual contact networks. Their meetings include open networking; short presentations by everyone; a longer, more detailed presentation by one or two members; and time devoted solely to passing business referrals.

Such organizations require a far greater commitment from their membership. They usually have a set agenda, with part of the meeting dedicated to actually passing referrals you’ve picked up for members during the previous week. A good example of this type of organization is BNI, the world’s largest and most successful business referral organization.

Community Service Clubs
Community service clubs give you an opportunity to put something back into the community where you do business while making valuable contacts and receiving good PR to boot. Community service clubs can be fairly good sources of word-of-mouth business. Such groups exist primarily to serve the community; however, they can also provide an excellent opportunity for businesspeople to meet regularly and develop relationships.

Although there is almost no overt networking, long-term friendships, which are critical to the success of a solid word-of-mouth-based business, are established. Good examples of these groups include Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis Clubs. In many ways, community service clubs were the original networks. The oldest, Rotary, was established in 1905 by Chicago lawyer Paul Harris with the idea that one person from each profession would belong and members would, among other things, help each other in business.

Professional Associations
Professional associations, or what futurist and author John Naisbitt calls “Knowledge Networks,” have existed for many years. Association members tend to be from one specific type of industry, such as banking, architecture, personnel, accounting or health. The primary purpose of a professional association is to exchange information and ideas.

Your goal in tapping into such networks is to join groups that contain your potential clients or target markets. A simple procedure for targeting key groups is to ask your best clients or customers which groups they belong to. This will give you an immediate list of at least three, and probably as many as 10 to 12, groups from which to choose.

Your best customers retain membership in the associations that offer the greatest value or for which there is some key strategic or competitive advantage. Similarly, the prospects you wish to target may, in many ways, operate like your best customers and have many of the same needs.

Social/Business Organizations
Each year, more groups spring up that serve as both business and social organizations. Groups such as the Jaycees and various singles/business clubs openly combine social activities with business or networking, giving you an opportunity to combine work with a little pleasure. If you’re interested in combining work with social activities, I recommend the Jaycees. They tend to be very focused and professional.

Women’s Business Organizations
Women’s business organizations have been instrumental in shaping the nature of contemporary networking organizations. With the proliferation of women business owners in the 1970s and ’80s and the difficulties they had in joining the “old-boys’ networks” in place, many women formed structured, well-organized groups that met to network and provide professional support. These groups were created not as service clubs but as bona fide networking organizations. Many made no pretenses; the members were there to network, and everything else was secondary.

Women’s business organizations are very diverse. The one thing they have in common is that they tend to be concerned with education and professional development as well as networking. Some are casual contact networks; some are strong contact networks. Others are industry-specific professional associations, such as Women in Construction. The benefits of membership depend on the type of group you join.

For many women, such groups can be an excellent and nonthreatening way to increase their business. Surprisingly, many women’s organizations allow men in their membership. Assuming the man conducts himself professionally, he can truly benefit from membership and participation because he’ll be more widely recognized within.

Which groups should you join? Don’t let chance decide where you’re going to spend your time and effort. Remember, the key is to diversify your activities. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket; one type of business organization won’t serve all your needs. Consciously select a well-rounded mix of organizations, with no two of the same type. If you have associates, partners or employees, consider their participation when deciding which groups each of you will target.

When asked about the new clients he’d acquired, Frank named some individuals who were familiar to members of the group. As it turned out, many of Frank’s new clients actually were referrals from other members over the past year. Frank said that it was mainly by chance that he’d been introduced to these individuals and didn’t believe the results were an indication of any system at work; it was simply coincidence that his fellow members had bumped into people who happened to need his services.

Frank’s mistake was evaluating his success against the abstract standard of repeatability. His professional training taught him that he and his employees should call people from a list generated by the supposed demographics of his clientele. To generate more business–as the theory goes–he should call more people.

Each referral he got, on the other hand, had a unique story attached to the client–something that can’t be repeated. This led him to believe the results were coincidental–a misconception because he focused on the referral itself, rather than on the relationship that produced the referral.

Referral marketing is like fishing with a net. You think about how to cast the net to optimize your chances of catching fish. You choose a likely spot, throw your net and when you pull it in, you find a number of fish. You have a pretty good idea of how many fish you’re going to catch if you do this a few times, but you don’t know which individual fish are going to end up in your net. The fisherman concentrates on casting the net, not on the individual path of one of the fish.

Frank focused on the referral and not the relationship because he didn’t understand that building effective and profitable relationships is a system. In his early training, he learned about products, customer service and cold-calling. However, he’d never been trained to build mutually profitable relationships. When he did receive referrals, he was unaware of his actions that had caused it, so he was simply thankful for his good luck and went back to what he knew.

When it comes to networking, “luck” is where persistence meets opportunity. There’s no coincidence about repeat referrals. They’re the outcome of the day-to-day activities of building relationships. Although referrals can’t be measured as easily as tracking cold-call ratios, the results are dramatic–and almost never coincidental. Repeat referrals happen because you’ve laid the groundwork through professional relationships.

What are the odds of that particular five-pound largemouth bass ending up in your net? If you don’t know about that fish in advance–what kind of fish it is, how big it is, where it hangs out, what time of day it comes up into the shallows to feed–the odds are pretty low that you’ll catch that exact fish. But once you’ve got it, it’s yours.

Like the net fisherman, the referral marketer concentrates not on the individual fish but on the process. He knows the process will bring him many referrals, he just doesn’t know who they will be or by what route they will take to get to him.

Referral marketing may seem a bit messy and random to those who’ve been trained to call a list of names in hopes of selling to one in 100. But it’s a system that works well because it ferrets out all those unpredictable, hidden, complex connections that exist between people in everyday life and in business.

Most big companies are still in the dark ages when it comes to networking. The procedures and results of referral marketing are not as easy to measure as cold-calling. Therefore, big companies stick to the old ways when training their sales staff. Someday, savvy people in corporate settings will catch on to this system. In the meantime, small businesses are leading the way in this networking technique.

Some people think that word-of-mouth is a little like the weather: fairly important, but not much they can do about it. Many others think that it’s just about good customer service, but it’s not. Don’t get me wrong-good customer service is critical for the success of any business, but if you expect happy customers to talk about you a lot, think again.

For the past two decades, I’ve talked to tens of thousands of business professionals about word-of-mouth marketing and customer service. I’ve described how the “average unhappy client” can talk to dozens of people about their bad experience. I’ve then asked my audiences if their “average happy client” truly talks to as many people as a potential unhappy client. In two decades, no one has ever said yes to that question!

Unfortunately, people are more likely to talk about your business when they are unhappy than when they are happy or satisfied. Therefore, good customer service generally reduces “negative” word-of-mouth. However, the good news is, there are many things entrepreneurs and business professionals can do to positively impact their business through word-of-mouth.

Below are the three most important things that a business professional can do to start the process of increasing their business through word-of-mouth.

1. Diversify your networks. I believe that most business professionals are cave dwellers. They get up each morning in a large cave with a big-screen TV called their home. They go out to their garage and get into a little cave with four wheels called their car. They go to another really big cave with plenty of computers called their office. At the end of the day, they get back into their little cave with four wheels and drive back to the large cave with the big-screen TV, and they can’t figure out why no one is referring them. If you want to build your business through word-of-mouth, you have to be visible and active in the community by participating in various networking groups and/or professional associations.

2. Develop your contact spheres. Contact Spheres are businesses that are symbiotic and noncompetitive to you. For example: a lawyer, an accountant, a financial planner and a banker. All of them have clients with overlapping similar needs. They can all work with and refer each other easily. Another good example is what I call the wedding mafia: a florist, a photographer, a travel agent and a jeweler. A referral for one of them becomes a referral for all of them. You should immediately determine what professions fit within your Contact Spheres and start developing relationships with them.

3. Word-of-mouth is more about farming than it is about hunting. Building your business through word-of-mouth is about cultivating relationships with people who get to know you and trust you. People do business with people they have confidence in. One of the most important things I’ve learned in the past two decades is this: It’s not what you know, or who you know, it’s how well you know them that counts. If you go into this process understanding this one key point, you will have a better opportunity to build your business through word-of-mouth.

A: First, let me congratulate you for even considering this question. Too many entrepreneurs focus on bringing in new business themselves or in tandem with the sales force but overlook their support staff as a source of referrals. Building word-of-mouth for your business is not just the responsibility of your marketing or sales department. As you might imagine, it’s far better to engage your entire staff in your word-of-mouth marketing campaign-not only at startup, but also throughout the life of your business.

Here are some tips on how to engage your staff in networking:

1. Include networking in the job description for each and every employee. Often, if a new hire knows upfront that he’s expected to incorporate networking into his job, it will happen.

2. Have clear and reasonable expectations. If your company manufactures a very obscure product, your staff might have a hard time bringing in tons of referrals. However, keep in mind that people are more important in the networking process than the type of product being sold. When you have the right person, he or she will be able to build a network around any kind of product or service.

3. Teach your staff how to network effectively for the company. Hold focus groups where you role-play ways to ask for referrals from other customers, friends and family. Bring in local networking experts for in-house trainings. Better yet, send your staff to a networking class.

If you belong to a weekly networking group, bring your staff to those meetings one at a time so each member can see firsthand what networking can produce. This also helps your networking partners feel that they know your business better, since they’ve been able to meet the people in your company.

The bottom line: Until you teach someone how to do something effectively, expecting them to do it well-or even at all-is unrealistic.

4. Motivate your staff to bring referrals to the company. My wife once worked for a business owner who incorporated monetary bonuses into her word-of-mouth marketing expectations. For every new customer, she was given a bonus. It was a win-win arrangement for the company, as each new customer brought in revenue well above the bonus amount, and my wife felt rewarded each time one of her referrals came through the door.

Having a bonus system in place made it obvious that she would be attending chamber meetings with the boss and developing other connections in the community while passing out business cards and fliers for the company. To properly execute this idea, check with your CPA or tax preparer.

You might even establish a “networker of the month” status for the staff, using a reserved parking spot or an overnight hotel stay somewhere fun as a reward. Make the motivation something that’s relevant to your industry and, most of all, exciting to your staff.

5. Be sure your staff sees you practicing your networking skills. Often, we as entrepreneurs don’t share with our staff the amount of time and energy we put into building and maintaining our businesses utilizing word-of-mouth marketing. I have always felt very strongly about this point. If I am going to expect my staff to do something, motivate and reward them for doing it, I better let them see me doing it as well. All too often, networking is something done behind the scenes and not necessarily in front of the staff.

One way to change this is to track how much business you brought in, as well as the staff’s numbers. Imagine the pride one competitive staff member will have when he or she breaks your number. Imagine the profits your company will realize when everyone in the company focuses on growing the business.

Networking is a group activity. Make sure to get your whole team on board with the process.

Let’s say you’re training a sales force. What would you say in this training process? How would you describe your product or service to your salespeople that would enable them to fully understand the benefits of what you have to offer? This is what you should be doing at a networking meeting.

The only way people can pass referrals is if they know as much about your business and you as time allows. No one expects a referral group’s member to be an actual salesperson for all the members; but, if you want referrals, the other members do need to be trained. Thus, the way your introductions are done can substantially impact your results in generating referrals from other networking group members.

I have personally seen people participate in referral groups who were in businesses so unusual that I didn’t think it was possible for them to do well; however, what I didn’t take into account was their personal commitment, attitude and ability to teach people how to refer them.

Here are some key points to consider for educating people in your networking groups:

1. Do not generalize when asking for referrals. I have heard hundreds of thousands of introductions at business networking events in my 20 years of running a business referral organization. Many people, when outlining what type of referrals they want, use the words “anyone,” “someone” or “everyone.” I don’t recommend it. Here’s an example of a general announcement: “I’m looking for anyone who’s planning to take a trip this summer.” Or, “I can help everyone who is planning to travel sometime this year.” This is too vague. Instead, you should ask for a specific type of referral. One travel agency owner understood this point and said, “If you have a friend or co-worker who has been talking about traveling this summer, please refer him to me and I’ll help him plan a trip he will never forget!” It is also important to remember that if you are in a group that meets weekly, your presentation should focus on something different each time in order to continue the educational process.

2. Bring support materials to networking meetings. If you have something visual for members to view or leave with, your chances of staying in their minds long after the day’s meeting are increased. A flier about a product sale or a newsletter from your company are good items to bring. You might also bring samples of an item you carry in your store or place of business.

3. When introducing yourself, break your business down into the lowest common denominators. In networking, lowest common denominators apply to business introductions, when each week you focus on simply one aspect of your business. In other words, break your business down into very small pieces. You may be tempted to use the laundry list approach-listing all the areas your business covers. Instead, consider that your fellow networkers will learn more about you week to week if you explain one aspect of your business at each meeting.

I once saw the owner of florist shop stand to give his introduction, holding a single red rose, wrapped in cellophane and with a very thin stem. He described the type of rose it was and how long it would bloom. He then told his members he had just purchased it at the grocery store on his way to the meeting that morning. After that, he reached under the table and pulled out another long-stemmed red rose, fully three times larger, with a huge red bud and a much thicker, green stem. He proceeded to describe this rose, emphasizing that it would stay fresh and actually fully bloom and open up, lasting twice as long. He held both by the bottom tip of the stems and waved them back and forth, showing how thin the grocery store stem was as it swayed from side to side with each movement of his hand and how sturdy his rose was, which didn’t budge at all. With that, he announced that there was only 3 cents difference in price between the two roses…and his was less!

This is a classic example of how to use a lowest common denominator when educating people about your business at networking events. The floral shop owner did not use general examples. He brought something to show, and he described it in detail.

If you want to get referrals from your networking efforts, remember to “train your sales force” using the three techniques mentioned above. Chances are, you’ll see a noticeable difference in your results.

And while it’s important to know the right things to do while networking, it’s equally important to start thinking the right way to make your networking efforts as successful and dynamic as they can be. This involves altering your mind-set. Let’s take an up-close look at some elements you’ll want to include in your mind-set to ensure networking success:

1. The law of reciprocity or “givers gain” approach.
The law of reciprocity sets in motion in-kind responses of individuals based on the actions of others. I like to call this the “givers gain” approach. You shouldn’t approach networking thinking “I did this for you, now what are you going to do for me?” Rather, you should remember the old adage “Give and you shall receive.”

The law of reciprocity takes the focus off of what you stand to gain from the networking relationship, and in doing so, creates bonds based on trust and friendship. Put it to the test. You’ll be amazed by the outcome.

2. Diversity in networking.
Look for groups that don’t target people just like you. In this way, you’ll broaden the net you seek to cast for referrals. There are many great networking organizations out there. If you stay only in groups that focus on your profession, you lose the breadth you need to develop a wide-reaching network.

3. Farming mentality.
For networking to yield extraordinary success, your mentality must be that of a farmer. He prepares the soil for months before ever planting the seeds. He tends the seedlings with care, feeding and watering them regularly, putting up a scarecrow to keep pesky birds away. It’s a long, drawn-out process to go from seeding a field to harvesting the crops. There’s no quick return.

Approaching networking with a mentality that focuses on the process of cultivating referrals will create the results you desire. Too many times I see professionals who are trying to grow their networks ask all the contacts they make at a mixer to visit their referral group, or keep them in mind for referrals as they give each new contact two or three of their business cards. This is way too soon. Think about that farmer diligently tending the seeds he has sown, and spend more time strengthening your friendships with those whom you wish to have as part of your networking circle.

Now that you have the basics for thinking about networking down pat, let’s examine a few of the things you can do to develop a strong word-of-mouth-based business:

1. Activate the VCP process.
VCP stands for visibility, credibility and profitability. What you need to do in order to be visible, credible and profitable takes a certain skill set. Things like participating in monthly mixers hosted by your local chamber of commerce, writing a regular column in your local newspaper or sponsoring the Little League team are things that make you visible.

As you become more and more visible in your business community, you’ll develop credibility. People will recognize that you’re here for the long haul, and you’ll begin to receive quality referrals. So look for opportunities to make yourself more visible. Think out of the box–be creative!

2. Sharpshoot, don’t shotgun.
When talking about their businesses, many entrepreneurs try to get everything they do into a 30-second pitch–and potential referral sources miss most of it. They tune out after the first few items on the list.

Instead, you should focus on your top two or three areas of expertise. Keep in mind that you’re not marketing to your referral sources. In effect, you’re training a sales force. Your networking team is there to keep an eye out for potential clients. If you communicate exactly what type of client you’re looking for, better, more qualified referrals will result.

This skill set is especially productive when you’re meeting weekly with a strong contact network. The difference between trying to say it all and focusing on one aspect of your business each week is huge.

3. Hold one-on-ones.
Conducting a one-on-one is almost like doing an interview, except that you both get to ask questions. The idea is to share something in each category you discuss with your referral source. I once had the chance to see how this literally transformed a networking relationship between two businessmen who’d been in the same networking group for quite some time but hadn’t really made a deeper connection.

The two begrudgingly took my recommendation to do a GAINS exchange–to talk about their goals, achievements, interests, networks and successes–and found that they had quite a few things in common. They both coached their young daughters’ soccer teams, they both collected sports teams’ hats, and their college degrees were in the same field. These two seemingly disinterested people became very close and developed the type of networking relationship that most only dream about.

See how networking is as much a mind-set as it is a skill set? Clearly, there are many things to do that will make your networking attempts successful, but there are also a good many things to be that are equally important to this art.

Now here’s my question: Would you hand over your car keys to a perfect stranger? What about those to your office or home? Of course not!

Now instead of a key to a car or a home, imagine you have a key that opens the door to an important relationship with a colleague that another person would like to connect with. Let’s say you hold the key to this relationship, but you don’t know the person who’s asking for it. Would you give it to them? Of course not! Why? Because when you give a referral, you give away a piece of your reputation. If it’s a good referral, it helps your reputation; if it’s a bad referral, it hurts. Intuitively, you’ll only hand over the keys to someone you know and trust.

What I love about this metaphor is how it works on two levels. First, you’re not going to hand over the keys to a relationship until you know a person well. But more important, others don’t even know what keys you actually have until you trust them enough to tell them.

It’s not just you; nobody is willing to hand over the keys to important relationships until they know and trust the person asking. Unfortunately, when networking, some people expect perfect strangers to hand over the keys right away.

Take a look at your referral partners. Would it surprise you if they had keys to referrals they’re keeping in their pockets until they trust you with them? It shouldn’t. So how do we begin this process of exchanging keys?

It all comes down to establishing credibility with your referral partners. I’ve seen many people who think networking is about meeting people and asking for business right then and there. That’s it. They meet someone and focus on telling them what they need or what kind of business they want. It’s like saying, “Hello, my name is Ivan. Let’s do business.”

Effective networking is about building relationships with others who can refer you once they’ve come to trust you, have confidence in you and feel loyal to you. This truly is the key to networking success. And this process takes time. This isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme.

If there were a single networking concept I had to identify that most entrepreneurs just don’t get, it would be building relationships over time. They listen, acknowledge its importance, then ask about the best way to close a deal when meeting someone for the first time. The short answer is, you don’t. OK, everyone has that one fluke story about meeting someone for the first time and ending up doing business, but that’s not the norm. The norm in successful networking is building a relationship to generate long-term referrals.

I think you’ll be astonished at how powerful this concept is when put into action. Think of it this way: When you get to the place where you can, without hesitation, hand over your physical set of keys to someone, you’ll be in the best place possible to begin asking for keys to their relationships.

It may seem like a no-brainer. Don’t we all know what we do for a living? Of course, most of us do. But can you clearly and simply communicate it to your potential sources? You may find you’re not as clear on the facts as you thought. And if you can’t tell your potential sources what you do or what you sell, how can they send you good referrals?

1. Reexamine Who You Are
For an effective referral marketing campaign, take a few minutes and get a clear picture of where your business stands today. You may think you know why you’re in business, but perhaps it’s been years since you have given it serious thought. Now is a good time to reexamine why you’re doing what you’re doing. Ask yourself these questions, and write down your answers.

* Why are you in business, other than to make a living? Why do you do what you do? How does it serve others?
* What do you sell? Most importantly, what are the benefits of your products or services?
* Who are your customers? What are your target markets? Be specific; look at segments of your business to determine your target niche(s).
* What are your core competencies? What do you do best? What are your strengths?
* How well do you compete? How do you stand out from your competition?

Answering these questions will help you tell others what your business is about. This will make you more effective at implementing a comprehensive and systematic referral system.

2. Clearly Communicate Who You Are
When you’ve written down your answers, think about how you can communicate this information effectively to your referral sources. How you communicate with others is very powerful. In From Selling to Serving, Lou Cassara states: “Your PVS (personal value statement) provides the opportunity for your clients, staff and family to market you effectively. You can build a distribution channel of people who can effectively communicate your value.”

We are so accustomed to the ubiquitous question “What do you do?” we hardly give thought to how we are answering that question. It is not enough to simply tell your contacts what label you wear, like, “I own and operate a sporting goods store.”

In order to deepen the relationship, you must be able to talk about what you do in a way that, as Lou says, “communicates the magic of your vision expressed through your words.”

Too many business professionals and companies try to be all things to all people. Focus on the things that you do well. And document those things and your vision in a way that you can communicate to others. By understanding clearly what you do, you are better able to communicate this to your referral sources. When you do this effectively, you are teaching your referral sources how they can refer you.

By the way: What do I tell people about who I am and what I do? Well, one of the things I say is that I am changing the way the world does business by teaching people that “When it comes to referrals-Givers Gain®”. Write THAT on a t-shirt!

People from all walks of life want referrals–not just the business community, but the general public as well. Few people want to choose a dentist, for example, from a printed advertisement. People want to have more personal information before making such selections because whenever you choose a professional exclusively from an advertisement and have no other source of information, you may be taking a big risk as to the quality of service you will receive. With referrals, the risk is greatly reduced. Someone else has done business with that person and is recommending that professional to you with confidence.

“Networking empowers the individual, and people in networks tend to nurture one another.”

Referrals Are Good Business
Compare a lead that you receive from an advertisement with a similar lead (that is, referral) that you get from someone you know. The referred lead is easier to close and costs less to obtain. Often, the referral provides a higher-quality client or customer with less chance of misunderstanding or disappointment. When I ask audiences why referral business is better than the business they get from ads, they say the referred business:

- is easier to close,
- has far fewer objections,
- has a stronger sense of loyalty,
- remains a client longer, and most important of all,
- has a higher sense of trust.

Relying on the advice of a mutual friend or acquaintance, the referral starts with a higher level of trust for you and your product or service. Getting dozens of people to send such referrals your way every day is what building successful word-of-mouth business is all about.

What would your business look like if…..

…..you NEVER had to guess where your next referral was coming from?
…..you had a community of people to support and mastermind your referral business?
…..you had 4-6 highly trained referral partners working for you?
…..your target market was actually seeking you out?
…..you knew how to refer to others the way they wanted to be referred to?
…..you had a way to keep your referral pipeline full?
…..you were working a whole lot smarter and a lot less hard?

“What we think determines what happens to us, so if we want to change our lives, we need to stretch our minds.” –Wayne Dyer

Stretch you mind around word-of-mouth marketing and your business will explode.

They include comments like these: “I’ve developed friendships that will last a lifetime.”
*  “I get a real education about many businesses.”
*  “I’ve improved my presentation skills immensely.”
*  “I’ve gained mentors and advisors who help me in business.”
*  “I have a cadre of quality business people I can refer to my clients.”
*  “I’ve increased my contacts.”
*  “I’ve overcome my shyness.”
*  “I’ve developed some great professional relationships.”
*  “I’ve improved my business skills.”
*  “I’ve become a better listener.”
*  “I’ve developed better referral marketing goals.”

One of my favorites is “My meeting day is the best day of the week for me!” I love to hear this. This answer, along with the many others, is a great example of networking resonance.

Networking resonance is all about people working together effectively. Thus, when you focus on what is working, you focus on solutions-or resonance. When you focus on what is not working, you focus on problems-or dissonance.

With more than two decades of experience in BNI, I’ve found that those members who focus on solutions and not problems are almost always part of a more successful group. This is because a solutions-focus is a resonant process in social interaction. It creates harmony in performance.

This harmony works best when members focus on incremental steps that relate to improving elements of a group that are working, instead of focusing on problems. We know that what you focus on expands; therefore, focusing on the positive in your chapter creates more positive results! Resonance is about focusing on what “is working.” It’s about identifying what is pointing the chapter in the right direction and doing more of it!

We ‘ve probably all seen the hilarious clips on various funny video shows where young children just learning to ride a two-wheeled bicycle inevitably collide with the mailbox, a tree, a car in the driveway, or even the person doing the filming! Why do you think this is? It’s because they are focusing on the obstacle in their path, not on the goal.

What is your chapter’s goal? Focusing on that goal can help you bypass some of the perceived obstacles. Simply stop focusing on the obstacles.

Every BNI group I’ve ever observed, no matter how small or how many problems they had, were doing some things right. Focusing on what they are doing right and improving those areas is the start of creating resonance in a group. This means that sometimes the art of creating networking resonance is knowing what to overlook. Focus on what is working and not on what isn’t.

Based on results, something is working in BNI. The organization now has over 4,700 groups in more than three dozen countries around the world. Last year, the organization passed over 4.9 million referrals, which generated over $1.9 billion in business for our members worldwide (based on two doctoral studies).

So here are some points for your chapter to consider in order to have a “solutions focus”:

*  Take incremental steps to build toward the solution.
*  Don’t fix what isn’t broken.
*  Find what works and do more of it!
*  Spot useful qualities and resources in action.
*  Focus on incremental steps. Be selective.

This approach often requires a shift in attitude. Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching? Think about that, and, if you don’t already, start using a solutions-focused attitude, which will spread to others and create networking resonance in your BNI group.