Understanding BNI

Business Networking International or BNI for short is not just a Boston Networking Group. It is a worldwide chain of several thousand networking groups called chapters. To give you an idea of the size and magnitude of BNI, BNI is in 54 countries and passes more than 6.2 million referrals generating business for its members of 2.6 billion dollars every year. The philosophy behind the organization is quite simple. It’s givers gain and it is based on the old adage “what goes around comes around’. The mission of BNI is to help its members build their businesses through positive word of mouth advertising. Word of mouth advertising by many accounts is considered to be the most effective advertising there is.

What generates this type of referral activity? The answer is long lasting meaningful relationships. Think about it, don’t you only refer someone or do business with someone that you trust. Do you develop that trust in just a few casual conversations? It seems unlikely…

By utilizing a simple formula of meeting at the same time and place every week, telling people about your business and meeting with these same people offline. We develop the long lasting relationships and trust that lead to referrals and in our chapter (BNI Needham Breakfast) an increase in every members business whereby the average member increases their revenue by over $50,000 annually.

Now not everyone can become a member. First of all there are no competing businesses. For example if there is a Life Insurance Broker in our chapter then no other Life Insurance Broker can become a member. That way the members who are in the chapter have an exclusive resource to refer to. Secondly there is an application process where we check references and screen candidates. There is an actual committee within each chapter called a membership committee that makes all of these new member decisions as well as a lot of other chapter decisions.

So each week we meet for an hour and a half, we start off with 15 minutes of open networking. We then give everyone 60 seconds to tell us something new about their business. Each week one member prepares a 10 minute presentation, we then pass referrals and we end the meeting with open networking. Members are required to meet off line on a one to one basis. It is this format that develops the relationships that lead to referrals.