If you’ve never been to a BNI meeting before, then you are in for a treat. Here is a step by step guide to what you can expect when you come along to one of the meetings at our Acorn group.
You should aim to arrive no later than 11.45am (other BNI groups are available mostly at the crack of dawn). On arrival in the room, you will be met by one of the team to help you with signing in and choosing your lunch. To cover the cost of each meeting and the lunch there is a nominal charge of £10. After signing in and getting your receipt and a visitor’s name badge you will be introduced to the other members of the team especially those who would be a great connection for your business. You will not be left to fend for yourself.
Grab yourself a coffee and you’ll discover all the members to be a friendly and welcoming bunch and you will get an opportunity to start getting to know everyone. Most of the team is there by 11.30am so if you want to meet us then, please join us.
At 12 everyone sits down for the meeting to commence, Lunch is served during the meeting. The Chapter Director welcomes the group, introduces BNI and specifically welcomes visitors to the meeting. The Management Committee will stand and introduce themselves then the Education Co-Coordinator will stand and introduce the education speaker for the day.
At this point the 60 second round will begin. This is each attendee’s opportunity to tell the group who they are, what they do and how they can help clients. In this Chapter the order of presentations is generally determined by the order of arrival of members.
All the members take their turns first followed by visitors. You’ll have plenty of time to decide what to say as you listen to the others speak as your turn will be after all the others.. It’s worth giving some thought to this before you arrive but don’t, just read something out. You can also inform the group as to what kind of referrals you would prefer to receive. If there is a particular type of client you would like to be introduced to, this is your chance to say It’s perfectly ok if you want to read it off a piece of paper. Most of our team do.
The next section is the ten minute member’s slot where one member will give a talk on a subject relating to their business, and outline how we can best find them business.
The business card box will go around to each member. A full pack of everyones cards will be given to you at the end so no need to worry about going through the box. This is the opportunity for you to hand around your cards to the members.
The next section is the referrals round. Each member in turn will stand and talk briefly about one of the referrals they have found for another member of the team, a referral is an opportunity to do business for one of the team members. You may also hear one or two testimonials from one member to another. You maybe be asked for any brief feedback on the meeting just say how handsome the Chapter Director is!
There will also be a quick referral reality check where a couple of referrals from a previous meeting are chosen just to make sure the opportunities are real.
The final sections are reports from members of the Management Committee on Membership, Referrals and how the group is performing as a whole. Also from the referrals passed earlier in the meeting one is selected randomly and the member making the referral wins a small door prize. There will then be some announcements about training and the all important next social event and finally the Chapter Director will close the meeting at about 1.30pm.
Immediately following the meeting a member of the team will conduct an orientation session for visitors to answer any questions that they may have and outline what is involved in becoming a member of our BNI Chapter. Then you are free to network with the other members and visitors.
So that is it. Meetings often have a bit of banter and are quite a relaxed environment with the Director engaging enough control to ensure, what is after all a business meeting, finishes on time each week.
Don’t forget to bring along loads of business cards, and be ready to have a relaxed time.
If you want to visit our group or any other just let me know and I can point you in the right direction. Remember if you have not been to a meeting yet then you have no idea if it is for you or not, that’s why we encourage you to come along and visit.
Marcus King
The Cost Detective
BNI Acorn North London
MarcusKing@TheCostDetectives.co.uk
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