Business and Networking

Earlier this week, I attended a BNI meeting for the first time. Their website describes BNI as "a business and professional referral organization that allows only ONE person from each profession to join a chapter. This is a unique platform that integrates face to face networking with an online social network spanning 45 countries and thousands of business people". Although I had heard about the benefits of networking to improve business results, this was the first time I actually saw it in action

The claim about having only ONE person from each profession is not exactly true because BNI India admits members whose cater to different niche markets within the same larger profession. For example, the chapter whose meeting I attended had 4 members from the software field - 1 web design company, 1 social media marketing consultancy, 1 e-business company and 1 company providing customized software solutions. Anyway, there's not much point in arguing over fine print, I guess

The typical meeting works like this - after a brief introduction of BNI, all members present (absence for 3 meetings invites suspension) give a 30 second talk about their own business. This may sound repetitive, yet it is done every week for the benefit of new members or visitors (each one invited by a member, with prior intimation, at a cost of Rs 500). At the end of the 30 second spiel, each member briefly mentions their recent successes and what kind of referrals they are looking for that week

Next, two selected members give a detailed 8 minute presentation on their business. Then all members hand over referrals to anyone else whom they can help, based on the requirements they had mentioned during the 30 second talk (as I understand, the business owner is supposed to talk to the prospective clients only after the referrer has given the latter a personal heads-up). They also pass thank you notes to those fellow members whose previous referrals helped them win new business

The meeting ends with a meal (breakfast in my case, since that chapter holds its meetings every Tuesday morning) where the members do some one-on-one networking and understand each other's referral requirements more clearly. Referrals can also happen offline and not necessarily during the meeting only. BNI also has a concept of power teams within each chapter. These bring together people from related businesses who can help each other with referrals, more than other members

BNI also offers trainings that help members develop key business skills like communication, presentation, management and leadership skills, to stay ahead of the competition. Training sessions also give members from different chapters an opportunity to meet and extend their network. All in all, BNI was an interesting concept and one that seems to work, since I heard some profitable referrals being quoted. If I had something more  tangible to "sell", I would surely have thought about signing up