Weekly Presentation Tips

How to Use Your Weekly Presentation to Get Better Referrals All Summer

 

When you do the same thing every week, sometimes it’s easy to start phoning it in. But when you do that for your BNI weekly presentation for West Virginia chapters (and beyond), you do so at the peril of your growth! Today, we’ll offer your BNI 60-second presentation tips to use all summer and for your whole future in BNI!

 

Why Put Effort Into How to Give a BNI Infomercial? 

 

Whether you call it a 60-second pitch, BNI Infomercial, or weekly marketing minutes, your weekly presentation to your BNI chapter is a valuable resource that you don’t want to squander. 

 

Some people make it up on the spot. Others say the same thing every week. But the most successful BNI members think about their audience, their products, and even the time of year to custom-create a pitch that will help the people in the room sell them to their contacts. 

 

While you can think to yourself that the people in the room already know you and what you do, that’s the wrong mindset. Instead, think of the people in the room like a marketing team. Every week, you want to give them the information they need to share with the people they know who need you!

 

At the same time, another important way to think about your chapter is to see it as your best customer. You wouldn’t go into your best customer unprepared. And you certainly would give them your full attention. 

 

If you’re utilizing your BNI group effectively, it will bring you more customers and, cumulatively, can bring in more business than any one of your customers. 

The Power of Business Networking in West Virginia

Most people join a BNI chapter to grow their business. They understand the power of referral-based business, but did you know that the average amount of business closed is roughly double from a referral than from a cold call? 

 

That’s the good news!

 

The bad news? That still only brings the average rate of closed business from a referral to 2 percent.

 

But here’s the Great News!

 

The average rate of closing business from a BNI business referral is much higher - 55 percent!

 

That’s more than 25 times higher than without BNI! That’s because in BNI, you get to know the perfect referrals for your fellow members. 

 

So are you utilizing that resource? And if not, how can you use your BNI weekly presentation in West Virginia to do just that? 

 

BNI Weekly Presentation Tips

While the rate of closing business is much higher from a BNI referral, that’s not a given. You’re not guaranteed excellent referrals. You need to participate to get them. And one way to do that is to build a well-tailored sales manager minute (yet another name for the pitch!). 

 

How do you do that? Here are our BNI weekly presentation tips.

 

Break It Into Key Parts

For a perfect 60-second presentation, you need a few elements:

1. Who You Are and What You Do - This probably seems like a given, but it’s easy when you get too comfortable with a group of people to skip the basics and forget there may be someone new in the morning, so say your name, company name, and area of expertise. 

2. A Specific Service - Don’t speak in generalities. You may do a lot of things even within your BNI designation, but you don’t need to mention them all every week. Instead, focus on a specific area of your business. For example, if you’re a general contractor, you can use a particular time of year for a particular area of the home, such as deck remodels in the summer. 

3. A Specific Type of Customer - Don’t just say I can work with anyone with a business, or “anyone with a home,” or “anyone with a face.” When you say “everyone,” people think of no one. Even if you say “cousin who just bought a house,” no one is going to say to themselves, “Well, it’s my sister who just bought a house, so Sal won’t want to work with her.” The specificity is more likely to trigger the idea of someone they know. 

4. A Specific Person (Optional) - To give an example of the type of customer you’re looking for, maybe name a particular person. For example, if you’re an accountant, say, “I’d love to talk to Sal at Sal’s Landscaping or someone like him, so if anyone knows Sal, please give me a warm introduction.” Not only may you meet your dream customer, but you might meet 10 more like them!

5. The Phrases to Listen For - How can people recognize your perfect customer? Let them know what they may be complaining about or doing. 

6. How They Can Introduce You - Some professions are easier to bring into a conversation than others. Make sure you give your chapter members a phrase that makes it easy to bring you up into the conversation without feeling like they’re forcing it. 

 

If you use these BNI weekly presentation tips, you’ll have a leg up not only on your competition but even on other BNI members. And when you introduce it, and people see how successful it makes you, they’ll want to introduce it into their pitches too. 

Happy referring!