In this informative video, Sauren Ghosh sheds light on the art of passing better referrals within BNI, focusing on quality over quantity. He begins by introducing the concept of “warmed-up referrals” and dives into how the quality of a referral can impact the success of a business relationship.

https://youtu.be/WfMm3x01ets

Sauren shares his experience from his early days as a manager at McDonald’s, where the company’s success was built on three core values: Quality, Service, and Cleanliness.

Drawing parallels to BNI, he encourages members to adopt their version of QVC when making referrals:

Quality, Value, and Clarity

According to Sauren, a referral should be the right match for the person you’re referring to, it should offer real opportunities, and it should be clear to both parties what the next steps are.

Using the example of a successful referral he made to Mrs. Jones, Sauren highlights how important it is that the recipient of the referral is expecting the call and understands what the interaction will entail. The value of a referral is measured not by how many you pass, but by how genuinely useful it is to the recipient.

He also emphasizes the importance of protecting your credibility and brand when passing referrals. Quality referrals contribute to the overall success of everyone involved, aligning with BNI’s core philosophy of “Givers Gain.” In the end, Sauren leaves viewers with the advice to consistently pass quality referrals that contribute to meaningful business growth.

Full Video Transcript:

[0:00]
And it helped both sides to understand what was going to happen. Mrs. Jones was expecting me to tell her about how I could save her money on her bills. And I was expecting to meet a very nice customer of Brian’s.

[0:14]
[Music]

[0:19]
So Joe’s already talked about warmed-up referrals.

[0:24]
Warmed-up referrals. And today we wanted to share with you and talk about the quality of those referrals. So I’m going to start off with something that I was an expert at many years ago. Some of you know that I used to be a manager at McDonald’s. I always tag that on there which sometimes gets a laugh.

[0:44]
Oh, and we do today. But what you might not know is McDonald’s built its brand around QVC, not the shopping channel, around quality, service, and cleanliness. I had to look at it there. It is 30 years since I worked there. And wherever in the world you went, you knew exactly what you were getting because of those three core values. So, how does that relate to BNI?

[1:08]
Well, let’s talk about BNI and have our own version of QVC.

[1:13]
Quality is the referral the right type or customer or connection that your fellow member is actually looking for.

[1:23]
Value. Does it create genuine opportunities? We always talk about in our referral reality check. Was it a genuine opportunity to do business? Were they expecting the call? How did it go? Are you going to see them? E, etc. It’s a bit more than just here’s a phone number. Try them. In fact, a lot more than that, isn’t it? Is that person actually expecting your call? I’ve already said that. I’ve said it twice because I’ve caught that from Joe. I’m not going to say it four times though, Joe. and is that person ready to hear how you can help them.

[2:13]
She was expecting my call. I went around to see her. We chatted. There was a genuine opportunity to do business, and business was passed. So Brian, thank you again for that.

[2:23]
And what does the C stand for? Well, it stands for clarity. Have you set the scene properly? Brian had set the scene properly for that when he was making the introduction. And it helped both sides to understand what was going to happen. Mrs. Jones was expecting me to tell her about how I could save her money on her bills, and I was expecting to meet a very nice customer of Brian’s. So our referrals have got to meet standards.

[2:44]
And as we go through today, we make a note of people who are specific and maybe if they haven’t been specific, how we can still help them. We must protect not only our own credibility, but we talk about brand.

[2:59]
Mike and I were talking about brand and how we show ourselves when we go and do the job. All the things around the size of it, the side orders, if you want to call it that. And it’s not simply about passing more referrals. And I know myself and others, we pass a lot of referrals. Referrals come out of talking to people and coming from a genuine viewpoint of helping that person.

[3:17]
You’ll hear about my contributions a bit later on and because givers gain is the philosophy of BNI and that doesn’t mean just giving anything. It means giving quality again and again and again. So good luck looking for those quality referrals for your fellow members. Thank you.

[3:40]
[Music]