Sending LinkedIn invitations to potential BNI visitors is only the first step. Once people begin replying, the challenge is knowing how to respond quickly and move them towards attending a meeting.

In this BNI Education Slot, Darren Jamieson opens his real LinkedIn inbox and works through genuine conversations with business owners. He shows the messages he has sent, the replies he has received and the simple process he uses to turn interest into visits.

One of the key points Darren makes is that replies do not always arrive immediately. Someone might respond the next day, a few weeks later or even several months after the original message. This means consistent LinkedIn activity creates a pipeline of potential visitors, with old conversations continuing to generate opportunities over time.

https://youtu.be/8_844cuyGp8

Darren also demonstrates how he uses a standard follow-up message rather than writing every response from scratch. Where necessary, he adds a short personalised introduction before pasting his usual invitation message. This keeps the conversation relevant without making the process time-consuming.

Several real examples show how this works. In one case, Darren adapts his response for a commercial cleaning prospect by mentioning a relevant business already in his network. In another, a videographer is referred to him by someone else and, after a short tailored exchange, agrees to visit the chapter.

An IT consultant provides another example. After explaining the kind of businesses he wants to work with, Darren simply asks for his best email address and phone number so he can send the invitation and details of who will be attending. The consultant subsequently visits the meeting.

Darren stresses that there is no need to turn every LinkedIn conversation into a phone call or video meeting. When contacting 25–30 people a day, that would quickly become unmanageable. Instead, he keeps messages brief, uses saved responses and focuses on getting interested prospects to the BNI meeting itself.

Once someone shows genuine interest, Darren asks a simple question: “What’s the best email and number for you?” He then explains that he will send the invitation along with details of the businesses attending.

That final point acts as an important hook. Prospective visitors naturally want to know who they will meet, what types of businesses will be in the room and where potential opportunities may exist.

Towards the end of the video, Darren receives a new response while recording and demonstrates the process live. The prospect says he is interested, Darren pastes his standard reply, and the conversation moves forward without unnecessary complication.

The overall message is simple: LinkedIn visitor inviting works best when the process is consistent, quick and repeatable. By contacting relevant people regularly, using saved messages and moving interested prospects towards an invitation, members can build a steady pipeline of potential BNI visitors.

Full Transcript

00:14
You’ve sent out the invites. You’ve sent maybe 25, 30 invites a day, and you need to deal with the responses that you’ve got back. What is the way that you do that? What kind of responses can you expect, and how do you actually convert them into visitors?

00:37
So, what I’m going to do now is I’m going to go through my LinkedIn messaging box, and I’m going to go through some of the messages that I’ve had to show you the kind of responses that I’ve got and what I’ve said to them to get them to come along to BNI, and what information I’ve given them.

00:51
So, I’m giving you full access here to the messages I have actually sent out and the responses I’ve got. And there’s a couple in there that I need to deal with now as well, so I’ll do those while we’re doing it.

00:59
So, this could go anywhere. Quite frankly, this could go anywhere. So, let’s go into the messaging box.

01:06
So, top one. This is one that’s just come in because I’ve just done some for cleaning services, because we don’t have commercial cleaning in our chapter at the moment.

01:14
So, we’ve had, “Hi Alan, I hope you’re well. Are you able to take on more business at the moment? I’m working with a group of business owners in Chester” — so you’re familiar with this message — “and we’re looking for someone really good to refer regular cleaning work to. Are you free on Thursday morning?”

01:31
“Hi Darren. Good, thanks. Hope things are going well with you. I think our paths crossed at BNI in the past. I was a member in Warrington about five years ago.”

I think I remember visiting the BNI Warrington chapter a while ago.

01:39
“Although I believe in BNI, I cover from Birmingham up to Leeds, so I’m in a different area each week. So being a member and having to attend each week doesn’t fit with our model, I’m afraid.”

01:49
So, he’s recognised that tactic as a BNI tactic. That’s interesting. Some people have done that, but he’s travelling all over the country, so he’s not able to go. So, I’ll respond to him later.

02:05
This person: freelance photographer, camera operator, drone operator. He would have been in my videographer pool. Notice he’s not got videographer in his headline. He’s a freelance photographer specifically, which is why I’ve got “refer regular video work to”.

02:13
So, he’s accepted my request, but he’s not replied yet. He may reply tomorrow, next week, next month. You don’t know.

02:22
When you’re doing a tactic like this, it can take months for someone to reply to you, which is why the pipeline is really good.

02:30
So, even if you don’t do something for a couple of days, you could still have a few people come back to you who want to visit BNI that week because they’re responding to messages you’ve sent two weeks, two months ago, or even six or eight months ago.

02:38
You never know. You never know.

02:45
Chris, commercial cleaning service. So, same thing there: “refer regular cleaning work to”. That way I know what I’ve said to him.

02:53
“Hi Darren. Do you have any information on the cleaning work that you wish to refer, as we specialise in kitchen extraction cleaning for commercial venues?”

That’s interesting.

03:03
Because we have a kitchen company in our chapter. So I could have used the “use a member as bait” tactic on this person.

03:10
In fact, do you know what? I’m going to. I’ve got my default response that I send, and here it is in Notepad here:

“I’m actually meeting with around 20 to 30 of the aforementioned business owners at 6:45 on Thursday morning at Rowton Hall in Chester. If I can arrange an invite for you to come and share more about what you do, which type of businesses would you most like me to introduce you to?”

03:26
Okay, so I’m going to copy that and I’m going to paste that in, but I’m going to put a little preface first to do it.

03:34
So, “Hi Chris. That’s interesting.”

03:50
“So, one of the businesses in my network is a high-end kitchen company.”

And then I just paste my response. I’m not tailoring that at all. I’m just pasting that straight in.

04:07
Send. There we go.

Now, I don’t know if he’s going to come back to me and go, “Oh brilliant, I’d love to come along,” or whether he’s going to ask me further questions like, “Are they a commercial kitchen company?” Because they’re not.

04:15
But I’m not lying. I’m saying it’s a kitchen company. If he wants more information, I can give that.

04:22
We do have members of the chapter that deal with commercial restaurants and commercial pubs. So, the photographer, for example, deals with that. The linen hire company deals with that.

04:38
So, we do have members that deal in that sector that we could introduce him to, but I thought that was the most relevant one for now, and we’ll see what he comes back with.

04:47
Down here, security operations manager. So, he’s accepted and not replied.

04:54
This is an interesting one. So, we’ve got Danny here. He was recommended to me.

05:03
I messaged somebody else with the same message that I do, and he said, “Oh, my friend Danny actually would be good at that.”

So, Danny connected with me with, “Hey Darren, hope you had a lovely bank holiday weekend. Nathan Jones passed me your name and said you may need some help with video content.”

05:11
Okay, so I’ve had to tailor my initial response here.

“Hi Danny. Yes, I do. I’m looking for someone I can refer clients to, as my business is digital marketing and many of our web clients require video work for new websites. Is this something you can do?”

05:28
So he’s come back and given me a big list of things that he does, and then we’ve got, “Excellent,” and then pasted the response.

“I’m actually meeting a group of businesses…” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

05:36
And he’s come back and says, “That’s great.”

So he’s coming along this Thursday as a result of that, and all I’ve done is a little tailored message and then pasted my standard response once again.

05:53
Let’s see. We’ve got Ian.

So, Ian, freelance consultant. So he’s IT — IT consultant.

So here we are: “Hi Ian, hope you’re well. Are you able to take on more IT clients at the moment? Working with a group of…” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. “…offers IT to refer regular work to.”

06:02
And he replies, “Thanks for the invite. I’m free for a chat on Thursday. Looking to provide consultancy and advice rather than direct IT services, but happy to chat through your requirements.”

06:10
So, I’ve had to actually — I’ve not even tailored it.

“Hi, that sounds ideal.”

I’ve not even responded to it.

“Would next week work for you? I’m actually meeting around…” and there’s the pasted response that I use each time.

06:27
“Thanks Darren. I’m looking to work with small- to medium-sized businesses with a need for IT systems to improve their productivity. Sectors include telecoms, utilities, transportation, maybe providing services to larger companies.”

06:35
I go, right, need a bit more customisation.

“Oh, perfect. What’s the best email and number for you and I’ll send that across?”

06:42
And he’s given that to me, and he came along last week. Perfect.

You don’t need to get into deep conversations. You don’t need to get on the phone with people.

06:51
And I have had some people say, “Oh, I’d rather have a call. I’d rather have a call with you. I’d rather jump on a video call.”

07:02
And my response to that is, “I haven’t got time to jump on a video call. I haven’t got time for a call. Best thing for us to do is to have a chat Thursday morning, 6:45 at Rowton Hall.”

07:09
And if they don’t want to do that, that’s fine. That’s fine, because we’re dealing with high numbers here. We’re dealing with, like, 25 to 30 people a day.

07:17
And a lot of this is done on my phone. I’m doing this on computer now to record the video, but a lot of this is done on my phone where I’m just messaging people back and forth.

07:25
So, I don’t have time to get into this kind of conversation. And you wouldn’t have time as well if you’re doing it at this level.

07:34
So, we keep it as simple as possible. Keep the automated messages that we’ve got saved in a Notepad file on your phone or saved in a Word document, as I’ve got on my computer.

07:43
So, I can just copy and paste them in. Copy and paste them in.

And when they do say, “Yes, I’d like to go,” which Ian has done…

07:56
Yeah, that’s it.

“What’s the best email and number for you?”

That’s the thing to ask.

“What’s the best email and number for you? I’ll send across the invite email tomorrow together with details of which businesses will be there.”

08:04
What’s the best number, best email and number for you?

I’m not asking them, you know, if they want to come along or details about that.

08:11
I’m just saying, “What’s your email? What’s the number? I’ll get the information across to you and I’ll give you details of who else is going to be there.”

That’s the hook.

08:19
You see, everybody wants to know who else is going to be there. Who are the members that are going to be there? Who am I going to be able to meet? Who am I going to be able to sell to? Who am I going to be able to pitch my services to?

08:35
That’s what they want to know.

So, they’re very, very keen to get that email from you with the details in, and they’ll give you their email address and they’ll give you their phone number for you to do that.

08:43
And that’s essentially — essentially it.

08:48
There’s one at the top here now. Let’s see what this — first time I’ve looked at this. Here we go.

Head of Business Development at Vertus Group.

“Hi Andrew, hope you’re well. Refer regular cleaning work to. Are you free on Thursday morning?”

08:55
“Hi Darren. Yes, would be interested.”

That’s all he sent.

09:04
So, all I can do then is get my copy and paste in place.

And I’ll go, “Hi Andrew. That’s great.”

09:12
Paste.

“I’m actually meeting…” blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Send, and see what he comes back with. See what he comes back with.

09:21
And if he comes back and says, you know, the kind of businesses he wants to meet, all I do then is say:

“Excellent. What’s the best email or number for you? I’ll get the invite across to you together with the details of who’s going to be there,” which is what he wants.

09:36
It’s that simple.

That’s why I’ve had so many visitors in the last few months, and that’s why it’s something that you can do as well.

So, thank you.