In this BNI Education Slot, Jo Finnerty provides a clear and practical overview of the fundamentals that shaped her long-term success within BNI. After fourteen years as a member, Jo has built a consistent and reliable return on investment, generating roughly £150,000 a year in thank you for the business. Her approach is based on five core habits that she refined through real experience.

https://youtu.be/IYbaa3Vkopc

Jo begins by explaining how she focused on power teams from the outset. Instead of trying to meet every member at once, she prioritised the businesses that served similar clients. This included accountants, HR professionals, photocopier suppliers and others who regularly worked with companies experiencing growth. She extended this strategy regionally by using BNI Connect to arrange one-to-ones outside her own chapter.

She then moves to the GAINs profile, which she sees as an essential working document. Jo highlights the importance of swapping GAINs profiles before one-to-ones and researching a member’s target clients in advance. Her aim was to secure referrals before the meeting even took place, which strengthened relationships and demonstrated real commitment.

Jo also stresses the value of specificity. Members who ask for a clear company, role, industry or contact tend to see better results because people instantly know who to look for. She illustrates how large our extended networks are once social media connections are included, which makes specific referral requests even more powerful.

Her fourth point focuses on subbing. Jo openly shares that she visited many chapters across the region, which increased her visibility significantly. She advises members to use this tactic carefully to avoid appearing over-present, while still giving themselves broader exposure.

Finally, she emphasises the importance of staying green in the BNI traffic lights. She credits one of her biggest pieces of business to consistent green performance and encourages members to speak with those who excel in this area to understand the impact it can have.

The session concludes with a reminder that strong BNI results often come from returning to the fundamentals and executing them consistently.

Full Transcript:
(00:00) Controversial, but it worked for me. Go subbing to all the other chapters. [Music] Okay. So, if you look at the quickest way to get your return on investment from BNI, if you Google it, there is loads and loads. There are lines and lines and lines of information that say do this, do this, do this.

(00:33) But after I have been a member for the last fourteen years, and I now invoice around, or thank you for the business, about one hundred and fifty grand every year now, and rising still, then this is what has worked for me. Because what I wanted when I joined a networking organisation was to get the quickest return on investment, biggest bang for your buck, and quick quick quick.

(01:01) So I thought I would give you my top five, which has helped me. So the number one, when I joined my chapter years ago, it was a case of having your one to ones with every single member. Now we had about forty odd members. So that would take quite a long time when you think an hour or an hour and a half meeting with each one.

(01:24) But they said basically focus on your power team. So companies that are doing services that sell to your clients or the clients that you want. So basically find a similar business. So my power team were accountants, HR, photocopier sales, and anything that would sell into a business where they would know if they were ordering or buying stuff that there was an increase of staff within that business.

(01:58) So recruitment would be happening. So that was what I did first of all. I also had one to ones with my power team not just within that chapter but regionally as well. You can go on your BNI Connect and do a search and find those companies and ask for one to ones and then build it that way.

(02:21) So the power of BNI is not just who is in the room and the members. You want to look at regionally as well in the areas that you want to sell to. Number two is the ever popular, people speak to me about the GAINs. Yay, we love a GAINs sheet. I love a GAINs sheet. First thing was to populate it. This is a working document and you really should have it on the computer all the time and update it all the time.

(02:48) The most important part when I sit down with somebody and have a one to one is who are their clients. Who are their top ten clients at the moment. But more importantly who they want. So before the meeting, you would swap your GAINs sheets and then I look at who they want and try and get those referrals before we even have the meeting.

(03:10) So I have got those referrals already for that member, which makes me look amazing. But also they will go out of their way to help me. And that is what it is all about. Givers gain. I help you, you help me. Be specific. Specific is terrific. I know I bang on about this all the time, but it works. If you ask for a specific person, a specific company, a specific industry, and you have done the research and you have said, right, I want to speak to this person, this position, in this company, in this area.

(03:44) It shows that you know who you want to do business with. And each person, Sharon, is connected to how many other people?

(04:08) >> How many people?
Sixty thousand business people.
Business people.
Are we all connected to roughly
Question this time?
Shall I give it to you? If your networking is around eight thousand you are going to get now
It is around eight thousand when you consider social media. Your range, you know I have got about thirty five thousand followers on social media, but all those other people that are connected to them are connected to me. So if you are specific you just never know who knows who and it is really powerful. I have seen it.

(04:46) I see it happen every week here. People who are specific get those specifics. So just do the research. It works.
Number four, controversial, but it worked for me. Go subbing to all the other chapters, right. I know someone, but do not make it a habit. Do not go there every week because people go, are you paying for two memberships here, because I have seen you every week.

(05:13) You are here every, what is going on, twice in a month.
Not you, Jimmy. Three subs. She can sub at each chapter three times. They are the rule. Three times in a six month period.
You do not want to get that reputation. Do you know what I mean. You want to be visible, but you do not want to be a hunter. You do not want to be one of those people.

(05:37) So I went to every chapter basically. I got that visibility, but I was, out of the six hundred and sixty members in that region, I was the only recruiter. So because I did that visibility, I basically cleaned up in that region.

(05:53) And the last is go for green in your traffic lights. Why, why Mike?
Because I got my biggest job of the year at Green Club Austria.

(06:07) >> Yes. So if you want to know
Amazing.
So if you want to know more about getting to the green and what it does for your business, go and speak to Mr Corner. And there you go. I am done.