During the week, many BNI members will have done one-to-ones with other members where they try to find out how they can better help that member, and how that member can better help us.

Others may have gone to trainings where they learn how BNI works for us and how they can meet other members, and get referrals for other people.

You may also be talking to clients. You may have meetings, talk to customers and start thinking of people who could be a good visitor.

Then of course, we come to the meetings themselves. We get in early, we do the open networking, we talk with other people, we find out what’s been going on this week, we find out how we can help them better in the in the week ahead. Then the meeting starts (usually very punctually) and we find out things that are going on within the chapter and other chapters, we have socials, we get to know other members, then we have an ed slot, we do 60-second presentations where we talk about what we’re looking for this week. Then we have a 10-minute presentation from member who tells us more about their business and how we can actually help them, all of which is absolutely fantastic.

It then gets to the crescendo of the contribution section, which is the highlight of the meeting – the euphoric climax of everything you’ve done this week.

And it’s completely ruined by somebody saying “I’ve put a referral on the app.”

Now, rather than just standing up and saying “I’ve put a referral on the app,” you need to say what it is you’ve actually done. I know some BNI members miss the paper slips, but unfortunately they are gone and they cannot come back for a variety of reasons, one of them being GDPR. So BNI in general has the issue that the contribution section has lost a lot of its theatre.

Simply saying you’ve put a referral on the app doesn’t help anybody know how you got that referral, what that referral was, or what the conversation that led to that referral. You should explain how you got it, what was said, and what triggered you to think it would be worthwhile. I guarantee somebody else in the room will think “I didn’t know that person could do that!”

So, when you pass a referral, explain it properly. Other people in the room will pick up on that, and everyone will get more business as a result.

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