Week 4 (May 1) – Call Everyone on Your List
Our actions over the next two weeks will determine the success of the Visitor Day on the 15th. Effective telephone follow-up can raise the usual 1% mailshot success rate to over 10%.
It is vital that we call each person on our lists before next Friday :
- Use the first of the scripts I handed out today. And if they say no, then ask for suggested referrals and send them an invite.
- Try not to get drawn in to discussions about BNI. If they are interested and asking questions, then they should come along to hear the full story. That is the purpose of the visitors day
- Use the provided Confirmation Sheet to organise and track your calls and acceptances.
- Next Friday, please bring a list of your acceptances.
Any questions, just ask!
Week 3 (April 24) – Bring ALL remaing letters next week
Next Friday, May 1st is mailing day, when everyone’s Visitor Day invitations will hit the UK postal system.
So the task for the next 7 days for each of us is straight-forward – convert those invite lists and numbers on the flipchart into letters to be posted. You will find the letter template in last week’s port below.
Please bring all remaining letters next Friday. I collected about 140 letters this morning – a quarter of the forecast total.
If you are unable to attend next week’s meeting, give your letters to another member to bring.
(Alternatively, you can post them yourself next Friday and claim back the postage from the Chapter. Let me know if you plan to do this.)
It is vital that all the letters are mailed at the end of next week. This gives sufficent time for people to schedule their attendance and for each of us to follow-up adequately.
The efforts we put in during the next three weeks will be critical to the success of the Visitors Day.
Week 2 (April 17) - Create letters and finish gathering names
We each have two major tasks to complete for next Friday (24th):
1. Find the remaining names for your invite list to bring your total to 40 (but feel free to invite even more). Please bring those new names along to the meeting, as we’ll read some more out.
2. Create the invitation letters for your first set of contacts.
– The template letter is here. There are a number of fields to be replaced to personalise EACH letter. They are clearly in RED on the template. As the letters will be sent two weeks before the Visitors Day, I have preset the date. Please do not amend the letter content.
– All letters should be addressed to a specific person.
– Sign your letters
– Put a business card with the letter
– Hand address the envelopes
– DO NOT SEAL THE ENVELOPES
– Bring all letters/envelopes to the next meeting.
– BNI will provide the postage.
– All invites will be mailed on May 1st.
Week 1 – Starting to gather those names
Homework – you should bring 20 contact details to next week’s meeting.
40 invitations from each member is a challenge, but it can be achieved if attacked in a systematic way…
Everyone agreed they were willing to give it their best shot if some advice and guidance was given. I’ve summarised below the hints and tips discussed last Friday.
Key is – Need to think about WHO you are looking for – having a target helps
….How about someone who could benefit another member….
What profession could help you if they were a member?
Here’s more ideas for professsions – review the Prospect sheets that were handed out. These list large numbers of professions for potential members.
Where to find those people/professions/businesses
1. Identify ten names of people you know, like and trust who can refer someone in a�
profession to them.
2. People you know – don’t forget all those people you do know by looking in:
. Personal Database
. Business Database
. Suppliers Invoices
. Client Database
. Business Cards collected form other networking events
. Personal Cheque Book
. Business Cheque Book
3. People you sort of know from:
. Church Directories
. Golf Club �
. Bowls Club
. Tennis Club
. Cricket Club
. Fitness Club
. Amateur Dramatics
. Associations’ Directories
. Societies
. Other networking events/associations
. Others
4. People they don’t know yet! (Where to find ‘new’ names)
. Post Office Notice Boards
. Village Store Notice Boards �
. Village Hall Notice Boards
. Fitness Club Notice Boards
. Local Publications
. Fliers
. Supermarkets Business Card Boards
. Signs on Vehicles
. People advertising for new employees
. Yellow Sticky Note on Phone: “Write Down Names of People You Talk To!”
. Businesses advertising on local radio
Next week you should bring 20 contact details which should include all of the following:
(1) Name of person,
(2) Name of Business,
(3) Address
(4) Phone number for their invites.
