The Hour of Power or 'Power Hour'

Ok - (this is where I ask two or three members of the group) "what percentage of your business do you get from BNI"? 

Gather the answers and say to the group ......  we should all be able to analyse how much of our business is generated from our BNI chapter..... 

Various answers will come out of the Q and A session .....  but let's assume a minimalistic figure of around 20%. 

Then taking a working week of 5 days – can we assume that if BNI gives you 20% of your business, you spend 20% of your time (ie one day) on BNI???

No – I hear you say?  So how long should you spend on BNI outside the meeting?

Get answers from the group – settle on one hour.  Let’s call it the “BNI Hour of Power” and the results it can produce can be truly extraordinary.

Successful leadership teams encourage members to set aside one hour a week in which they focus solely on BNI activity. Think about it: If you stopped everything in your day and decided just to focus on BNI for one hour, what would you do? Would you be at a loss to fill the time?

Or would you have a number of different activities that you could immediately pursue to give you a tremendous impetus in developing business for chapter colleagues, whilst also giving your own business a major boost at the same time?

Break the “Hour of Power” down into three distinct and easily identifiable groups of activity. Give the members the three main options (referrals, visitors, 1-2-1's), then in small groups (if this is a ten minute slot - or deliver from the front for a large group).....  let them brainstorm ideas within each category. Then get members to shout out their answers.

1.                          Focus on generating referrals:

-  Work on referrals for the previous week’s 10 minute speaker

- Review each member’s “most wanted referral” from the previous week (this ensures that you are carefully recording what each of your colleagues are looking for at each meeting),

- Follow up on possible referrals, to turn them into certainties,

- Review your contacts list to see what introductions can be made for fellow members,

- Review your diary of upcoming customer/client meetings to see what opportunities there might be to introduce other members’ businesses or services at each meeting.

2.                          Focus on inviting visitors:

- Follow up with previously invited visitors to see if they are ready to join,

- Review the list of trade/professional categories that your chapter most wants to fill, and check your own customer and contacts lists to see if you can identify suitable visitors,

- Make invitation calls,

- Send invitation cards and e-mails confirming venue details for visitors,

-  Make reminder follow-up calls to visitors the day before the meeting.

3.                          Focus on your one-to-ones:

- Plan, diarise and prepare for your one-to-one meetings with other members,

- Follow up on actions arising from previous one-to-one meetings.

We would all like our BNI Foundation Team to be doing considerably more BNI things throughout their working day, but everyone that has adopted the Hour of Power has found that it can transform any member’s experience within BNI, almost instantaneously increasing the value of business generated and received by over ten-fold.

None of the benefits of BNI membership are guaranteed, just as success in life is never a matter of luck.  It is always the result of working and developing a carefully honed and fine tuned system of success.  Applying and incorporating the Hour of Power into your weekly schedule will take you a long way towards receiving the best possible return on your membership.

Delivered 30 August 2012