Running a networking group raises your profile
You might know that I'm the Chapter Director for the BNI group in Putney, SW London. I've been doing this for the past 5 months and I'm due to 'retire' in April. (In fact I'll be taking over as Membership Co-ordinator, which is an even busier role!!)
What's really struck me in the time that I've been running it is the power of Goal Setting. And going further than that, the power of making those goals public.
When I took over the chapter in October 2005 we were in trouble, to put it mildly. We'd just had some resignations, some of the founding members had left and there was a miserable feeling in the room. Whilst other people were concentrating on getting visitors in and hoping to convert them to members to boost the numbers, my view was that we could get all the visitors we liked, but they were unlikely to want to join with so much negativity in the room. The only way to get new members to join was to make the existing members happy because if they weren't happy, they wouldn't invite people to come along. Eventually we agreed to set a target to increase our membership from 22 to 28 by the end of the six month period and set a straetgy for doing so.
Since then, we've got members meeting each other throughout the week (not just at the breakfast meeting), we've had a phenomenal visitors day and there is quality business being done between the members. There are a lot of friendships which have been made and also joint ventures. There's trust between members - we're very comfortable recommending each other's services and everyone's involved in the performance of the chapter.
And if the people who have just e-mailed me put in their applications at the meeting next Tuesday, we'll have 29 members - a month ahead of schedule.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because there are all sorts of benefits of you doing something similar in your own networking groups. I have a slightly different approach to BNI than many other coaches. I use it to constantly push my comfort zones (every week I'm running a 90 minute meeting in front of a bigger and bigger group!), I brush up on my Management & Leadership Skills (I'm backed by a terrific team of motivated people), I've transformed the website (it's www.bniputney.co.uk and it's gone from no one seeing it, to attracting lots of new members) and of course, there are the networking opportunities.
But there's something that I hadn't quite appreciated until now. People had said that being a Chapter Director raises your profile. It does. But I thought that it would just be about being seen as the Chairman of the group. I've earned a lot of respect from fellow members and members outside of my own group for how the chapter has been transformed and it's this that's getting me clients.
If you can visibly walk the talk, clients will come naturally. There's an expression, Lead By Example. When you're promoting coaching, prospective clients can't see, touch or hear the 'product' - they're buying an unknown. Even if you show them a testimonial, there are no guarantees that they'll get similar results. All you can do is consistently show them how to motivate others, set goals and follow through on the strategies for achieving those goals.
What could you do today that would show your prospective clients what things could be like if they hired you as their coach?
What's really struck me in the time that I've been running it is the power of Goal Setting. And going further than that, the power of making those goals public.
When I took over the chapter in October 2005 we were in trouble, to put it mildly. We'd just had some resignations, some of the founding members had left and there was a miserable feeling in the room. Whilst other people were concentrating on getting visitors in and hoping to convert them to members to boost the numbers, my view was that we could get all the visitors we liked, but they were unlikely to want to join with so much negativity in the room. The only way to get new members to join was to make the existing members happy because if they weren't happy, they wouldn't invite people to come along. Eventually we agreed to set a target to increase our membership from 22 to 28 by the end of the six month period and set a straetgy for doing so.
Since then, we've got members meeting each other throughout the week (not just at the breakfast meeting), we've had a phenomenal visitors day and there is quality business being done between the members. There are a lot of friendships which have been made and also joint ventures. There's trust between members - we're very comfortable recommending each other's services and everyone's involved in the performance of the chapter.
And if the people who have just e-mailed me put in their applications at the meeting next Tuesday, we'll have 29 members - a month ahead of schedule.
Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because there are all sorts of benefits of you doing something similar in your own networking groups. I have a slightly different approach to BNI than many other coaches. I use it to constantly push my comfort zones (every week I'm running a 90 minute meeting in front of a bigger and bigger group!), I brush up on my Management & Leadership Skills (I'm backed by a terrific team of motivated people), I've transformed the website (it's www.bniputney.co.uk and it's gone from no one seeing it, to attracting lots of new members) and of course, there are the networking opportunities.
But there's something that I hadn't quite appreciated until now. People had said that being a Chapter Director raises your profile. It does. But I thought that it would just be about being seen as the Chairman of the group. I've earned a lot of respect from fellow members and members outside of my own group for how the chapter has been transformed and it's this that's getting me clients.
If you can visibly walk the talk, clients will come naturally. There's an expression, Lead By Example. When you're promoting coaching, prospective clients can't see, touch or hear the 'product' - they're buying an unknown. Even if you show them a testimonial, there are no guarantees that they'll get similar results. All you can do is consistently show them how to motivate others, set goals and follow through on the strategies for achieving those goals.
What could you do today that would show your prospective clients what things could be like if they hired you as their coach?
posted by Hannah McNamara at 7:01 pm
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