Has Anyone Ever Joined A BNI Chapter?

Fiver

Fiver

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I've been thinking about joining this group since I need new clients. I attended one of their meetings last year before I decided not to join because of the huge committment. However, my business focus has changed and I'm now looking for local clients again.

I know a lot of other networking groups are either free or don't cost much to join but there doesn't seem to be any accountability for bringing others leads. BNI on the other hand is different and not only do they expect you to show up every week but they expect you to deliver on the networking part too.

Since it's something like $450 bucks to join for the first year, I was wondering if anyone here had success getting local clients for their business and if it's really worth it to join.
 


I've done it - being the only Web guy in a BNI group can be interesting. But it probably depends on each individual group too. In my case, there was a lot of small businesses in my group that didn't have any budgets to do anything worthwhile, at least on the Web. Basically they largely seemed to be looking for ways to get Web stuff done for free, or for so cheap that I didn't even want to take it on. Didn't get one paying client out of the deal, even though they all thought the stuff I offered was amazing. So I quit going to that particular group.
 
lukemeister said:
...In my case, there was a lot of small businesses in my group that didn't have any budgets to do anything worthwhile...
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Since they are all supposedly local, maybe there's a different model. See if any of them are in a high margin niche and would agree to pay for leads, commissions, or would wholesale products/services. Then build a site that competes with them and rank it :)
 
Know a couple guys who are members of a local one for an area in London. Went to one of their meetings, didn't end up joining as I couldn't commit to attending every week (at 7am) but there were about 20 members and 6 referrals that particular week.

None of them seemed remotely technically inclined (I was the only one under 25) so not sure how well they would have been able to get me referrals but I was guaranteed intragroup sales, since you get 1 minute to pitch to the group each week.

I would assume the members vary greatly, but the people at mine were car repair garages, heating installation, a lawyer that did wills, printing shop.

I would have joined if I was a bit more settled and had no plans to travel for a while.
 
This thread now has me thinking about joining mine BNI Massachusetts - Home looks really interesting. The no leads thing seems scary but sounds like the juice is worth the squeeze if there is a lot of people.

Edit: I'm 21 so with these kind of offline stuff can be hit or miss because of my age and some ignorant people still thinking the business world is for 35+ only.
 
rish3 said:
Since they are all supposedly local, maybe there's a different model. See if any of them are in a high margin niche and would agree to pay for leads, commissions, or would wholesale products/services. Then build a site that competes with them and rank it :)
Click to expand...

Thing is, I don't think you can sell directly to people in your group. The whole point of the group is for those people to become your sales team to sell services to people they know or talk to every day.

So yeah, the neighborhood mechanic is not gonna be a good sales person for you.
 
You can make your whole year by joining the right group. BNI may or may not be the right group for you. Whatever you do, don't go in and expect to fuck it like a bitch. You need to go in and become part of the group. The more of yourself you give, the more you will receive. You need to become active. Get on the board. Its easy to get on most boards. Volenteer for the shitiest spot and work your way through the chairs. By the time you're President (1 to 5 years) you will be able to have your way with the group. If you want to fuck em in the ass? no problem. You want ass to mouth? hey its cool. But remember it comes at a price. And that price has to be your time. If you're a phoney and just trying for a 1 night stand, they will see right through that shit. You will have wasted your time and money. But do it right and reap the rewards. Before you join any group find out who is in it. Do you want those people's money? Do they need/want what you're selling? How big is the membership? How active, blah blah blah.
 
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