A Typical BNI Meeting
Potential visitors often ask, "What should I expect when I attend a BNI meeting?" As we like to say, the meetings are for the visitors. Members usually conduct the majority of their intra-member business outside of the meeting, either in Power Team groups or in 1-2-1's, when they have time to really sit down and work with one another. Chapter meetings are designed to introduce a visitor to what BNI is all about, and to allow a visitor to promote their own business to the chapter members, via a structured agenda that includes: |
- Open Networking - Both before and after a meeting, visitors are encouraged (and members are required) to walk around, introduce themselves, and get to know others at the meeting.
 Passing Business Cards - When a visitor is invited to a meeting, they are encouraged to bring 40 to 50 business cards. Why? Because they have the opportunity to have a card passed out to every member at the meeting, even those they don't actually get to meet in person.- Infomercials - Each member has an opportunity at every meeting to give a brief overview of their business. Visitors will have the same opportunity, following the members so they can gain an idea of how it is done.
- Weekly Reports - Members of the Leadership Team give reports to show visitors, and members, how the chapter is doing overall -- how many referrals are being passed, how much closed business is resulting from those referrals, and so on.
- Speaker Series - One member has the opportunity each meeting to give a 10-minute presentation about their business. This helps train the other members to be part of their "sales team", resulting in more qualified referrals, and also serves as another example to visitors of the benefits of joining BNI.
- Referrals and Testimonials - At the end of each meeting, members pass referrals to one another, and often give testimonials for other members. Again, this is a concrete example of how BNI will positively affect your bottom line. Visitors are asked during this portion to stand and give their overall impression of the meeting, or to highlight something they may have learned.
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