BNI is one of the most effective marketing tools out there when it comes to network marketing. In a way, it’s competing with our very own agency which is lead generation. However, because BNI is our competitor, we also understand its pain. For any marketing service providers, one of the biggest pains is that the users don’t get much out of our marketing effort (time, money). Why is that?
For any marketing to be successful (bring leads, referrals, more customers), it requires what I call “joint effort”. If you think just because you pay for some marketing services and then the clients will appear at your door, you are wrong! It won’t happen. What “joint effort” means is that you, as a business owner, engage in the process. Because only you know your business and yourself the best, and only when you understand how BNI works, can you adjust the way you play the BNI game and make it work for you.
BNI Passport was created to help new members get familiarise with the BNI game in a nutshell. Now, why is it important to go through the Passport? Because:
- Without Passport, it would take you much longer to understand how BNI works;
- Without understanding how BNI works, you won’t figure out how BNI can work for you.
Traffic light, being the most important part of the Passport – is designed to help you engage with the BNI system as much as you can. If you understand how Traffic Light works, you would know that it is really not that hard to be in the amber or green, as long as you can log in all the stats properly and timely. This doesn’t require much effort. What requires efforts, however, is when you don’t get enough businesses out of BNI. Why is that? Why is BNI not working for me?
Here are some thoughts:
- If you had gone through Passport & Traffic Light in a serious manner, you would have already had 121 with at least half of the chapter fellow members: Ask them for feedbacks.
- You would have already known BNI events: Attend more training sessions to get ideas.
- You would have already met Laura, our regional director: Ask her for advice.
- If you are lucky enough, you might have already become close friends with one or two fellow members: Ask them for help.
You need to use BNI to figure out why BNI has not worked for you so far. And all these are not possible if you had not actively engaged with BNI community, if you had not gone through the Passport, the Traffic Light at the first place.
This is the “joint effort” I’m talking about. Because only by making this “joint effort”, can you understand how BNI works; and only when you understand how BNI works, can you adjust the way you play the BNI game and make it work for you.