Are you a small business owner? Are you looking for ways to grow your business? Here are some facts that may interest you:
- Sixty-five percent of a company’s new business is from referrals (The New York Times)
- Customers are four times more likely to buy when referred by a friend (Nielsen)
- A referred customer is 18 percent more loyal than a customer acquired through a different method (Journal of Marketing)
- The lifetime value of a referred customer is 16 percent higher than a non-referred customer (Journal of Marketing)
- A referred customer spends 13.2 percent more than a non-referred customer (Journal of Marketing)
Couple these statistics with the fact that generating business through referrals is by far the most cost-effective marketing strategy, and you would think that most businesses would have a referral marketing strategy.
You would be wrong.
In fact, even though 98 percent of businesses rely on referrals to gain new business, only 3 percent of businesses have a strategy for generating referrals.
Enter BNI, the largest business networking group in the world.
When Dr. Ivan Misner invited several business colleagues to start their own referral group to help them all generate more business for themselves, he had no idea that 30 years later there would be more than 7,000 chapters worldwide generating 5.4 million referrals resulting in $6.5 billion worth of business in 2014.
How does BNI work?
BNI’s mission statement spells it out: “The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional ‘word of mouth’ program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.”
The organization’s culture of Givers Gain accounts for its success. By concentrating on helping others grow their businesses, BNI members find that they end up getting business in return.
Joining a BNI chapter gives members instant access to their very own sales team. By taking the time to get to know the other business professionals in their chapter, members not only learn about each other’s products and services, but they also develop relationships of trust that give them the confidence to refer business to one another and know that their clients will be well taken care of.
BNI is also a big proponent of education and offers a series of classes to its members that help them learn how to network more effectively and generate more referrals to grow their businesses.
Currently, there are four BNI chapters in Gainesville. Chapters meet on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings from 7:15 to 9 a.m. Only one person per business profession is allowed to join each chapter. Chapters have their individual personalities, and business professionals interested in joining often visit several chapters with openings for their profession before deciding which one is the best fit for them.
Referral marketing is the most enduring and cost-effective method for growing business. It’s not unusual for BNI members to report that referrals generated through BNI represent 10, 20 or even 50 percent of their total business.
In my first year of membership, BNI represented 15 percent of my total business.
I’m not a big fan of early mornings, but I will get up early every day and twice on Sunday for those kinds of results.
References/Citations: To learn more about BNI and how you can join, visit www.bniwcf.com.