BNI Dance Card and One-to-One Suggestions
Dance Cards are an insider term in BNI for one-on-one meetings between our members. We do this to learn more about each member's business and service. This is an integral part of BNI, it helps us be stronger advocates and fully aware of new business opportunities for each BNI member. This is one of major distinctions between BNI and other networking groups – the indepth understanding of one another's core competencies.
- Business Overview Questions
What do you do? How much do you charge? How long does it take? What geographical area do you service? I try to ask questions as if I were a person looking to use their product or service.
- Uniqueness
What makes you different and/or better than your competition? I look for facts, not opinion. If someone says “I give better service” that means nothing. But if someone says “Most of my competitors only work Mon-Fri but I am open all day Saturday” then that is something worthwhile. It is often beneficial to make a chart. For example, John Matanguihan said he only has 2 main competitors: people who do the payroll themselves, and ADP. So we made a chart comparing Paychx vs. both other those other 2 options. You really have to learn about their industry in general so you can give comparisons to your referrals. For example, if I say to someone “Nibras can process a first mortgage in 4 weeks” that is only somewhat helpful. If I have taken the time to learn more about her industry and her competition so I can say “Did you know that most loan officers need 6 weeks to process a loan application but Nibras is so good that she can get it done in only 4 weeks?” then that person is going to be much more likely to understand why they should work with Nibras and not another loan officer.
- Referrals
What types of people or companies are good referrals for you? If they tell me a type of company, I ask who specifically at that company is a good referral? Is it the owner? The bookkeeper? The computer guy? The manager? Someone in HR? etc. Also, what size of company? If they are looking for individuals, I want specifics. David Cato told me he wanted to be referred to people who want cleaner air. What the heck does that mean? But when I told him I needed very specific types of people, he told me an owner of a company that sold used RV’s, painters, people who had kids with allergies, etc. Now that’s something worthwhile. Stephen Schmidt first told me that a good referral is someone who wants to set up a database. How am I supposed to know who that is? Then he said just look for someone who has a bunch of post it notes all over their desk. Now that’s something I can keep my eyes open for.
- Bad referrals.
There is no point for me to try to find referrals that aren’t worthwhile. For example, Brad doesn’t want referrals to start up companies. They have very low budgets and are still trying to figure out exactly what they want to do. He prefers companies with over $1 million in sales who have been in business for several years. So that ruled out most of my clients who own small mom and pop companies. But at least I didn’t waste my time trying to get them interested in Brad’s internet marketing services.
- How exactly do you make money?
No, I’m not being nosey. Most people have many different products and services with a wide range of profit margins. The point of BNI is to try to help other members make a lot of money, not just get more customers and clients. In my business, I get paid a percentage of the money that someone invests with me. So if someone wants to put $2000 into an IRA, I spend several hours with paperwork and barely make enough for lunch. On the other hand, I could invest $100,000 and have to do the same few hours of paperwork but make 50 times the money. You make a lot more money putting together the web site for that church than you would putting together a one page, one time newsletter for someone. That’s very obvious to you, but I didn’t think about it like that until we had our dance card.
- Centers of Influence
We often forget that a good COI is a better referral than someone who is interested in using our product or service themselves. John Matanguihan is trying to set me up with 3 CPAs that he works with. Even if only one CPA likes me, that may mean 5 or 10 new clients for me. Once again specifics are important. For example, I want introductions to CPAs that work with rental property owners and realtors who have been in business at least 5 years. It doesn’t do me much good to be introduced to a realtor who has been in the business for only 6 months and hasn’t learned the first thing about how to market rental properties. On the other hand, Kachina would love introductions to new realtors since they usually haven’t established a relationship with a title rep yet.
- Associations or groups
Sometimes a good referral isn’t to a person, it’s to a group. For example, Scott Harvey told me that he belongs to some upscale club downtown and a lot of the members are older people who own rental properties. He said if I went with him next time, he would introduce me to a bunch of the members and see what happens. A member of the La Mesa BNI chapter invited me last week to a real estate investment club that he is a member of and has 150 members. I went and I think I should be able to get some clients there.
- Unique personal traits
I don’t spend much time on this. However, some people have something that’s unrelated to their business but may be a good way to introduce them to others. For example, I took a year off to travel. (That’s gotten me two clients just because they thought that was a really cool thing to do.) Brian’s into meditation. Carl likes to surf. Jane is a dancer. Cam is Brazilian and likes watching soccer. People from the east coast they often like to work with other people from the east coast. Avid golfers like working with other avid golfers. So I guess in a dance card I would ask “Is there anything unique or unusual about you, such as your religion, hobbies, background, nationality, or organizations that you belong to, that might interest someone in working with you?”
- Intro lines
It’s one thing to find someone who might be a good referral to another BNI member. It’s another thing to get that person interested. So I want to know a few sentences that I can use to get someone interested. For example, “Did you know that realtors who use professional staging companies can sell a house for more money and in less time than realtors that don’t use a staging company? Brian Cane happens to be one of the few realtors in this area that provides that service.” I’d rather have a BNI member tell me how to introduce them than for me to have to guess. Sometimes I will even call up a client of mine on the phone and read verbatim off my Dance Card notes on what they told me to say.
