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BNI & The Power of One
BNI 763: Motivating Different "Types" of Members
00:16:42
In this episode we discuss how to motivate different "types" of members. Some are soloprenuers, some are employees, some own large businesses. How do you motivate them?
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Welcome back to B and I in the Power of One podcast. Thank you for joining me again today. We are back with your topics and questions. Today we're hearing from Mikey is in BI Business by the Bay Chapter all the way in Ontario, Canada says hi Tim, I've enjoyed listening to you over the years and appreciate your insight into the practical things that evolve over a B and I member and chapter's lifetime as the years move on. I'm a CPA and I've been a B and I member with our chapter for 10 years, so congratulations. Since we've just launched into a new year, I would love to hear your take on what you see as the challenges and approaches to take with members that are A Employees of companies versus B Solopreneurs versus C Next level entrepreneurs, those with large organizations with support staff and structure behind them. B and I is about building relationships and keeping your eyes and ears open for referral opportunities for others. However, it seems that each group has a different perspective on their own level of participation, energy and overall involvement each year. Your insight as as to how to approach each group would add value to any chapters leadership team. I'm sure many struggle with motivating members from each group to be a accountable to what BNI holds as its standard of expectation through the power of one model. PS would love to do a one to one with you as well. You can book all right. So anyway, happy to do a one to one Mike. Just send me an email, we'll find a time. My travel schedule is pretty booked up through the end of the year so we'll be looking probably into 2025 but happy to do so via Zoom. Which is a great addition right? I mean it wasn't. It's a while now. It'll be five years this upcoming March which is kind of crazy to think about since COVID but started anyways when the whole world shut down and you know as US National Director had to put every chapter we had to put every chapter on I say I did, I didn't do it. I had to do it for my regions obviously with my team but all the amazing executive directors did. It was just the last task I had as national director is aligning all this up on how to do that. But that was five years ago. But which is crazy but you know grand scheme of things not that long ago where Zoom wasn't part of our vocabulary and doing one to ones with people in Canada and all over the world wouldn't have been a possibility. So anyways this is a really good Question. And the motivation starts with each one of these at the interview process. And so this is really a membership committee thing, both at the interview when we're accepting applications and at our seven month, you know, check in and reviews when we're meeting with members to see how things are going. Because you are correct that each one of these does present different approaches and different challenges. And to not believe that would be a mistake and to not discuss that could be a big mistake from the chapter. Okay. Or to excuse it even worse, I've seen plenty of chapters be like, well, yeah, but they're different because. Nope, no, no, no, no. Right. So the one of the great things about being I is you're creating a success team. And any team that truly is successful holds all their members to the same levels of accountability to the same things. Right. We are. If you have a great culture that is focused around the expectation of the power of one model, which I would tell you based on results, is the highly effective. When you look at really successful chapters. Now I'm just talking about inside my region now. When I look at the most successful chapters and you can define success in different ways, but if I said, you know, our largest, highest dollar producing, fastest growing chapters, all the things that externally you would say that's a successful group. When you look at their average power of one, it's up there. When you look at meaning in the green, their average is well into the green. When you look at the percentage of their members in the green, it's really up there. So you know, we've got chapters like our B and I profit builders. You've heard me talk a lot about 100 and something member chapter last year for an entire year, an entire year's worth of data. So we do our awards banquets, that just happened. And when we, we recognize our top three chapters in percentage of members in the green and but we look at it as on an annual report. So that's looking at 12 months worth of data, not six months like the normal one that's rolling. It's like, okay, were you in the green for 12 months worth of data? Well, B and I Profit Builders, 100 plus members, 95.95%. So 95.95% of members in the Green for an entire year. BNI River City in that region, 94.11%. BNI Prestige Partners, 86 and a half percent. Right. You go into our successful chapters in Orlando's, you're talking upwards of 80% like big time numbers of members in the green again, looking at an entire year. So these are really successful chapters. Really successful chapters. And they are, because their culture is one of accountability to that no matter what you are. And those chapters are made up of all these things or you don't get to 100 members without having the blend of all of these levels that you're talking about. What it comes down to, though, is again highlighting it during the interview process and highlighting interview. So employees of companies, what is the struggle there? Mostly, and not for all of them because it depends on how they're really getting paid and everything else. But mostly the challenge could be, are they just here because somebody told them to be here? Do they really want to be doing this? Was this their idea? Did they, do they really want to be engaged to this level? Or is their boss saying, hey, you got to go be a part of this BNI chapter because I told you to? I would want to know that right from the start before I accept it. Because if it is. No, I'm just here because my boss told me to be here. And you know, I'm kind of shy and I don't really. They're not going to be highly effective because they don't have any reason to be. There's no motivation that you, you can't give people motivation. So the question is said, I believe, right. How to approach each group would add value to anyone's leadership. I'm sure many struggle with motivating members. Right. So we can't. You can't motivate members. They have to have the motivation and we have to see do they have the motivation, where's that coming from and what are their expectations. So there are great employees of companies who, who are highly motivated, maybe because they're commission based. So everything they sell is what feeds them. And you know, so this is what. Yeah, they don't own the company, they're an employee. But you know, they want to be in there and they want to be involved and this is directly, that's fine, that's great. You're getting a sense of where their motivation is. And I want people, if I was a chapter, I'd want people who are driven, they're going to be active, that are reliant on the results themselves, not somebody who again, is just, you know, the boss has having great results in chapter A. And because they're having great results in chapter A, they try to put people in chapter B, C and D, which is great if those are the right people. But if they're just there because the boss told them they're probably not going to be. They're going to be challenging. They're going to be challenging to get them to do more because. And not that it's impossible, but they're going to be challenged to do more because their motivation just isn't there. If you're a business owner and you are having success in B and I and you're thinking about important employees in there, I'm not saying you shouldn't, but you better make sure that employee understands and is bought in to everything that it means to be a B and I member. And you better be willing to give them the time to do those things, like one to ones and trainings, et cetera. So that's upfront, you can figure that out. If they're already in during the review, you can figure that out. Right. You seem to be struggling with activity. You know, can you tell us a little bit more like why are you here? And just see what they say and see where they go. Solopreneurs, what's their challenge going to be? Time. Their biggest thing is they're going to have the excuse of, listen, I'm a solopreneur, I'm trying to do everything. I'm just too busy. Well, if you're too busy to do the activity, you're here just hoping for results. A, it's probably not going to work very well for you and we're going to have to replace you, which just means more work on our part. But B, means you're not going to be a great referral passer. You're just not. You might be for a couple people that are in your contact sphere, so they're easy to refer to, for you to refer to because you're in front of the people they need to be all the time. But for everybody else, which matters, you're not. And so I would want to know that. I would. I want to know what is their day to day like right now? Are they going to be able to maintain the activity level that the expectation is set by the chapter? Are they going to be able to put in that time and when. And it's a big question to ask. When this works and you get busier from referrals, what is your strategy? What are you going to do? Because if it is, well, I'm going to do this and if I get super busy, then I'm going to be super busy and I'm going to leave. Don't take them now. And to me, just a little bit of tangent, the biggest pet peeve ever. If I was a Chapter I'd be so insulted if we let a member in. And six, seven, eight, nine months, whatever later we've been passing the referrals that they got super busy and now they leave because they're too busy. I would have two birds in the air as they walk out that door. I would be insulted because basically they're saying, oh well, I didn't have a ton of business or I wasn't super busy. So I came here and you guys helped me get super busy. And now that I have more people I'm in front of, which means I can help more people, I'm walking, I would be pissed. I am. Often when I hear those stories for chapters, I just like, I just think it's this the worst thing now I don't fully think everybody comes in with those intentions. Like I'm just going to go use this until I get super busy and then I'm going to tell them all screws. I think it's because they never thought about or plan for increased business. Even though that's what they desired and what they're there for. They haven't thought about what am I going to do when it works. So these are questions I'd be having. And again at the beginning, the better you do it at the interview process, the more problems you save later. Right? But even if they're in then in the review process stuff, it's what are you here for? And trying to help them get over the excuses or understanding they're not going to get over the excuses. So this might be somebody we're going to be replacing. So that's solopreneurs, next level entrepreneurs. Those with large organizations with support staff and structure behind them. They might what's for them? It's what's the motivation? What are they trying to use BNI for? And usually if you're saying, well they're, they're highly successful, it's like, you know, you've got a lot of great things going. But these are our expectations of members. No matter the experience they have in their industry, no matter the level of business they're doing, these are the expectations we have of each one of our members. We hold everybody the same. It doesn't matter. I would have that con like exactly like that right at the beginning just being like, are you willing to commit to these activities that we're all committed to, including the person who just opened their business six months ago? So their excuse level would just be that they are, they are sophisticated, they don't need to be doing those kinds of things. Yes, they want to grow their business and yes, this is, you know, again, most of those people are there because they want to grow their business. So they're still driven, but you just want to make sure that that's the case. Are they still driven? They sometimes can be the best members because they do have the support staff. They do have more time to do one to ones because they're not burdened by the. Some of the just running the business stuff. Things that solopreneurs need to do. Right. They don't. They're not trying to do their own books that maybe they're not paying the bills. They have bookkeepers, they have these things, whatever. They've got people in place to free up more time for business generating activities, which is what BNI is. So. But again, some of them can have egos, right? Like I'm bigger, I'm better, my business is at another level than yours. I don't need to do the same things you're doing because my business is bigger than yours. I'd want to weed that out at the very beginning. So again, a lot of it is you can't give the people the motivation. You have to figure out what is their motivation and is their motivation going to align with the expectations of activity and the accountability that the chapter is establishing? And if the answer is no, then it's, hey, you're not a bad person, we love you to death. But this probably isn't the right fit. And this, the more serious your chapter can take that meaning, the more protective and serious the chapter becomes around its culture of activity and accountability, the further that chapter is going to go. You might have to take a step back, a small step back. First, it might seem like, oh my God, we did this and we lost members. But all you've done is primed yourself for more active, more accountable, more productive members. Again, every chapter, just about that's a huge success. Again, I profit builders. All these ones didn't start at 100, right? They started at 1314. They were bigger, they went down to 1314. They might have shrunk at one point. And then they said, you know what? Enough's enough, this is what we're going to be. And then they went from 14 to 20 and from 20 to 35 and from 35 to 45 and from 45 to 60 and from 60 to 70 and from 70 and so on, and had success all along the way. But it starts with what are we going to be internally? And that means that is the expectation and what we are going to hold every member accountable to no matter what their experiences. Business structure is, whether they own the business or they work for the business, whether they're solo or they have an entire organization. If you're a member of this group, we are all the same in terms of accountability to the activity and production. Nobody's above that, nobody's below that. Nobody has a good excuse for it. You're either on the boat. On the boat or not. That's how I would approach this. And again, really, really starts with the interview process and not just taking every application that comes in, really having that upfront conversation. Because then even if they don't live up to it, getting, getting them out is much easier. Hey, we talked about this. You're not doing it. Either need to get on board or get off. And then when they get off, it's not a big shock to anybody, including them. If you just try to start it and say you haven't been doing this and we decided you should have been, it's too late, right? So you can always establish it and then move forward. Hope this helps. Have a great day.