BNI 772: Can You Provide the Structure for a Good Weekly Presentation - BNI & The Power of One

Summary

BNI & The Power of One: Episode BNI 772 Summary

Release Date: December 16, 2024
Host: Tim Roberts
Episode Title: BNI 772: Can You Provide the Structure for a Good Weekly Presentation

In Episode BNI 772 of the BNI & The Power of One podcast, host Tim Roberts delves into structuring effective weekly presentations within BNI chapters. The episode centers around a listener submission from Teresa of Greater New Haven, who seeks guidance on transitioning her BNI classification and enhancing her commercial strategy for family law services. Tim provides comprehensive strategies and actionable insights to address Teresa's queries, while also offering universal tips for crafting compelling presentations applicable to various professions.

Listener Submission: Teresa's Questions

Teresa's Background and Inquiry

Teresa, a longstanding member of her BNI chapter and a bankruptcy attorney, shares her challenges and aspirations:

Issue: Limited referrals in her role as a bankruptcy attorney due to the delicate nature of the topic.
Decision: She has opted to request a classification change within BNI to focus more on divorce and family law, encompassing litigation and mediation.
Questions:
1. How do I navigate the classification change and explain it to my fellow members?
2. Do you have any tips on how to build a good commercial for family law?

Additionally, Teresa expresses interest in an episode dedicated to creating a general commercial outline applicable to any classification.

Timestamp: [00:41]

Tim Roberts’ Guidance on Navigating Classification Change

Understanding the Transition

Tim reassures Teresa that transitioning within the same industry is manageable:

Consistency in Field: Teresa remains within the legal sector, making the shift less drastic compared to changing industries entirely.

"You're still in the law field... it's not like hey, I'm a lawyer and guess what, now I sell flowers."
— Tim Roberts [03:15]
Leverage Existing Relationships: Emphasizes the importance of ongoing relationship-building through one-to-ones and maintaining credibility.

"You've already invested some amount of time in that. So now it really comes down to how effective are we in that time training our members to find these referrals."
— Tim Roberts [08:42]
Awareness of New Referral Dynamics: Acknowledges that while family law may be somewhat easier to refer than bankruptcy, it still involves sensitive personal matters requiring thoughtful refocusing.

Strategic Approach

Tim advises a gradual approach, allowing members time to adjust to the new focus and understand the nuances of referring family law services.

Crafting an Effective Commercial for Family Law

The "Who, How, What" Framework

Tim introduces a structured approach to building a compelling commercial:

Who: Define a specific target audience.
- Example: "A mother of two who is experiencing marital issues due to her husband's infidelity."
How: Identify triggers or indicators that someone might need family law services.
- Example: Noticing a friend expressing dissatisfaction in their marriage during a casual conversation.
What: Determine how to present your services without sounding sales-driven.
- Example: Asking thoughtful questions about their situation and subtly introducing your services as a supportive option.

"The three key elements to getting a referral are who, how, what."
— Tim Roberts [12:30]

Incorporating Storytelling

Tim underscores the power of storytelling to make the commercial more relatable and memorable:

Emotional Connection: Sharing client stories that evoke emotions can make the presentation more impactful.

"Stories are really impactful. They're emotional, which means they trigger an emotion out of people."
— Tim Roberts [17:05]
Relatability and Shareability: Emotional stories are easily shared and can resonate deeply with listeners, enhancing the likelihood of referrals.

Practical Application

Tim provides an example from his experience selling life insurance:

"When I sold life insurance, I tell everybody... my goal is to try to make people cry... people to be in tears."
— Tim Roberts [22:10]

This approach demonstrates the effectiveness of emotional narratives over mere statistics or sales pitches.

Universal Tips for Effective BNI Presentations

Granularity in Targeting

Being specific about the ideal referral target increases the likelihood of receiving quality referrals. Avoid vague descriptions to ensure clarity and focus.

Engagement Techniques

Use of Personal Stories: Integrate stories that highlight real-life scenarios relevant to your services.
Emotional Triggers: Craft narratives that evoke emotions, making your presentation more engaging and memorable.

"Let me tell you a story of a client... we're helping her make sure that she lives a good, happy life outside of the marriage."
— Tim Roberts [19:25]

Continuous Improvement

Tim encourages ongoing participation in weekly presentations and active submission of personal experiences to refine and enhance commercial strategies.

Encouragement and Conclusion

Tim closes the episode by motivating listeners to engage with the podcast actively:

Submit Questions and Topics: Encourages members to contribute their queries for future episodes.
Share the Podcast: Highlights the importance of spreading the word to benefit the BNI community.

"Leave us a review, Share the podcast around. That's the best thing you can do."
— Tim Roberts [29:50]

By following the "Who, How, What" framework and leveraging emotional storytelling, BNI members can elevate their referral strategies and enhance the effectiveness of their weekly presentations.

Key Takeaways:

Classification Change: Transition smoothly by leveraging existing relationships and clearly communicating the new focus to members.
Commercial Building: Utilize the "Who, How, What" structure, incorporate emotional stories, and maintain specificity to enhance referral quality.
Storytelling: Essential for creating memorable and impactful presentations that resonate on a personal level.
Continuous Engagement: Actively participate in BNI activities and contribute to the community for sustained success.

For more insights and detailed strategies, listeners are encouraged to tune into the full episode of BNI & The Power of One.

Transcript

A (0:41)

Welcome back B and I and the Power of One podcast. Back with your show. Submissions Topics Questions submitted@bnipowerofone.com Today we are hearing from Teresa out of Greater New Haven. B and I'm assuming that might be Connecticut but maybe not says hi Tim. For many years I've been my chapter's bankruptcy attorney but I do not get many referrals. It's a delicate personal topic that no one talks about so it's hard to refer. I decided to request a classification change. The other part of my practice is divorce and family law, including litigation and mediation. My question is two part Number one, how do I navigate the change and explain it to my fellow members? And two, do you have any tips on how to build a good commercial for family law? Also, as an aside or an addition, I know you review a lot of commercials, but I was wondering if you could do a whole episode on a formula for a good general commercial like an outline that could be used for any classification. Thank you for all you do. Your podcast means so much to me and my fellow members. Thank you. No Teresa, thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for taking time. Submit it and it's a good question and a good two part question to your first part. How do I navigate the change and explain it to my fellow members? I don't think that's overly difficult because you're not making such a dramatic change. You're still in the law field, right? It's not like hey, I'm a lawyer and guess what, now I sell flowers. That would be different to explain. So I think you're just saying, you know, as any business continues to evolve and develop, we need to look at where do we want to really grow our business. And I've decided to put more of my focus here in my practice around divorce and family law. And that's it. I think because it's still in the legal field, even though it's different than bankruptcy attorney, it's still, it's close enough that I don't think that's such a drastic change that you got to really do it. But you do have to realize now that even though you are not starting completely over you, you are in a bit. You still have the relationships. You've done your your your time and I don't know how long that's been, but you've done your time doing one to ones and building your credibility. But you are changing focuses and the referral asks that you're going to be requesting are going to be different and that's Going to take a bit of time to sink in to train for people to understand. I would generally agree with you that this might be an easier referral for people to find than bankruptcy, but they're not super easy. Right? You're still in a delicate personal topic. It might be talked about a little bit more freely, the opportunities might be a little bit more apparent, but it's still a delicate personal topic. So that's still going to take a little bit of time too. So don't expect like all change and all of a sudden referrals are just going to start flowing in. Now how long that takes is dependent on our skill sets. At this point, I think you've put in again the you, you're always doing this, you're always putting in time into the relationships. There's always a new member. I don't know how long you've been a member. It doesn't even matter. We're still doing one to ones, we're still developing it. But you've already invested some amount of time in that. So now it really comes down to how effective are we in that time training our members to find these referrals. Now, that effectiveness is in all parts of the activities of B and I. That's not just your weekly presentation, it will be your featured presentation and it will be most importantly your one to ones. But to your question around, do I have any tips on how to build a good commercial for family law? And the answer is no, not I think I have some ideas, but generally my advice is the same for everybody. So let's really talk a little bit about your last part, which is an outline that can be used for any classification. We do some pretty advanced trainings where we give some worksheets with it that kind of have a generic outline. But I'm not a big fan of it. I think the outline you want to follow is more of did I train on the three key elements to getting me a referral? And the three key elements to getting you a referral are who, how, what. And so when you're doing the outline, you start with the who. And when we're talking about who we're looking for, we want to be very specific. Okay. We want to really get granular with this. We don't want to. The more vague we are, the less likely we are to get referrals. So in family law, you would think about a specific type of situation with a specific type of target market. You know, family law and divorce are. They can be pretty vague, which is good for you. Because it gives you a lot of different things to talk about. So pick one. Let's say it is. It's a mother of two or a mother with kids who needs to get divorced, is catching. Caught their husband doing scandalous things, whatever that means, okay? And they need to get a divorce. So now that's your target. I want to talk to the mother of children who needs a divorce. In that, you're going to paint a picture of a specific person for them to envision. That doesn't mean that'll be the person, but you're going to decide like, okay, I'm going to tell them, you know, I want to. I want to meet your high school best friend who needs to get a divorce. I want to meet your sister who has kids who needs to get divorced. You'll pick one of those. That's the whole. The how is. How do we know somebody might be in a situation where divorce is a topic short of them saying I need a divorce. Who do you know? Right? That's the obvious one. It's going to be. You're in a conversation with your best friend. You got to think of the trigger. What's the trigger? And most of these cases, it's going to be verbal, right? Something people are saying, they're talking about, they're complaining about, what have you. Um, so, you know, it's when you're out to dinner with your best friend from high school over the holidays, and they seem a little sadder than normal. And when you ask them, how's everything going? They. They say xyz, whatever that is. They complain about their husband. They. They directly say they're unhappy in their marriage. They directly say they think their husband's doing something scandalous. Now we know, like, all right, I'm in a conversation here where this is pretty serious. The what is? Then what do I say in that situation? Like, what happens now? What do. How do I. What. How do I bring you up? Okay. And it's not going to be any kind of statistics. It's not going to be any kind of sales thing. It's not going to be any kind of what you would say to a potential customer or client in that situation. It's, what am I going to say to my friend, my family member, whomever I'm having this conversation with, where I can bring up the idea of your services, whatever those are. So for you, it's a divorce attorney, so it's ask them, you know, how long has this been going on? You know, have you looked into your options? Have you Considered options. Right. And if they're immediately like, I will never get divorced, doesn't matter, then it's not really good for. But they're like, yeah, just if they're hemming and they're hiring and they just really seem unsure, tell them I'm filling a lot. Right? It could be. Tell them that you work really closely with somebody who's helped a lot of people in their situation, and it's probably in their best interest to at least meet with you to discuss options. And would they be open? Okay. That's kind of the outline. It's who, how, what now, you can do this in a variety of different ways. You can do it very much like a training and just be like, today I want to talk about who I'm specifically looking for. Here's exactly how you're going to identify people like that. Here's exactly what you will say in that situation. And keep it very streamlined and kind of like a trainer would do. I'm a big believer in incorporating stories into it. Okay. Stories, especially around personal topics, delicate topics. Stories are really impactful. They're emotional, which means they trigger an emotion out of people. They are easily shareable. So they can run around and be like, hey, you got to hear this story. This can't happen to you type of thing. And so they become their story. So it becomes a tool. So if you can tie all of it, it could be like, let me tell you a story of a client I'm working with, mother of two, husband has gotten caught, you know, cheating on her with multiple whatever. And, you know, we're helping her with her major concern. You know, husband's a solopreneur, solo breadwinner. Mother doesn't really know what her options or even would be, but knows that she can no longer be married to this person. And we're helping her make sure that, you know, she lives a good, happy life outside of the marriage, whatever. I want to meet your sister. I want to meet your best friend, whomever. When you hear them saying these types of things, that's the trigger that they might be in a similar situation. Here's what you ask them. Here's how you bring me up. That would be the format that I would follow because again, the story is that emotional, like, oh, my God type of moment, right? And they can share it and it brings some value or some. It brings an image to what you're doing. Right? It really. It. Especially when it's a personal topic. So when I sold life insurance, I tell everybody, like, my goal is to try to make people cry. Not because I was sadistic and I wanted people to be in tears, but I would tell emotional stories, right? Like newly married couples, super happy, come home from their honeymoon. Husbands coming home from work, gets hit by a drunk, driver's dead, now what? Right? And then be like, I want to talk to your sister who just got married. I want to talk to your best friend who just got married. Here's what you ask them, right? And so it's like, oh my. Like, it just like puts the importance of what you do out there beyond just like, yeah, I help people get divorced. And you know, 50% of people get divorced. And so if you know anybody who's going to get divorced, that'd be a good referral for me. And like, that's all true, but not, okay, whatever. Like, it's not emotional. It's salesy at best, right? So that's how I would do it, you know, and if you can't say like, I want to meet your sister or whatever, just be like, when you're out talking to somebody and you hear these types of things, it could be a sign of unhappiness. And here's what you can ask them. And if it goes down that path, here's what you say to them. That's the process I would follow. I hope this helps. I would continue to encourage you to listen to the weekly presentations because this is a lot of what we talk about in it or, or better yet, Teresa, submit yours, write it up, and we'll get right really granular with it and, and try to make them as effective as possible with your new focus. Thank you again and thank you for everybody for listening. Again, if you have a topic, a question, you got a weekly presentation you want to submit? Go to BNI Power of One. Do that. Leave us a review, Share the podcast around. That's the best thing you can do. I'd really appreciate it and I hope you guys have a fantastic day.