BNI 846: Weekly Presentation Coaching 142 - Mark Poppen - Digital Marketing - BNI & The Power of One

Summary4 min read

BNI & The Power of One: Episode 846 Summary

Title: BNI 846: Weekly Presentation Coaching 142 - Mark Poppen - Digital Marketing
Host: Tim Roberts
Release Date: August 8, 2025

Introduction

In Episode 846 of BNI & The Power of One, host Tim Roberts delves into the intricacies of weekly presentation coaching, a cornerstone for BNI members aiming to refine their networking and referral-generation skills. This episode spotlights Mark Poppen, the President of BNI Northern Lights and head of the digital marketing sector at Funky Moose Digital. Mark shares his crafted 62nd weekly presentation, seeking constructive feedback to enhance its effectiveness.

Mark Poppen's Presentation Overview

Mark Poppen kicks off his presentation by introducing himself and his company, Funky Moose Digital, which specializes in aiding roofing and renovation contractors to generate more leads and expand their businesses. His pitch emphasizes the challenges contractors face with digital presence, such as ineffective websites and social media strategies.

Key Elements of Mark's Presentation:

Target Audience: Roofing and renovation contractors.
Service Offerings: Digital marketing solutions tailored to increase leads and business growth.
Engagement Strategy: Initial free consultations to assess and address digital marketing needs.
Unique Selling Proposition (USP): Translating complex marketing jargon into understandable language and maintaining consistent communication with clients.

Mark’s Original Pitch Excerpt:

"Hello everyone. My name is Mark and I own Funky Moose Digital. We help roofing and renovation contractors get more leads and grow their businesses..."
(Timestamp: 00:52)

Feedback from Tim Roberts

Tim Roberts offers comprehensive feedback aimed at refining Mark’s presentation for greater impact within the BNI framework.

Areas Highlighted for Improvement:

Specificity in Targeting:
- Advice: Narrow down the target audience to either roofers or renovation contractors, and within that, identify specific companies or key decision-makers.
- Quote:
  
  "Be specific because you don't know who knows who in that room. And you want to paint. You want to get them thinking of somebody."
  (Timestamp: 03:45)
Strengthening the Ask:
- Advice: Move away from passive referral requests like providing a phone number. Instead, encourage proactive engagement where members seek approval to connect with potential clients.
- Quote:
  
  "You could say, you know, they can text me. But that's not really... it's a very passive approach to asking for referrals."
  (Timestamp: 04:20)
Incorporating Storytelling:
- Advice: Integrate a relatable story or case study to illustrate the effectiveness of his services. This approach makes the presentation more engaging and credible.
- Quote:
  
  "I would also like to tie in a story a little bit more here... something like, I want to work with roofers that are doing, you know, X amount of sales."
  (Timestamp: 05:10)
Proactive Engagement Strategies:
- Advice: Encourage members to take active steps in identifying and approaching potential referrals, rather than relying on them to initiate contact passively.
- Quote:
  
  "If you're on Facebook next time, search your roofer that you know... give them a call and ask them this."
  (Timestamp: 06:30)
Enhancing Communication of USP:
- Advice: Weave the USP into a narrative that showcases tangible benefits, such as improved lead generation and consistent client communication, through real-world examples.
- Quote:
  
  "We made it easy for them to stand what we were doing... they appreciated that we're communicating often and paying attention to the results."
  (Timestamp: 07:15)

Overall Feedback Summary: Tim commends Mark’s foundational presentation but emphasizes the need for greater specificity, proactive engagement, and storytelling to bolster the effectiveness of his pitch within the BNI setting. By implementing these strategies, Mark can enhance his ability to generate meaningful referrals and establish stronger connections with potential clients.

Key Takeaways

Specific Targeting: Clearly define and narrow down your target audience to enhance the relevance and impact of your presentations.
Proactive Referral Requests: Shift from passive to active strategies in seeking referrals to ensure higher engagement and conversion rates.
Storytelling Enhances Credibility: Incorporating real-life examples or success stories can make presentations more relatable and convincing.
Clear and Compelling Asks: Ensure that each presentation includes a specific and actionable request to facilitate better support from fellow members.
Continuous Refinement: Regularly revisiting and tweaking presentations based on feedback is essential for ongoing improvement and effectiveness.

Notable Quotes

On Specificity in Targeting:

"Be specific because you don't know who knows who in that room. And you want to paint. You want to get them thinking of somebody."
(Tim Roberts, 03:45)
On Passive vs. Active Referral Approaches:

"You could say, you know, they can text me. But that's not really... it's a very passive approach to asking for referrals."
(Tim Roberts, 04:20)
On the Importance of Storytelling:

"I would also like to tie in a story a little bit more here... something like, I want to work with roofers that are doing, you know, X amount of sales."
(Tim Roberts, 05:10)
On Proactive Engagement:

"If you're on Facebook next time, search your roofer that you know... give them a call and ask them this."
(Tim Roberts, 06:30)
On Communicating the USP Effectively:

"We made it easy for them to stand what we were doing... they appreciated that we're communicating often and paying attention to the results."
(Tim Roberts, 07:15)

Conclusion

Episode 846 serves as a valuable resource for BNI members aiming to elevate their presentation skills and, consequently, their referral networks. Through detailed feedback on Mark Poppen's presentation, Tim Roberts underscores the significance of specificity, proactive strategies, and storytelling in crafting compelling pitches. Members are encouraged to continually refine their presentations, drawing on constructive critiques to maximize their effectiveness in driving business growth within the BNI framework.

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Transcript1 lines

[00:00]
A
Sam, welcome back to BNI and the Power of One. Back with our weekly presentation coaching. This is where we review your submitted weekly presentations, try to give feedback to make them as effective as possible. If you ever want yours done, go to bnipowerofone.com submit it there, let me know where you're from, how long you have, etc. Etc. So today we are hearing from Mark Poppin. He's with Funky Moose Digital says, hi, Tim, I'm Mark. I'm the president of BNI Northern Lights, the only online chapter in Saskatchewan, Canada, and I hold the digital marketing seat. Below is my 62nd weekly presentation. Been in BNI for about two and a half years and have rewritten this probably 20 times over that time. So love your feedback. All right, Mark, so I'm going to pull up my timer and time it just again. Won't be exact because you and I will do this at different speeds, but it will give us a point of reference. And here we go. Hello everyone. My name is Mark and I own Funky Moose Digital. We help roofing and renovation contractors get more leads and grow their businesses. When talking to a roofer or a renovation contractor, you can ask, do you have a website or social media I can follow you on? Chances are they will say something like I hate social media or our website kind of sucks. You can go further and ask if they've ever hired a digital marketer or if they do it themselves. Whatever their answer, tell them a friend runs a digital marketing company that can help. The initial consultation is always free. Our strong suit is being able to translate the technical marketing mumbo jumbo into plain English. And we communicate regularly, which seems to be something unique in our industry, unfortunately. Have you used or do you know a renovation contractor or roofer? I'd love to talk to them. They can Text me at 639-392-0101. Mark Poppin, Funky Moose Digital. Okay, so it's a little short. I could tell just when I was looking at it might be a little short. Took me about 52 seconds. And you likely probably do it even quicker. It's a very good start. There's a lot here, but you're missing a couple key things. Number one is there's no specific ask here. Okay, so we want to give an example of a company you're trying to get into, and I would narrow it to a roofer or a renovation contractor. Pick one and give a very specific example of a company you're trying to get into. Okay. This is where being specific is terrific. So you, let's just say we're going with roofer. I went, I'm looking. We help roofing contractors get more leads and grow their business. I specifically like to work with roofers of X size. Like a company you're trying to get into the following week. You could do very much the same thing and then use renovation contract the following week. After that, then do another home services field. But you want to be specific and you want to know who in, who is the person you need to speak to in the roofing company? Are you looking to speak to the owner? Is there, depending on the size, is there another person in that organization you need to speak to? Really do your research, break it down to that person. I would also, I don't think you need to give them your phone number and stuff. Your members should have that. You could say, you know, they can text me. But that's not really. It's a very passive approach to asking for referrals. I wouldn't say, hey, if you know somebody, have them text me. I'd be like, I'd want the information so I can go talk to them. Right? So we gotta ask for kind of approval, teach people how to ask for approval. You can kind of assume the approval, but we gotta teach people that they need to get approval for you to contact them. Don't be like, oh, if you know somebody, have them text me. It's just kind of a passive approach. This is my general opinion on that. I would also like to tie in a story a little bit more here. You do have like the good thing of a leading question to ask, kind of a follow up to it. But I would kind of tie in a story or another, trigger one or the other. So a story about a roofer you're currently working with that you've seen, you know, based on that story, they were, they weren't getting any leads from their website. Now they are getting leads from their website. And the biggest feedback I'm getting from them is how we communicate often when the other people weren't, you know, they paid thousands of dollars for this website and then never heard from somebody. They really appreciate that we're communicating often and that we're paying attention to the results they're getting. And then that ties in because that also becomes ammo that I can use when I'm talking about you with a potential roofer. So it could be something like, I want to work with roofers that are doing, you know, X amount of sales. Maybe you don't, but whatever. This is an example. X Amount of sales, such as XYZ Roofing. And I need to speak with the owner, Jim Smith. If you know Jim Smith or an owner of a roofing company, here's what you can. And you're talking to them. You can ask them, hey, how's your website or social media? Or do you have a website or social media I can follow you on like you said? Or you could teach people to look for the trigger. Be like, if you know a roofer, do a quick search on their website and see if it. Or on their social media and see if it's being consistently updated. If not, you can ask them this. So you can almost do a couple different weekly presentations off this. But you got time to strengthen it a little bit. You really do have a lot of great pieces here. If you just did this, I think you'd be fine. Okay. But I like how do we really make it stronger? Be specific because you don't know who knows who in that room. And you want to paint. You want to get them thinking of somebody. So narrow your focus to either a roofer or renovator with a specific. Ask with a specific person. And I would strengthen just when talking to them because I don't, as an I know a roofer, I don't generally talk to them. Like I probably haven't talked to them in the five years since they did my roof. So if you're, if you're going like, hey, just next time you're talking to them, I want you to think of a roofer and I want you to maybe take a little bit of an action step. Check their social media. When you're on Facebook next time, search your roofer that you know. And if you're seeing this, this or this, give them a call and ask them this. Right? I'd want to. I want my, I'm training my members to be a little bit more proactive than this is a very passive like, yeah, if you happen to be talking to them, ask this. And if they. And if you know them, you know, I'd love to talk to them so you can have them text me when they get. They're never going to text you there like that because they're going to be busy again. They're going to forget about you and maybe they'll text you, but it'll be months after they had the conversation. Right. I'd want to strengthen it to be a little bit more proactive in my ask, in my training. And with that, you know, instead of going into the. Our strong shoot is we're able to translate technical mumbo jumbo. Kind of put that in a story. Just like, you know, we worked with XYZ Roofing and really helped them dramatically increase their results. And the biggest feedback we've got is we made it easy for them to stand what we were doing. And we communicated regularly when before they paid thousands of dollars for a website and never got anything. Because that might be the concern. If I talk to a roofer and like, hey, do you have a website? Yeah. Thousands of dollars for this stupid thing and it doesn't do anything that I can tie that into the story you're giving me easier than saying, well, I know somebody who can translate the mumbo jumbo for you. So I'm really nitpicking on that. I think you did a really good job as a start, but you could definitely strengthen it and I think it'll be more effective for you when you do so. Mark, thank you so much. I hope this feedback is helpful. If you rework it, definitely submit it again. For everybody else, I hope it's helpful in thinking about your own and best way to really do it is submit it, hear it out loud, hear the feedback. It's a skill set we all have to continue to work on to be as effective and as efficient as we can at our B and I meeting. Have a great day. Sa.