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Welcome back to Be I Power of One podcast. Thank you for joining me again today. Super excited today I'm on my way to South Africa speak at the South African National Conference. I'm super excited. I've never even been to Africa, so number one for anybody who's going to that. I look forward to meeting you and appreciate anybody who's listening. We've had quite a few questions from South Africa, so that's awesome and super humbling and weird. I still go into, like, you know, how people find this is unbelievable and just kind of the power of BNI. And we're coming up on our 900th episode soon. I was thinking about doing even like an episode on just kind of lessons learned over the years of doing it. But to follow up on that, I just got back from the U.S. canadian National Conference and spoke to so many of you who came up to say super nice things about the podcast, which again, totally appreciate. Extremely humbling. And I appreciate it because it keeps me wanting to do it. I guess, like I told everybody there, I was like, I really appreciate that. And you saying that will what tells me to keep doing them because you don't often know, like, who's listening and if it's making an impact at all, if it's helpful at all. You know, the original purpose of These back in 2013, I think when we started them, was just for my members because I had regions and I was like, I can't get to every chapter and my members. Hopefully my members will use this and never thought in a million years others would listen to it. Um, but I appreciate everybody who does. And so my only ask of any of you is if you do find value, is to encourage other members to listen to it so that we can just impact as many people as possible. You know, we get quite a few downloads, which is awesome, but it's a fraction of what the world's BNI membership numbers are. So if we can just help more and more people, that would mean the world. So share it just can. And you can share them. You know, share it directly with a member. Like, hey, you should listen to this, this episode or something. Maybe they'll dive into the other ones. Or share it on. If you find one that's really helpful, share it with your chapter. Share it on. However you're going to share it, I appreciate whatever you can do with it. All right, enough of the fluff. Let's get to our topics. We have I'm going to talk about two questions. Two questions came in around the same topic, which is thank you for closed business. Totally different questions around thank you for closed business, but figured I'd do them together because they're both around thank you for close business. So the first one was asked to be kept anonymous, which is again, always perfectly fine. Comes from outside of the US I'll leave it at that. Question is, I was wondering about how to manage the thank you for close business when a person has a seat, say for accounting, but they also have a restaurant business and tell people to enter each order they have for the restaurant as thank you for closed business and B and I connect, shouldn't it only be for accounting services? Or do any business incomes count? Your recent podcast about not entering thank you for closed business for nonprofit causes that are not the business related to their seat made me think to ask. It's a great question and the answer is hell no, they shouldn't count. This is so ridiculous sometimes. Oh, good God, no, that's not thank you for closed business. It's absolutely not. And again, we're padding stats that have unattended consequences. Okay, we're allowing people to enter thank you for close business so they can feel good about the number on the Palms report, which is just the silliest reason in the world to want to do that because it's misleading and the unintended consequences are a lot like number one, it's boosting the chapter's thank you for closed business, which boosts the average thank you for closed business per member in the chapter, which sets misguided expectations. Current members, visitors, new members, et cetera. Okay, we're. We're showcasing a number that just isn't real. And for what purpose there really, when you think about it, there is no purpose behind that. Second of all, it's going to completely mess everybody else's stats up when you start looking at like, you know, what is my average thank you for closed business per one to one that I'm doing? What's my average thank you for closed business? They're just it, it just messes everything up. And you might say, oh well, it's not a big deal to me. It's not like whatever, I'm not in the chapter. I'm not in the region, not in the country. But I am a big believer that track what's real so that you can use the information effectively and so that recognition and all the other things that go along with these things is real as well. So if you are a member, you have a member who has multiple businesses, the only referrals and the only thank you for closed business that should be tracked in that chapter is for whatever the one business and profession they are in in the chapter. Now second of all, the restaurant owner here, in this case, let's just use, I don't know if they're actually a restaurant, but the accountant who owns a restaurant, the other people don't enter the thank you for closed business anyways because he would or she would have to enter the thank you for close business because that's how that works. So even them telling people to enter it is soup. That's even super. That might even be if that's really what's happening. That's even worse because now they're getting credit for thank you for closed business, which is the amount of money your referrals generate from other people spending money with them. That's ass backwards to begin with. But second of all, whether even it's being done in the right direction or not, definitely not accurate, definitely should not be happening. You might want to mention it to either your leadership team or director or whatever, just as a heads up so that they can address the situation because that should not happen. So great question. All right, moving on. This is from Ben in Tempe, Arizona, which by the way, they just announced the next US National Conference 2027. It's in Phoenix, Arizona in May. So hopefully a bunch of you will be able to go out to that goal to be the biggest and best. We just had the biggest one in Orlando, now going to Phoenix. So here we go. Hello Tim, thanks for taking my question. I'm a mobile massage therapist in the Phoenix area. My question is about referrals. Sometimes instead of a client, I will ask to be connected to a personal trainer or a salon owner as they can generate create a pipeline of business for me. For instance, my ask one week was to be connected to gym owners and one of them lets me set up a massage chair at their gym and I've gotten several paying clients from it. While the direct contact didn't work with me. He allowed me in a space and I've gotten clients from him. It's is this a referral? And if so, how would I mark the thank you for closed business? Thanks. Huge fan of the podcast, Ben. Huge fan of you. Really good question. And I'm tying it to the thank you for closed business part. So, yes, there are two types of referrals you should be asking for in bni. There's transaction based, which is a direct referral to your next customer or client, and then there's relationship based, which is referrals to your golden gooses, those kind of things. This, this would be an example of that. So if you go to your BNI meeting and you ask for a referral for a gym owner that might allow you to set up your massage chair at their gym and a member passes you to the gym owner, that's a relationship based referral. It's a referral. So it gets marked as a referral. Everything that comes from your activity in that gym. So you're doing the gym things and somebody signs up with you or starts becoming a client from you, goes back to that original referral and thank you for closed business to that original referral. It's not a new referral every time, but you can put a new thank you for closed business to the member who passed you the referral to the gym owner. Okay, so this is again how some of our referrals grow in value over time. And that's okay. And that should be tracked. Okay. Because that referral is showcasing how valuable these relationship based referrals really can be. Okay. But again, I want to clarify, it's not a new referral. Let's just. Ben, let's just go in the example. I pass you a referral to my friend Tony who owns a gym. And because Tony said he'll let you set up your massage chair in his gym from time to time. Okay, that's a referral passed in bni. Tony says, yes, I connect you, you're going there. Now you go and you set up on Saturday and you give 15 chair massages. Five people decide that they want to come see you and sign up to visit your. To use your services because you're mobile. That's not five now referrals back and forth between me and you, but each one of those paying people say they pay you a hundred bucks, that's five hundred dollars and thank you for close business. To me, if you're selling like a monthly thing and it's $100 a month and they Sign up for a year, that's twelve hundred dollars. Thank you for close business. Back to me, you go, the following Saturday, do it again, five more people, that's $500 more. You can keep adding the thank you for closed business because that original referral is bringing in that additional value. Okay? And so to the previous question, this isn't fudging numbers, this isn't padding stats. No, this referral continues to generate new business for me. And that value of that referral keeps getting added. Now it's not a new referral each time. And once a client is a client, you know, it's not like, again, use the barbers all the time. It's not a referral every time I get my hair cut every two weeks. But the thank you for closed business, if I'm tracking it every two weeks can get added every time. If somebody is kind of like on a set thing like that, I tell you, I would advise you just annualize it for the year and then, you know, at the end of the year you can stop tracking it in terms of your bni. But whatever, it's not a new referral, but the value keeps adding. Keep saying that I'm repeating myself, but it's important to understand that. So this is a really good example of why relationship based referrals should be part of your marketing strategy. You should be asking for these. Now. The best thing you could do too, on top of it is get one of these people into your chapter because now it is a new referral every time. Right? If you get a gym owner in the chapter and they refer you to clients throughout the time, those are new referrals and thank you for close business. So if you can identify a relationship based referral you need and they're not in your chapter, you should be trying to get both of that done because of the more value there. So two great questions. Really appreciate it. Hopefully it, it's helpful. As always, appreciate everybody who continues to listen. Again, super humbled, super thankful for everybody who came up and saw me in Orlando. Look forward to seeing all the people in South Africa. I leave tonight. It'll be, it'll be Tuesday night before I get there, Wednesday, Thursday before I see anybody. But looking forward to that. And if you are finding value, help me out, share it, share with other people. Get more people listening to it on a regular basis. Let me help us help more people in that sense. And I appreciate you all. Have a great day.
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Episode: BNI 898 – Two Very Different Questions Regarding TYFCB
Host: Tim Roberts
Date: May 11, 2026
This episode centers on two distinctly different questions about Thank You For Closed Business (TYFCB)—the system BNI uses to track and recognize business generated through member referrals. Tim Roberts dives deep into the rules, intent, and best practices for TYFCB, addressing tricky scenarios and clarifying what should and should not be counted, with real-world examples and actionable advice for BNI members.
[04:16–08:05]
"No, they shouldn't count. This is so ridiculous sometimes. Oh, good God, no, that's not thank you for closed business. It's absolutely not." (Tim Roberts, 04:55)
"Track what's real so that you can use the information effectively and so that recognition and all the other things that go along with these things is real as well." (Tim Roberts, 06:56)
[08:22–12:58]
"It's not a new referral every time, but you can put a new thank you for closed business to the member who passed you the referral to the gym owner." (Tim Roberts, 10:27)
On padding TYFCB with unrelated business:
"We're allowing people to enter thank you for close business so they can feel good about the number on the Palms report, which is just the silliest reason in the world ... it's misleading and the unintended consequences are a lot."
— Tim Roberts, [05:24]
On recognizing the real value of relationship-based referrals:
"That referral is showcasing how valuable these relationship-based referrals really can be… the value keeps adding."
— Tim Roberts, [11:04]
On tracking best practices:
"Track what's real so that you can use the information effectively and so that recognition and all the other things... is real as well."
— Tim Roberts, [06:56]
Simple Rule for TYFCB:
"The only thank you for closed business that should be tracked is for whatever the one business and profession they are in [the chapter] for."
— Tim Roberts, [06:06]
For BNI members who want their numbers to reflect true business impact and who seek maximum value from referrals, this episode is a must-listen or, at minimum, a must-read summary. Tim’s candid, passionate tone makes his message clear: authenticity in BNI results matters above all.