Good morning everyone. Today’s education moment is about strategically inviting referral partners to your BNI Chapter to introduce them to a fellow Member they can do business with.

We all know that bringing valuable, referral-ready visitors to our Chapter is one of the best ways we can help fellow Members grow their business. But it takes intention and strategy. Simply handing someone a BNI card often doesn’t lead them to visit or apply.

So here are 3 strategic tips for inviting the right referral partners that can connect with a specific Member:

1. Identify partnerships between your contacts/clients and Members of our Chapter. Think through who has complementary services or shared target clients. A CPA/Tax Advisor and a non-profit would be great partners to help clients identify potential charitable giving to reduce their taxes, for example.
2. Warm up the connection first by describing how your Chapter Member could help meet your contact’s needs or support their clients. Paint them an initial picture of the partnership opportunity.
3. Then personally invite your referral partner to visit our next BNI meeting so you can introduce them to the Member you have in mind. Make it about that strategic connection, not just visiting your group.

An intentional, strategic introduction is 10x more valuable than handing someone a brochure or making a cold referral and hoping something sticks. Plus it shows your fellow Members you’re proactively supporting them too.

So challenge for this next week is to invite at least one referral partner to our BNI meeting to introduce to a specific Member who can become a strategic partner. We all grow when we all help strategic connections happen for our members. That’s how we build amazing word-of-mouth referrals in BNI. And we will fill up our BNIngo Scorecard!