Why BNI Sucks
Usually I can ferret out bullshit pretty well. Somehow I let myself get suckered into joining my local BNI chapter. Business Networking International is a business networking organization founded by Ivan Misner a well dressed hair hat with all of the usual con-artist plumage.
The goal of the organization is to bring a group of people representing different professions together once a week to pass sales leads to each other. BNI is a worldwide organization with chapters covering most of the civilized world. Generally any city of a moderate size will have many BNI chapters. Each chapter usually has 10 to 30 members which meet once a week as a group. The theory is that the other people in your chapter will act as your virtual sales team. So joining BNI is like adding 20 to 30 sales people to your sales staff so the marketing says. This is of course utter and complete bullshit. Like so many other sales and marketing heavy organizations the reality rarely lives up to the hype.
Each BNI chapter will be made up of members who represent different professions. A chapter might have an accountant, a lawyer, an advertising professional, a florist, etc. Each chapter is allowed to have only one person representing a each profession. And no one person can belong to more than one chapter at a time.
Each BNI chapter meets once a week. Weekly attendance is manditory and membership will be revoked if you miss more than a few meetings during any one year. Show up late to a meeting and you will get dinged as well.
The BNI meetings are 90 minutes long and all about structure. Every move for 90 minutes is run with military accuracy. There are a lot of little details I’ll stick to the important stuff;
15 minutes of open networking: Before the organized program begins members will spend 15 minutes milling about talking with each other. Sounds great right? Well it isn’t. You have 15 minutes and 30 members so it leads to the rapid fire exchange of vapid pleasantries and not much else. Like speed dating, except with ugly people early in the morning. Generally I’ll spend the entire time trying to avoid the 4 or 5 people that get on my nerves and hope someone will have brought donuts.
Ruthless promotion of BNI propaganda: This is a great time to look at boobs or if you have an internet enabled cell phone look at boobs on the Internet.
Sales Manager Minute: Each member will stand up and give his sales pitch to everyone else in the room. “I’m Mike Hunt and I represent the supplemental insurance slot in the group. My perfect referral would be a dumbass that is so scared of the world that he doesn’t want to come out from under his bed and thinks that he needs to buy insurance for his insurance.”
Upon first blush this seems like such a great system. It certainly sells well in their marketing literature; “joining BNI is like adding 30 sales people to your staff.” The sad reality is that the only thing that anyone is thinking during the sales manager minute is;
Before: What will I say during my sales manager minute?
After: Boy am I glad I’m done with my sales manager minute.
They aren’t listening to you and even if they were after 30 one minute mini presentations no one in the room retained any information anyway. Further if you have any technical detail or nuance that you need to convey how could you do that in one minute? Even if someone was paying attention to you which they aren’t.
Member 10 minute presentation: Each week a different member presents his business to the group during a short sales presention with a question and answer session at the end. This will be the longest and most horrific ten minutes of your life. 10 solid minutes of intimate details of exterminating, year end tax filing or mortgage underwriting in exquisite detail. By minute 8 you’ll want to push a rusted screwdriver though your eardrum just to make the pain fucking stop.
The I have (a fictional) referral for you time: The “I have” time is when members will pass a business referral, share some senseless BNI anecdote to their otherwise banial unfulfilled life, introduce their visitor (sucker) or on occasion blurt out “I love BNI” like a mildly retarded tourettes sufferer. Really the referrals are the meat everything else is just to distract away from the fact that you didn’t bring a referral. The majority of BNI referrals break down in the following categories;
Fictional Outside Referral; Member knows some guy they met that in theory could use your service but when you contact him isn’t interested or can’t afford your service.
Fictional Inside Referral; Another member claims to want to purchase your service but really doesn’t. But it gets them off the hook for another week because they made their “quota.”
Wants Free Shit Referral; Another member gives you a referral so that you can give them free stuff because you want to hook another BNI brother up. It doesn’t matter what you do or what you sell your fellow BNI members will try to get it from you for free.
BNI Results: In seven months of BNI we have received 28 referrals. Of those 28 referrals we closed 3 customers. One didn’t pay their bill. One complained because they thought their bill was too high. And one was a decent small job. Doing the math we generated $1300 in sales minus the $540 we paid our BNI chapter comes to $760 in revenue generated for approx 80 hours of time invested in BNI or $9.50/hr. When you count that my hourly bill rate is many times more than $9.50/hr we’ve actually lost a significant amount of money by belonging to BNI.
There are a handful of people in our BNI chapter that come out the better for their participation. Generally they sell stuff that is so generic everyone is a possible customer; banking, cable TV service, the mortgage guy passes good leads to the financial planner. But for the large majority (us included) it’s a giant waste of time, a disruption in our workday and a waste of money.
If you visit a BNI chapter don’t submit to the relentless pressure to join the group and fill out an application on the spot. Take it home and think it over. If you’re like 80% of the members in my group you’ll end up giving more than you gain.
Your a small mined prick who simply did not understand BNI. I have been in BNI for a long time and made a lot money from it,and made a lot of other members money from my own efforts. It just shows you don’t understand it and this is why you failed badly at BNI. The only saga is you. Grow up and wake up to the real world you sad twat….
“The only saga is you.” WTF does that mean? I recently moved to Northern Virginia, joined the COC, and the BNI requests to join came out of the woodwork, like roaches at night. Apparently, none of the photographers in town are stupid enough to join BNI, as EVERY group needed a photographer… Oh, and Chris, with grammar skills like these “Your a small mined prick…” I doubt you make any money at anything…
Art,
Chris is a small minded twit who drank the BNI cult koolaid.
If my BNI group represents reality very very few people are making money from BNI except for it’s founder.
I don’t think that networking is a flawed concept, far from it. I think the BNI implementation of networking is idiotic and exists mostly for self promotion.
What is your experience with the Chamber of Commerce? Worthwhile?
I was surfing around, found your blog and thought the response from Chris rather amusing. I figured I might add to your negative opinion about BNI.
I’m a former president of a BNI chapter that went through it’s full life cycle in about three years. I was one of BNI’s biggest supporters until I came to realize how money driven BNI, Inc. was. Things got worse when I questioned and then proved that BNI’s system was flawed. I was quickly treated as the anti-christ despite what I had thought were strong personal relationships with many of the very top people at BNI’s corporate headquarters.
BNI wants all their members to be trained monkeys. They want their trained monkeys to believe BNI’s system is the best in the world. They don’t want trained monkeys to believe they can do the same thing but better and cheaper than BNI.
A BNI membership in a chapter of around 20 members costs more than joining two local chambers of commerce in my area with a combined membership of over 1,500. My Rotary membership, which costs about the same as my BNI membership, generates more business referrals than BNI ever did despite me being BNI chapter president for two years. A Facebook account costs nothing and you can hook up with millions of people who could do business directly with you or give you a business referral.
On the other hand, with a BNI membership you will receive:
- A CD full of the best of Ivan Misner’s helpful advice, which he created years ago and has never updated since then.
- A business card holder with BNI prominently stamped on the front of it.
- An agreement stipulating that your membership can be terminated without refund if you so much as sneeze in the wrong direction.
- A bill for over $400 just for joining.
- The opportunity to meet weekly with 20-30 people who blew $400 on BNI too.
What a deal!
One of my life tenants is; never trust and older man that spends too much time on his hair. Ivan Misner is well quaffed hair hat. The man oozes a con-artist vibe. As soon as I saw his photo on the cover of the BNI propaganda materials I knew I had made a mistake.
Thank you for sharing your experience I’m sorry you wasted 3 years of your life in that organization.
If this doesn’t put how ineffective the BNI concept into perspective nothing will; We generated more revenue between 12:00am and 8:00am EST last night from Internet advertising (while I was sleeping) than in 8 months of BNI.
Grumpy N.:
Can I say you are my new virtual/personal hero? I tried to explain to my wife the frustrations I have experienced in my BNI “honeymoon” (two months and about to end prematurely). I couldn’t. She was sure I was exaggerating.
And then I showed her this. And she now does not question what I say.
You’re lucky your meetings last 90 minutes. Mine go 105 minimum. I am convinced that the so-called entrepreneurs prolong the agony because they have no legitimate work to get to.
The meetings are painful in the same way I imagine a spinal tap feels. I drink bad coffee and take multiple bathroom breaks just to divert my attention.
I was unable to attend 3 meetings in a 6-week period - all due to legitimate, actual paying client meetings that were unavoidable. Good excuse, right?
Nope! BNI could give a flying hair-helmet about actual work - it’s all about the networking, yo. After receiving three frantic phone calls on a Thursday night by some member of the leadership team, I was put on de facto probation.
Now, the so-called “leadership team” is meeting to discuss my absences. I am subject to discharge unless I can find a replacement to come in my stead.
In my 2 to 3 months at BNI, I have received no referrals and I can count the total number of referrals others have received by removing my shoes. Half of the referrals sound hypothetical and vague, like they were made up on the go.
So, G. Nerd: What do I do? Should I get fired or just quit?
Walter
Walter,
Fuck BNI. You go out in a blaze of glory. Do not let those fuckers get rid of you. You go right up to the president of your chapter and tell him that BNI is a bullshit cult and is completely ineffective. I quit. Done. You walk away a better and richer man who can redirect your valuable time toward more productive sales channels.
BNI is a brilliant way to prey on suckers. Props to that con-artist Ivan Misner for putting together such a brilliant con.
Here is the rub in his con-job. Unlike bullshit religions where everyone in the know is dead the success of BNI can be quantified with simple math.
This simple exercise will tell you if your BNI chapter is working;
Divide your chapter’s total gross sales by the number of members in your chapter. Get your average sales per member.
Divide the average sales per member by 50 weeks.
Divide the average sales per week by the average amount of time the average member wastes on unproductive BNI activities. Say four hours.
What you will come out with will be a pathetic number somewhere in the range of between $5 and $10 per hour.
I was a former BNI Vice President and treasurer. I can’t speak for how everybody feels, but I will tell you what happened at my chapter.
We had a treasurer that stole so much money the chapter almost went under until the area director suggested that we all put up an additional $100.00. Everybody ignored the fact that the past treasurer quit the chapter “IN GOOD STANDING” soon after it was discovered some shady things were happening. Have you ever seen a check book with white out and scribble in it on every line? The dope didn’t even have the sense to use a pencil.
I knew that I would never get back what I gave in the chapter, but I remained in the group because I figured what the hell, it was paid for and some people were pretty cool.
My business started to take off (no thanks to BNI) after we hired two full time sales people. I was to busy to attend, plus relocated far away. Everybody knows that BNI does not accept that as an answer, but it is what it is. I told the chapter I would no longer be attending meetings and they requested that I put it in writing for the “dropped in good standing” status. I didn’t get around to it until the next month and when I sent it I was then told “In order to drop you in good standing you need to pay this last month dues” I never responded because they didnt want to hear what I had to say anyway. Tvhat takes balls. I paid an extra $100.00 dollars to keep the chapter afloat and never asked to be reimbursed for the $40.00 dollars in postage I spent for the visitor day. So they dropped me and now I can never return, without the almighty ok from Chick.
People can be very unreasonable and foolish. I was a great member who gave “VERY GOOD REFERRALS” no bogus bullshit. Even though I always received referrals that were bullshit. They way you could tell that is because my company provides emergency services which means I should never receive a referral at the meeting for the first time.
Its a good group to belong to if you are looking to meet business professionals. Hopefully if you join you don’t end up with a bunch of brainwashed idiots that can’t think or make decisions on their own. If you join a chapter you should ask that the chapter funds be reported at every meeting and a paper hand out to show what money is being spent on because it is your money.
I’m so glad I found this tonight - I thought I was the only one not in love with BNI. After visiting a start up chapter and listening to weeks and weeks of the BNI trainer (who also sales Mary Kay and is way to perky), they pushed and pushed for me to pay and join. I said no, they didn’t even have enough members to really be a chapter accroding to BNI rules. Then I visited another chapter and it seemed fun and more professional, so I joined and that was a really big mistake.
I missed 3 neetings in a short period and received a stiff warning via email with multiple chapter members copied on the note. We meet early in the morning and there are never any subs for anyone and many long time members miss week after week. Do you think they receive the same warning ? No.
When I called a “friend” I had met in BNI to discuss - she gave me the cold shoulder.
If I don’t show tomorrow, I will be fired! Should I show up or not?
By the way, one of those absenses was due to my yound child being in the hospital and the others were work related.
Amy… there are a lot more people that dislike BNI than like it. Look at the average chapter turnover. From what I’ve seen in any given year a chapter has more members quit than it has. The key is that they keep on finding new suckers to sign up.
I’ve been to the local chamber of commerce meetings, BNI meetings and other like organizations. I’m convinced that forced networking doesn’t work. Why? Because the organizations that promote the networking don’t have your best interests in mind. BNI doesn’t give a rats ass if you succeed or not. In fact if you don’t succeed they blame it on you not following their “plan.” The plan in which you spend ever increasing amounts of money on their training and materials.
Don’t let them fire you. You walk in their and tell them whats up and dump them.
I am not a BNI supporter, nor have I ever been affiliated with the group. I do think that referrals are just a portion of your business as in maybe 25% or less depending on your business model. You cannot expect the BNI group to generate all of your business leads. Based on previous members comments, SEO or PPC made have been a more effective marketing technique since people were actually looking for them.
In any case, I’ve been researching and thinking about whether or BNI makes sense for me. After reading articles online and speaking with several members, I think their system is antiquated. It made sense in the 80s, even in the 90s, but with the advent of the internet and free social networking sites, it doesn’t make sense anymore.
Plus, the time commitment is extreme from what I hear and the punitive system is within itself one reason why some people are passed low quality leads. In any case, the blog was within itself was extreme as to bring home a point. The first commentator didn’t understand that from what I gather. Simple put: in plain English, BNI is not for everyone or anyone anymore.
I got invited to a BNI meeting as the guest of someone, so I felt flattered and decided to give it a try. I’m a pretty open-minded person, but I was disgusted by the meeting! It was terrible, and I was embarassed for everyone there. The meeting is so “calculated”; every minute is planned, there is forced laughing and clapping, and basically I was hoping I would shit my pants, just to have a good excuse to get the hell out of there. Although I’m sure lots of members are there for innocent reasons, there is something quite sinister beneath the surface, and I was wondering when the baby would be presented for the daily sacrifice. I was also looking around to see if anyone had the mark of the beast on the back of their necks, lol. This may sound dramatic, but the meeting was bullshit, and not only that, downright scary. And it’s SO early in the morning!! I had to be there at 6:45. It’s like they try to get you when you’re tired, or something. If you’re invited, DON’T GO, unless you’re writing some sort of article on cults or unless you’re looking for a good laugh or scare. BEWARE!!
Hey nerd,
me again. Different thread. Hey, got some more insight on BNI. I will tee up the story with a litle context: I am currently a member of a chapter. In defense of my fellow chapter members, most of us actually come out on the winning side of the dollars and cents equation. That being said, I have been trying to get a clear definition of just what the relationship is between BNI and the individual chapter members. Ok, here is what is what: I was told by a BNI corporate that “there is no legal binding between BNI and its members.” To the lay person (me) that means we are customers that have purchased a product/good/or service from a for-profit business.
What does this mean? It means any contract that BNI tries to get you to sign after the fact will then change that relationship. The change in relationship is squarely to benefit and protect BNI, not the member. (Big suprise). I also learned that BNI is very deft at handling these types of issues because in the twenty plus years of being in business, they have been able to develop and put into place a very calculated and rehearsed corporate protocol to deal with individuals that start to probe to deeply into the inner workings of BNI.
This is evidenced by the foodchain that has been developed and what kinds of folks are in that foodchain is the real meat. When a member questions the relationship that exists between BNI and themselves, That question is not allowed to be definitively answered by your area director or apparently by the franchise executive director (franchise owner) either. the question is funnelled to corporate HQ and a lawyer then tries to talk you down over the phone. Nothing in writing. That is the cardinal rule.
The lawyer or representative of BNI corporate never will answer your question because that would constitute a “meeting of the minds” and legally, that is just a way of saying two or more parties have gotten together to clearly define their relationship to each other and then any legal framwork can be built on that relationship. The trick here is, BNI will never define the relationship, because if they do, then they can be held to the appropriate standards of conduct and be held liable for any breach of it.
I just thought this may help prompt other current or future members to question the legal relationship between BNI and its “members”. Actually, we are not even members in the true sense of the word. If we were truly defined as members, then BNI would have to admit and carry on as a club. And that is like a big no-no with BNI. BNI does everything it can to convince people it is not a club. Man, what a cryptic and convaluted organization. Lots of people in it, only a relative few making gobs and gobs of money…. BNI, AIG… BNI, AIG…. maybe it is just three letter acronyms that bring out the worst in people.
Amy,
Thank you for the comment. Regards BNI… you’re smarter than me. I got suckered in for a few months before it became apparent that the whole deal was stacked to a make a few people money at the expense of the many.
I went to lunch with a client who we’ve worked with for many months. He was introducing us to another guy that he has worked with for a while. (That is REAL networking BTW) here was his take on BNI;
“It’s taken me my whole life to build my network and I’m protective of it. There is no way that I’m going to turn that network over to a bunch of people that I don’t know. I’m very selective whom I bring in.”
There it is… you can’t buy respect you have to earn it. This is my claim to the nonsensical nature of BNI and other groups like it. The group that you want to belong to is informal and you’re going to have to figure a way to earn your way into it. The group that you really want to be a part of doesn’t recruit and isn’t accessable with no felonies and $400.
Real business is done by parties that like, trust and respect each other. It’s not done by standing up for 45 to 60 seconds and saying something pithy and catchy.
And lastly… if you own your own business why did you go that route rather than just get a job? Money… maybe? You had an idea… possibly. But more than likely you wanted freedom to work in the environment that you wanted to work in surrounded by the kinds of people that you wanted to work with. It’s that individualism that probably drove most business owners into starting and running their own business. BNI seeks to marginalize the individual by making everyone act, speak and be the same. Why would anyone who swims upstream by nature and doesn’t fit into the norms want to be part of an organization that seeks to stifle that important core personality trait?
Mr. Fortin. Thank you for that very detailed writeup on BNI.
This was an awesome article, and a lot of good, insightful comments as well. I just came back from a BNI open house as a guest, and I have to say that it sounded good at first. People started to talk about themselves for the minute, and the members all used these rhyming catchphrases to end their presentations, like “It doesn’t matter if you’re big as a barn or small as a mouse, I bring healthcare right to your house”. I felt it was really cheesy and phony, like an infomercial.
Then they said that if anyone wanted to join as a member, they had to stand up and announce their intention to join in front of everyone before the meeting was over. I immediately smelled something fishy. I don’t handle high-pressure tactics like this well, especially when they made no mention of the attendance policy or membership fees; things that should be thought over and planned. These details are too important not to bring up. I work full-time, and this chapter meets 90 minutes during business lunch times, which meant it would require that I take time off work. I imagine that other people would have the same problem, unless they owned their own business.
Now that I’ve done more research, I discovered their strict attendance policy and high membership fees. Maybe I could smell the bullshit because my regular job is marketing, so catchy phrases and sales talk don’t work on me. Now I feel sorry for those people who stood up and joined.
This is a great point. I do photography work for the person who invited me as a guest (I was brought in as a photographer as I try to get my side-business off the ground), and I’ve provided free services for him in the past, that was a lot of good and hard work. I was sort of offended when I thought that he would just stop using me because there was an “official BNI photographer” in his chapter.
Wow Grumpy! It looks like you got yourself a small cult following since my last post. I want to give you some updated information on BNI in my area.
BNI had three local chapters, but is now down to one and that one is barely surviving. They blame the recession, despite the fact that BNI promotes being in BNI would help business owners survive a recession.
Two of my friends (and former BNI colleagues) had their membership terminated due to the strict attendance policy. One has been fighting cancer and missed several meetings due to her chemo appointments. Apparently, that wasn’t a good enough excuse. It didn’t matter because that chapter closed a few months later due to lack of members. They tried to restart the chapter, but it failed miserably.
Facebook, LinkedIn and other social internet sites have hundreds of thousands of members and cost nothing to join. You would be an idiot to fork out over $400 to BNI and become a lemming. I hope more people who are thinking about joining BNI find your blog and think before they blow their hard earned money.
Hello,
I want to make some points on BNI and my experience I have to agree with some of your points and disagree with others. I am a local business owner that sell Web Design services. Before I decided to join my BNI chapter I visited 15 chapters. I found most of the junk that you mentioned above. However after spending 6 months on the BNI website I saw a new chapter was starting near me during the noon hour. I messed very well with most of the members in the group and although we follow the standards of the meeting we are more laid back.
I find during the non hour BNI takes up most of your day. Therefore I find our members have their 60 second pitch pre-written and we take notes on what each person talks about. The attendance policy is from corporate BNI and we can’t change that. However we have never had to terminate a member yet. We have been a active chapter for over 1 years and we only had 1 member not renew. Each seat in our chapter has earned around $26,000 in closed business in the last year. This is also true for myself.
I referrals I have received have been of high quality and I have passed high quality referrals. Now I know just from my visits this could be the exception not the rule.
When I invite my clients and colleges to BNi I tell them. “This may not be the BNi for you. BNI may not be for you. But please do your leg-work and find one that makes the most sense for you.” Just like any investment you need to find the right provider for your needs.
Any way my two sense.
I just though i’d share my experience on this blog having been invited to and attended a BNI open day just this morning.
7am both me and my friend walk through the carpark not quite knowing what we have let ourselves in for. We are greeting by a very smiley man in his mid forties. He shakes our hand and we continue up to the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs we are greeted by another man,. we shake his hand and say hello. Finally upstairs we are greeted by 3 more people. One collecting business cards the other collection our £10 fee and another hand writing our name badges.
As i look around the room i notice 2 distinct groups. Them and Us. “Them” (the bni members) stood there chatting happily, making some quite joke about their child and how business is excellent. US (the newbies) on the other hand were slightly lost and bemused by the amount of people there. Wow, this could be a good meeting i thought.
As i fought my way through the crowd to get a coffee and a dry bacon sandwich, i caught the sight of someone who looked decent to talk to. After a few minus of nattering we did they usual of swapping business cards and moved onto the next group of people. All of a sudden and without warning all the BNI members sat down. As if a switch had been flicked and they all obeyed. ooohh eerrr. i guess i’ll sit down.
What came next was nothing less than……well i’ll explain.
The chairman of the chapter stood up and started telling us how BNI members have made contacts that got them 7 million pound contracts and how business referrals accounts for 70% of one guys business and how another guy has made himself a millionaire from joining.
Impressive i thought. I wonder how getting in contact with the Finance director of an airline can help my IT company supporting the town i live in. hmmmmm…….
So after 20 minutes or so, i was getting a little tired by now and the speakers voice was starting to drone, we all got up and had 1 minute to exchange business cards with as many people as possible. WOW, making contacts and maybe getting some good leads. Excellent!!!! or so i thought…
As i sat down counting my newly found contacts, another speaker appeared and proceeded to tell us about the BNI and how joining it is great. urm.. hasn’t the first guy just done this?
45 minutes in and we all get the chance to stand up and tell the group who we are and what we do. After the 8th or 9th person i’d forgotten who the first person was, by the time my turn came (about 50th) i almost forgot what i was going to say. By the end i couldn’t remember anyone and also had neck ache from turning round to look at people.
Ok, now we can get on with some networking..excellent. urm…no. First the 2 chapter leaders got up to say thank you for coming and why joining the BNI was excellent. Again, haven’t we already hear this?
1 hour 20 mins in and still i sit there with my friend. The membership forms come out. “If anyone is a guest here please raise your hand so we can hand you a form” the speaker says…urm…ok so now can we speak to some of the people here that we came to network with….WRONG!!!!!
the speaker now explains how to fill the form in…urm forgive me for being a a little slow, but i think i understand what the question “are you a member of any other networking group” means, and it is really any of your business if i am?
1hour 45 mins in. Finally he finishes and we can do some networking. except at this point i didnt want to, all i wanted to to get out of there ASAP!
As i looked around the group im sure i saw the hosts shake each others legs and hastily hide bag that contained what may be an ornamental smock and hat with a moose’s head on it. (i may have made that bit up)
What we had witnessed, and paid good money to go too was a 2 hour long hard sell. No one there wanted to do business with you unless you were one of “THEM” and to become on of “THEM” you had to dedicated many hours each month into suckering other people to join. And pay them nearly £1000 a year for the privilege
Suffice to say the Cult of BNI has not suckered me in.
Grumpy-
Let me start by saying that article was one of the best reads I have had in Months. Very well written, and very entertaining. You have a new Blog follower.
I was a member for almost a year and I loved it. My work colleague was a member for 3 months and just quit today. My takeaway….BNI is only as good as the people in your group. I genuinely liked the people in my chapter and I closed some good business from the referrals I got. When my chapter broke up, I have kept in touch with the people and would continue to send them business. It worked for me because the people in my chapter were cool.
My colleague had a terrible experience. His chapter members were self-serving and his Leadership team was condescending and arrogant. His take was why get up at 5am to be treated like a jerk. If I was in his group, I think I would have had the same viewpoint.
As for the individual gripes and my opinions/experiences:
- I am fine with the structure…if people don’t “have” to show up at 7, they won’t so I don’t have a problem with the mandatory attendance.
- I am fine with the 60 second ads…by the end of my year, I could do the 60 second ad for anyone in my group. Consequently, I could genuinely be a good advocate/evangelist of their services. The repetition worked.
- I enjoyed my one-on-ones because we spent 10 minutes on business and the rest of the time drinking beers and getting to know each other. If I were to let someone try to “sell me” their wares during my 1-on-1, that’s my fault for allowing it.
The bottom line for me is the BNI formula is going to bring out the best or the worst in people. I can easily see how a bad group is going to pass bogus leads and generally be a big waste of time. Conversely a cool group of people and a leadership team that encourages participation without condescending to its members can definitely profit from being a part of BNI. BNI is only as good as the people in your group and the few people running your individual chapter. I won’t argue that there may be a lot of lame chapters out there, but my experience was a good one.
Hey Nerd,
Sounds like there are a lot of the same symptoms in a lot of different chapters. I alluded to my current chapter being fairly successful. I think I can see some reasons why. First and foremost, all the folks in our chapter see BNI simply as a marketing and networking tool. Kind of like saying “a means to an end.”
In my observations of chapters that seem to struggle and folks that have shitty experiences visiting chapters for the first time, I can see some key problems. It seems to me that those chapters are focused on simply building up their numbers and membership instead of making money. Our chapter has battled this in the past and it can be annoying. once a chapter or the leadership in a chapter shift the focus from making money by passing referrals to just growing the chapters’ ranks, the value of the group goes into the toilet and folks get fed up real fast.
Instead of BNI being a means to an end, it becomes the end in itself. Great for the BNI franchise owners, but piss-poor for all the members that have shelled out hundreds of dollars to hopefully increase their business. Also, i have noticed that the description of some of the meeting agendas and formats are way off the reservation! Every meeting in any part of the world are supposed to be the same. Kinda like going into a Mcdonald’s. Doesn’t matter if it is Peoria, Illinois or Dussledorf, Germany… Same shit, different currency.
Just some observations. I still maintain that BNI is the Walmart of networking organizations and I think it would be fun to see a huge shake-up in the structure and methodology of it. Damn the man and curse it for actually working sometimes!!! Don’t worry, I secretly add heroin to every batch of koolaid we serve at all our meetings. Keeps things interesting.
I’m a sucker! I think I have LOSER plastered to my forehead. I’m still a current member, who will not renew this coming September. 7 years wasted. Maybe I’m a little slow. Just think this article and the comments are mostly based on the meeting itself. Imagine the bullshit and propaganda that is provided at at a director level!
Hello Former Director. I think it’s ironic that BNI doesn’t allow people that do multi-level marketing but it would appear that BNI is in fact organized as a multi-level-marketing scheme.
I’d love some insight into BNI’s inner workings at the director level. Please share.
My experience with BNI was about 50/50. I did get business from it partly because I was an “easy referral” (as it was explained to me-my business is Venetian Plaster and decorative painting). My objection to the organization was the constant pressure from our area director to sign new members. The kick was that this particular director said he was getting calls from people interested in joining a BNI chapter, yet he’d never send them to existing chapters-he always waited until he had enough people interested and then he’d start a new chapter. It was explained to me that there was more financial incentive for him to do things that way then fortify existing chapters. This made the whole thing seem a little insincere. I felt for the money there should have been a little more customer service.
When the number of members in our chapter were deemed insufficient by BNI corporate, our area director put us on a program which was (according to BNI) designed to bring us back up to snuff in 6 weeks (or thereabouts, I forgot the actual number). The arrangement was that the area director was going to implement a rigorous training program, one which he would administer personally during a series of weekly meetings which were to be “closed”-that is to say no visitors would be allowed during this period. Well, he showed up to one of them and essentially cast us adrift afterwards only to show his face one more time several weeks later to tell us that our chapter was going to be dissolved. When asked directly about this by one of our members he said “I choose to work only with those chapters who want to succeed”. What?!? It made me wonder what I was paying for.
My advice to anyone thinking about joining one of these chapters is investigate, investigate, investigate. Go to a few of the meetings before you shell out the money. There will be a lot of “this is the greatest thing ever!!” talk going on for your sake (because most of them will just be interested in getting you to fork over a check) so take it all with a grain of salt. Grab every business card you can and call everyone to get their opinion on their chapter. Many of them will BS you but one or two will give you the straight skinny. If your business is complimentary to the business of existing members (for example my business was complimentary to the Architect and Interior Designer who were already members of this chapter and vice-versa) then it may be a good idea to add BNI to your marketing arsenal. Yeah, “givers gain” as their motto goes but look out for number 1.
Here is what I don’t understand… if you want to start a networking group why do you need BNI?
Just start a networking group. The same people with the same contacts and the same drive that build up a group for BNI could just as easily build their own group.
BNI doesn’t empower you to do anything you can’t do for yourself. In fact in many ways I think they detract from good networking.
In my experience good quality business is done by people that know, like and trust each other. While I was at BNI I say every little good quality B2B business being done. Many other people that were doing B2B sales felt exactly the same way. Most business that was passed was low level retail or very low end B2B.
Last I’ve built my network of trusted associates over the last 20 years of my life. That has a lot of value. There is no way I’m going to risk turning that network over to a group of people so they can attempt to sell them MLM, work from home, Avon, Moni Vie, lawn care service, etc.
What would that do to my reputation with my trusted associates? To sell them out to all manner of shysters and subjecting them to high pressure BNI sales tactics.
The end for me started coming when the technology people in my group recommended we all increase our “web presence” by joining Facebook, Twitter, etc. Dutifully doing so amused my 11 year old daughter as she has wanted a Facebook account for some time and I had been stalling her. I figured it would be a good way to check it out before I gave my OK.
I became “Facebook Friends” with the other members in my “cell” including our Director. Now for those of you who aren’t familiar with Facebook - it provide people with very large egos a platform to publish every little meaningless thing about themselves including what they are doing every second of every day. In short - 11 year old girls.
While I could saw early on that our Director had maturity issues, I WAS SHOCKED. This woman (girl) posted at least 30 times a day. Every bar she went to, how much she had to drink, whether she was getting it on that night. Complete with photos. (My, My…those photos…) There is no way this woman could have been doing any work at all for BNI or her business. It was one drunken sortie after another. I said nothing about it and I am ashamed to say that the high point of my day became settling down each evening with my family to view the exploits of this train-wreck of a reality show - ALL WHILE SHE PROMOTED BNI IN HER POSTS.
Suddenly all but a few of the other “young punks” in the group were dropped as her “friends”so someone had to have brought it to BNI’s attention. What a great way to promote BNI.
Anyway - I am in the process of leaving BNI (3 people have left within the past month)and if I find the time I will pop back and tell about A.) My quest to find a new chapter before deciding to finally dump these thieves and B.) How all the “training classes” are just the same stories again and again and again.
Joey Retro. See this is exactly why you shouldn’t mix your friends and personal life with your work life. There are a lot of things that all of us do in our personal life that is completely inappropriate in the workplace. Perfect example; write an angry alcohol fueled rant blog about everything that pisses you off in life.
That is something that needs to be separated from your work life. I’m glad you brought up Facebook. I have an entire rant about the stupidity of Facebook and an even angrier rant about Twitter. The average literary content on Twitter makes facebook look like the deans list at Harvard.
I’m glad you quit that non-sense. Networking is probably the single most important skill you’ll need in your professional life. BNI has reduced what is an acquired art to a Billy Mays infomercial. BNI is to networking what krystal burgers are to cuisine.
I’ve been a member of BNI for just under a year, and I’m bothered aesthetically by the cultlike aspects, although I recognize that a rigid structure is necessary for the group to function — in fact, since the groups are “self-running,” the only thing BNI actually sells is the structure (I do not count the CD, pin, etc.).
In my case, as I have a business for which finding referrals is easy, I quickly earned back the annual membership fee, although if you calculate in the time investment, membership may not be profitable. BNI is definitely more profitable depending on a member’s profession.
However, some of us have noticed that even for the easy-to-recommend professions, almost all sales closed are for services directly purchased by other members of the group, rather than outside referrals. This goes against the concept of BNI, in which we are a sales team for the group, rather than selling TO the group. And I fear that some of these internal sales are a result of the pressure to achieve recommendations: people would rather shell out the money for another member’s service than face the embarrassment of showing up without recommendations. If this is true, it makes membership considerably more expensive.
I’ve been reading all the posts with a great deal of interest as I have been becoming increasly suspicious of the motives of BNI. I have been a member for less than a year but quite frankly really enjoy the people in our group–which is why I’m still in. I have had a sick feeling for awhile now that it is a MLM/Ponzi scheme and like Amy, feel there is something almost sinister beneath the surface. This was confirmed, for me, during the “recruitment” push and the way the so-called “non-producers” were pointed out condescendingly to all other members– this endeavor made me literally ill. And BTW, I worked my ass off during this but couldn’t find any suckers, so it is what it is. Had I known I would have to recruit people, I NEVER would have joined. I am all for inviting some professionals who “make sense” for the group to see if they’d like to connect/join, but I AM NOT for mass/cold calling strangers for the sake of getting them into a room for a hard sell from the Director. I broght in much closed business to other members and have received several “bad clients” myself. And let me ask, so, the rules are so strict that they can kick you out AND not refund your $$?? Is this not borderline ilegal? What do the Exec Dir and Dir get exactly? I do know that some people love BNI and are dying to get in (though not anyone I contacted). On the plus side, if your group is dynamic and you’re flying solo and need supportive people behind you, then it may be for you. I, personally, have a love/hate relationship with BNI; I put in the time, $$, and energy for the people in my group; however, I am not sure how much longer I will do it, and most certainly will be gone before the next recruitment push.
Like I have said in past posts… The trajectory and goals of BNI, the franchise and BNI, the chapter are completely divergent. They are at odds with each other. BNI teaches you to get to know your fellow members over time so you can trust them and feel comfortable passing them a referral. After all, it is your reputation on the line. However, BNI the franchise wants you to AUTOMATICALY trust them and give them referrals (new recruits) without you asking any questions. -And trust me, they get mighty uncomfortable when you start asking too many probing questions!
Bottom line is: if it works for you and your wallet, hold your nose, and swallow the koolaid. If you cannot get past the “Jonestown after-tase” then take the next flight back to the country. Its kinda like drinking half a bottle of Absinthe in a sitting: tastes like shit, but the effects can be fun. yeehaaww!
All, thanks for the hilarious and informative posts; just returned from my BNI meeting and hearing yet more “instructions/demands/”we are doing this FOR YOU!” propaganda. I have made so much money from BNI that I don’t have two nickels to rub together, let alone pay for the next “dues”. To be sure, there are some really genuine people there who are extraordinarily supportive of you and your business, and for that, I am grateful. However, I still feel that BNI is the most well-oiled MLM scheme I have ever seen. Each time I try to look for more “good” — I feel, see, and hear more bad. I have gone from suspicious to livid to disgusted. I thank you for your website in which I have been able to vent my frustrations, and really appreciate the great laughs as I feel increasingly down about being involved with this organization. Soon, I will cut my losses…
Carol,
Please do yourself a favor, quit now. Quit in a blaze of glory. Quit and tell as many members of that organization the truth why you are quitting.
I did. I’m quitting because as a sales channel this is a waste of time. I spend 80% of my sales time / effort with BNI and receive less than 1% of my revenue from BNI related activities. BNI is wasting valuable that could be better spent on more effective sales channels.
Tell them straight and leave. Thank the handful of people in your group that are worth a damn and bail.
Grumpy Nerd, you are so right. In our most recent meeting, the Director said, “now we have to concentrate on RETENTION of current members”. Hm…why? Because most signed on for only one year and that time is almost up, and they know that they are going to lose a lot more people. Early on, I was very frank in asking the Officers if BNI was a MLM/Ponzi, etc., and they, in all sincerity said, “no”. I don’t think they were lying; I think they genuinely believed it was not because there were no OVERT signs of an MLM. (Perhaps they’re too young to remember the ’80s when MLMs were rampant.) I can only credit BNI with my meeting some of the most awsome people (who I will continually refer to anyway)…for which it cost me over $1,000. Well, stupid is as stupid does. Thanks again for the great, and frank, feedback that confirmed my initial suspicions. You are doing a great service.
Thanks for your blog! I am a real estate lawyer who has been in my local chapter for 3 years, joining as soon as I opened my own shingle. Initally, it was good for me. The real estate (same one the while time) sent me a bunch of referals. Now she works with sellers and sends me nothing. Mortgage person does not send me s–t even though I know she is slammed. Meeting is so long and too strucutred. I am going to swtich to a local networking group that needs an attorney that is only $50 per 6 months and meets twice a month.
Hey Jack, thanks for reading. I’m really shocked at the level of discontent that exists in the world over BNI. But I guess I shouldn’t be. Most of the people I met with in one on one meetings who let their guard down freely admitted that BNI wasn’t worth their time.
One of the things that sticks in my craw regarding BNI is their religious blame overtone. Like the church I attended as a youth BNI puts itself above criticism. That the BNI model is perfection in networking and it works in all case except those where the BNI member don’t perform. In Ivan Misner’s words “Don’t blame your network.”
I remain convinced that real networking is done informally between people that like each other. Once you gain the trust of someone you do business with and once they like you they will introduce you to their other associates. Thats how it’s done.
This concept of structured forced networking that BNI mandates is absurd. I believe it’s designed to show well to visitors and thus sell more BNI memberships. Here is why; a BNI visitor will see all of those referrals being passed and think “wow I’ll close business almost every meeting.” In reality 99% of those referrals are fiction. They are made up, they are requests for free services, low quality customers, or leads that are so poor quality they probably aren’t worth even a single phone call.
There are probably a handful of people that BNI works well for. In my opinion it’s a complete waste of time if you are trying to do series B2B sales.
Good follow up comments to mine, Grumpy Nerd. YOu are right that many of the referrals are worthless or bogus. The one exception was when the real estate agent was sending me closings with ratified contratcs. Unless a referral is a “5″ outta 5 on their “hot” scale like described above, they are bogus. So many people would “corner” me in the 15 minute networking to get FLA, Free Legal Advice which I always despised. You are also right about the religious overtones. You are made to think Ivan Misner is like the Catholic Pope and is speaking with infallibility of the Holy Spirit when he says anything. Think people, I am finally starting to. I just have to plan my exit.
I wish I had found this blog before joining the \cult\. I have only been a member a short time (8 weeks) and every week I sit in disbelief at the brain-washing mentality. I am cynical and sarcastic by nature. When I stood up and told my chapter that I read Givers Gain and found it very insightful into the whole BNI story-I saw my mentor sitting across the room grinning from ear to ear. Although it sounded like I was complimenting BNI, my intent was \wow this is everyone’s weekly brainwashing\. I find myself dreading every weekly meeting and even though I have already made the money invested in return, it is complete waste of my time.
I thought I would just share my opinion as well.
Never been a member of the BNI and never will!
I recently was the “lucky” recipient of an invite from one of my clients to a BNI open day. I didn’t really want to go but felt it might be an interesting morning so went along anyway.
As soon as we sat down and the whole BNI is wonderful sales pitch came out, I just felt like this was a cult recruiting for human sacrifices.
It didn’t help that the guy giving the main speech was Uri Gellerish in appearance and stature. The use of the word “chapter” to descibe the group conjured an image of religious cults and hells angels.
I looked at the price for a years membership and wondered how I would break even, let alone make a profit from the poor quality referrals I would surely receive.
There were two competitors from my industry at the meeting as prospective members and the leadership tried to play us off against each other to gain a signup from one of us.
But the funniest thing for me was when the guy controlling the meeting got people to start filling out the membership forms and everyone apart from me just picked up a pen and started as if they were actually going to join. I could not believe that these people had actually bought into it and had become sheep in such a short space of time.
At that point I made my excuses and left.
My personal recommendation……..complete waste of time
I can’t tell you how hard I laughed when I read through the comments on this site….my spouse is a bni member and I decided I would visit one morning. Yup, a lot of ugly people in the early morning is way too much to take. But all kidding aside…what can one learn about someone in the 60 second commercials? Nothing other than what they do. Would YOU refer one of your valued business or personal contacts to someone you didn’t know anything about? Are they reliable, honest, what are their ethics…no one cares…as long as referrals are passed. My spouse in the last 2 weeks referred four members to valued business associates. Now HE looks like the ass…geez, what the heck did you refer these idiots for? Let’s see a dentist who diagnosed the wrong tooth, an ad designer who just blew off a client, and then designed something that a two year old could do, an electrician who blew off a client as well, and a piano teacher who showed up at her lessons hours late and loopy. YUP, real proud I could refer these losers to you. What a joke.
I just “withdrew” from BNI because in 12 weeks I was the only one in my group who didn’t receive any referrals. Each week I would create a new 60-second commercial and present it with enthusiasm in the hopes that I would get referrals, but each week I was further disappointed. The lawyer, real estate agent and several home improvement business owners (plumber, electrician, floor guy, etc.) all referred to each other, and these referrals were passed back and forth each week. I felt as though I was at a dinner and the food was being passed in front of me, but I wasn’t getting any myself. When I sent the President of my group an e-mail to express my concerns and ask her for suggestions on how I might turn the situation around, she didn’t respond to me directly, but had the District Manager call me. He doesn’t know me, but condescendingly told me I needed to be more positive and persistent. He then went on and on about how much business he had gotten through BNI. I’m angry with myself for paying the high membership fee. At the time I thought it would pay off. I would caution anyone who is thinking about joining NOT TO DO IT! I’m trying to research whether there’s any way legally to get my money back. If anyone has figured out how to do it, please let us all know!
Hey Mary Ellen,
Don’t feel too bad about watching those referrals go by. If my experience was any indication 99% of those referrals were bullshit anyway.
The referrals I got fell into one of several categories;
1. Fictional Bullshit - the referral was simply fabricated.
2. A client that doesn’t pay their bills.
3. A client job so small that it isn’t even worth the time to return the phone call.
4. A “self referral” this is where the BNI member refers himself to you so that you can do something for them for free.
5. Someone that can’t afford your services.
It’s isn’t a matter of your bad attitude it’s a matter that the BNI program is fatally flawed. It’s designed to bring in new members at the expense of the existing members.
If BNI was so worthwhile there wouldn’t be so much turn over. People would stick with it.
Thanks for the feedback, Grumpy. Like any dysfunctional group, the BNI mucky-mucks made me feel as though there was something wrong with ME!
Hey Grumpy Nerd. Classic writing and great points. As someone that runs and reads blogs a lot I found the lack of the usual crass or moronic comments (aside from my fellow wood toothed un-schooled Brit compatriot) very telling. The fact that people are pretty even keeled about their BNI experience speaks volumes to the veracity of it what you and they say are saying.
As a one man operator who generates a lot of leads online I thought it might be interesting to follow up a client’s invite to one of these shindigs. Once there I soon cottoned on to the weirdness of it all - having had a relative marry into the JWs it was all too familiar. (That reference alone will bring you all kinds of sinister new traffic!)
Being naturally cynical and sarcastic like one of the previous commenters my next thought was to self-censorship as in “they may be a bunch of freaks in very bad suits and worse shoes but give them a chance now you’re here”.
The guy that invited me was a bit nervous and edgy (of course he was he knew what was in store for me) and super apologetic for “any pressure you might get to join afterwards”.
Well, I work in a business where I tell people what they don’t want to hear all day long and so could care less, but thought maybe it’s a good place to get some more local referrals and stop being so cynical about the kind of people I come across in my field every day of the week. Problem is that a keen radar gets well honed over the years and you know if only you trusted that first impression….but hey.
Now apart from this keen BS radar, I also have the vice of punctuality to the point where I am always stupid early to be on time. I should have realised something was up when I arrived at 6.30 (for 6.45) and hung out in the venue lobby for ten mins or so wondering where the first arrivals where. The hubbub down the hall should have been the giveaway. I ventured along and stuck my head around the door and there was like 20 people there already. When I mentioned to my client that I was usually early, four or five people immediately butted in to say how they’d been there since 6am and one guy said he was ashamed that he’d only arrived at 6.38 and was the last one there. I laughed but no one else did.
The previous commenter mentioned the sudden rush for the breakfast table. My God, it was like something out of Logan’s Run where they get to 30 years old and chips in their palms switch on and lead them to a certain death.
I assumed (haha) that I would be seated next to the guy who invited me, but no, I was ushered to one of a sprinkling of seats set amongst a couple of fierce looking guys low on charm or humour, one of whom had spent too long pampering himself in the bathroom despite the ungodly hour and another who really should have spent *some* time cleaning himself before turning up.
Then the really odd bit struck me. There were it seems three other ‘visitors’ (from Planet Earth that is) and around 35 ‘members’. Yet almost all of the script that the meeting chairman was reading out was directed at the benefits of joining. I thought ‘these other guys must get really bored of hearing this script every bloody week at the crack of dawn’. I looked around and saw many dead and trancelike faces, most of them chomping away at caterers packs of Kelloggs or drinking powdered orange juice.
Then the came the ‘Amens’.
That really freaked me out, I almost jumped out of my seat.
OK well no one actually said ‘amen’ but they shouted ‘Yes!’ in unison or clapped or shouted ‘Good Morning’ by zombie rote in the quasi religious manner that meant they may as well have shouted ‘amen’ or ‘hallelujah brother!’ (However, this is England so although they follow the rules they mumble in unison like errant schoolboys from a Dickens novel)
Then came those strange pitches by nervous mumblers reading printed out speeches like reluctant best men at a wedding. Again I thought ‘ how can these people listen to that same shit every bloody week, and at sparrow’s fart’, as the dear old cockneys used to call the crack of dawn.
Hold on, that guy’s pitch rhymed. Or did I imagine it? No. The next one did too. Sort of. Then then next guy had a catchphrase - and everyone mumbled the punchline together whilst spitting Rice Krispies.
Others meanwhile scoffed a disgusting breakfast of overcooked crap on a plate clearly not listening (why would they? they already knew this people and hear this crap every week). My wife had already laughed at me this morning and said ‘give me £10 and I’ll make you breakfast’, before going back to sleep like any other sane person who wasn’t at a BNI meeting).
Then came more and more speeches all of them about benefits to members, one of the head honchos seemed to invite himself to talk for 15 mins about his ‘brilliant’ new business idea (which was, erm, referrals from other members disguised as an affiliate program).
Finally at the end it seemed there would be time for a chat with the two or three people present who probably could provide useful referrals but no, us visitors were not allowed to participate in that. Instead we were appointed shepherds to herd us away towards a quiet area where they would ‘explain how to fill in the application form’. Oh my God. By now I’d been in this place hours and not networked with anyone except Messrs Perfume & Pong next to me.
Really this was supposed to be the sales pitch, the hard sell, but my mob were not hot on that. The Brits are far too apologetic when they try to mug you but don’t really believe in what they are doing.
‘I’m, ah, um, really, um, sorry, but I simply have to um ah point out the erm um rules of members, otherwise I’ll be in um trouble, old chap’.
Actually that implies that like Grumpy’s vision of us English, they all spoke nicely with good diction. Really it was speech impediments and ‘estuarian’ english to the fore, where every sentence from a total stranger about a subject you have no idea about (them) begins with an oxymoronic ‘Obviously’ - as in ‘Obviously, I’ve only got the one kidney…’
Anyway that aside, what saved me from this Rosemary’s Baby congregation? Was it my built in radar for wanksh*t?.
Well ,partly, but the truth is that these people had kept me for so long that I suddenly realised my parking permit had expired 5 mins ago and I did not want to get a ticket just to be polite to these characters. Despite the fact that they all knew the car park rules and said things like ‘oh yes, better go, the wardens are hot around here’ I knew they knew that I’d found them out and was leaving them forever.
As I sat in my car and switched on the ignition (no parking fine ticket ‘obviously’) I looked around at the normal people just starting their day, the sun was shining everything was warm and cozy and suddenly I was back where I belong - on Planet Earth.
It had all been a terrible dream.
Wait, a minute - who’s that calling me?
Hello? BNI cult leader? Yes, sorry I left so abruptly, I erm ah um… Yes of course take my credit card details
..Not.
Enjoyed the comments since I last logged in. Not surprised to know that BNI sux just as bad on the other side of the pond. I left BNI and joined a small local networking group. It only meets twice a month and the membership fee is just $50 for 6 months and the meeting is 1 hour. It is very similar to the BNI meeting, but it does not do about a half-hour of the pontificaitng that you do at a BNI meeting.
http://bizcovering.com/marketing-and-advertising/bni-business-networking-international-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/
I had to give my 10 minute presentation at our chapter this past week. I was talking to one of the other chapter members who let’s say is in the bakery business. I had referred one of my staff and I was letting them know how happy my staff-member was with their services. No thank you was returned or sign of gratitude and I thought to myself, wow that’s rude. This person then proceeded to tell me they tried to call me yesterday to see if I wanted to give one of their products as a door prize that day. I said oh, I never got the message. Then they proceeded to tell me they called THE WRONG BUSINESS. WTF??? You want referrals from me and you don’t even know where I work after I’ve stood up every week for the last 3 months and stated my name and business. What a greedy piece of crap whose business practices leave little to be desired.. It’s the last straw-I am gone.
Hi there. Just got invited to a London BMI open morning and found this thread via Google after going through about 10 pages of various chapters. The whole thing doesnt feel right, just getting a random phone call and an invite (by MAIL only, they dont appear to trust the internet).
Having read all this i am actually pretty tempted to go along and just see WTF all these people are on purely for entertainment value. There might even be an article in it (i freelance).
Al,
I’d be interested in hearing your take on the whole thing if you do attend that BNI meeting.
Hi Ayla: I understand your frustration. I am a lawyer and i only practice in 4 areas, mostly real estate closing. I want closings from the realtor and the mortgage person. They have not sent me crap recently which is why I am leaving. But of course, the other memebers want FLA (Free legal advice) about shit that I dont know about. Like child custody and criminal. Have you been listening to my infomercial? Obviously not.
Al: It is funny you say what you did. I had gotten these strange letters before. wE had a visitor’s-recruitment day every few months. We had to send letters to 5 people or else. WTF? No one is going to respond to a stupid chain letter. Anyway, have fun and be ready to be recurited.
Oh boy….I’m glad I found this blog. I’ve been to two visitors day meetings at my local chapter. The first was about 12 months ago and due to travel committments and an uneasy feeling, I didn’t follow through with membership. The second was this morning when I was asked to attend by one of my clients. Considering we have a sizeable contract currently in negotiation I thought it would be prudent to attend and not risk offending them just as we are about to close the deal.
A number of things struck me as odd. 1) there were only two members still in the chapter from a year ago and they were now in the “leadership” team. 2) The sheer number of internal leads that were passed. I saw virtually no referrals from outside the group…..doesn’t this go against the whole point of BNI?
The other questuion I have is how much of the $1000 signup fee goes to the director? From what I can tell the director/s have very little financial outlay as the chapter members always have their hand in their pocket to pay expenses.
They even had the cheek to hit me up for a $5 meeting fee. Great!! I paid $5 to sit at a table with two other people wgho were too interested in organising their business card folder to pay any attention to the new chap at the table.
BNI has customers not members. Unlike a golf or service club, members of BNI have no equity in the organisation. They have no say in the rules or structure…..they just purchase a script with no opportunity for creativity or independant thought.
No wonder Ivan is always smiling!!
Well done almostgotme! YOu only wasted 3 hours of your life instead part of 3 years. And $5 instead of over $1000, not to mention all the lunches.
Now the calls have started trying to get me to sign up!!
almostgotme, Are they trying to call you pressuring you to join?
http://bizcovering.com/opportunities/bni-good-bad-and-ugly-part-2/
Here is one more about leads vs. referrals in bNI
http://bizcovering.com/business/bni-business-network-international-leads-vs-referrals/
Jack that second article was good! I had no idea just how many people felt taken advantage up by BNI until I posted this article.
GrumpyNerd: Thanks for your blog as a place to vent! Thanks to your blog, we are able to spread the word about this evil organization.
Nice points, I will be using them as my next educational moment in our BNI chapter.
I have at times seen all that was reported, and I have also seen it all happen very differently — all in the same chapter at different times.
I don’t give much of a darn about the big BNI organization, but I do care about our chapter and the business we bring each other. Our chapter is what WE make it be.
One surprize I have had is how much of this can actually be helped by an active education coordinator and by an active membership committee that truly reviews how folks are doing each month. Small nudges made at the right time can keep the bad trends away, but this may not be happening effectively in many chapters.
The big BNI organization (well, just oru area director) did step in at one point and give us a good slap in the face and kick in the pants. The catch was that we really needed these pushes and I am thankful to the area director for the wake-up calls — they made our group much more effective.
So why would I be using your points? Because they have alot of validity and I want to review where we stand this week with respect to them. Simply pointing them out will do much to cut down on their frequency. (I think we are OK overall but there are some places where frank comments are needed.) I’m sorry that your chapter had so many all at once.
So dear readers, what to take away? What Grumpy Nerd reports can and does happen, but it does not have to happen and it does not always happen. It depends on the chapter.
Here is one stat I love and it is available in almost every VP report in every meeting: Take the $ amount of thank yous and divide by referals given. That is a reality check. Our chapter, BTW, is averaging about $825 per white slip (good), and about 1.5 per member per month (needs improvement).
If you are in a chapter where these bad trends are happening, then step in and halt them. The chapter is what YOU make it be and you do not need to be a senior officer to cause changes. Think of it as protecting your investment. It is your chapter, make it work.
Lynn,
It’s impossible to “make it work” when the realtor, attorney, appraiser, mortgage lender and home improvement people are sitting there fat and happy, passing leads back and forth. When I told the President of the Chapter that I was disillusioned because I hadn’t gotten any leads in 12 weeks, she had nothing to say. (By the way, she manages a home products store that supplies products to the home improvement people).
I have been on a writing binge. Here is one more.
http://bizcovering.com/business/why-my-local-networking-group-is-better-than-bni/
Thanks Grumpy Nerd. The binge continues.
http://bizcovering.com/management/bni-meeting-90-minutes-of-brainwashing-and-redundancy/
Fascinating! On the last article, I posted, I got a comment from Misner (or Misner’s people) himself! I must have hit a nerve.
Hahaha, you said everything I had in mind, thank you! I work with/for BNI and it only has been a few months since I got to know this organization but this is a total brainwashing cult. Very fortunately I don’t need to participate in the 60 seconds introduction of myself or “I have picked the names of random people out of White Pages for myself to announce I have referrals for others.” It didn’t take me a week to realize this is insane.
Someone associated with BNI asked me last week, “What if you owned a business and it is not going well and don’t have money to spend but want to join BNI - would you borrow money and still join?” I said right away, “I would not.” Then he said, “Why, not making enough money means you’re doing something wrong. If you didn’t decide to join, you can never leap from the same old situation.” Right, we need something to break out. BUT why would it have to be BNI that I should join?!
Maybe because I have spend the last few years wandering about, I don’t know, but sitting on a table being skeptical about the whole concept of BNI, the torture of having listen to old men eating breakfast with their mouth open and slurping, already wanting to escape from the reality, plus mid-aged men commenting about how pretty they find me and saying bad jokes - and giving fake smiles ending up straining my facial muscles…FTW. And all the trainings they give make you think that BNI’s concepts are the best in the world and if you fail to believe, you’re a total loser. Great education. Everybody has to act the same way in this system. No outlaw.
Oh man, I feel so good after writing the novel above now!!!
Let it all out Katie. Thats what this blog is for venting your ample rage.
Great rant.
Great stuff, I was bombed out for missing six meetings in a 4 month period, thank the lord for that. BNI is a complete waste of money. My Chapter in the UK comprised the usual small smll town butcher, baker, candlestick maker. I received no referals for my meeting room and office space brokerage and was criticised for not passing on referrals (when I had none to give). I’m well out of it. If you want more punishment sign up to Ivan Misners Twitter account - Jeez, an endless stream of cod psychology and prattle. BNI is a complete and utter waste of time and money
Mr G!
Welcome to reality. Glad it didn’t take you as long as me to get there.
We got tons of referrals in BNI. Exactly one of them was worth a shit and let me tell you how that got fucked up.
I like to reward people for passing sales leads to us. It’s a great thank you and a good way to do business. So I struck a deal with the member who passed the lead that he would bill the client for the work we were going to do. We talked about a commission in the 10% range.
Great it was all worked out. We submitted our proposal to the BNI chapter member who was in turn going to submit it to his client. Problem is that he didn’t add 10% to the proposal he added 100% to the proposal. Which of course put our cost way out of the market. Long story short since we were now double market price we didn’t get the job.
I have to estimate that maybe 2%-3% of the referrals flying around our chapter were legit. The rest were utter and complete fiction to make the member quota.
Congrats on your departure. Now it’s time for you to do some REAL networking.
Here is another one
http://bizcovering.com/business/bni-criticism-with-the-one-classification-per-chapter/
BNI was the worst experience of my life as an SBO.
As a regional manager in a large city my former employer would pay for any networking group as long as it made sense. I went to a BNI new chapter opening and was introduced to “no need to name military guy” with whom I thought I had known from somewhere.
After 2 hours of BS self promoting I figured out I knew Military Guy from an elite unit in the military. I figured man this guy is a legend in the military and doubted he would remember me as we had only met once or twice.
I walked up to MG to introduce myself and told him I remembered him from our unit. His comments are ones that I will never forget as long as I live. He looked at me dead in the eye and said “Hey that’s great. So are you completing the application or not?” I said “Yeah sure” and immediately threw them in the trash and walked out. In all my years I have never been disrespected by another military member until that day.
I knew then and there that they only gave a crap about money and nothing else. “Help me grow my business.” What a total bunch of BS. Every single RSM in the company joined and came to the same conclusion: they take all of our personal referrals for a few months and then weed you out. They know you are going to give them your Mom, Dad, Uncle, Neighbor and then they won’t need you any longer.
Save the money and do something useful with your time!
Amen, Mr. T. It is an evil group.
Gotta be honest, I’m sorry some of you guys have had bad experiences - but I think that you’ve been in chapters that have not been following the protocol properly. Our chapter of 50+ members is an amazing business experience, everyone benefits greatly - from the woodworker to the real estate agent to the income tax accountant. A BNI group that really lives by the “givers gain” philosophy and doesn’t try to cut corners, cannot help but succeed.
Solaq,
I must differ with you. Our BNI chapter followed the BNI program to the letter and we had miserable results. As I’ve said before even though the chapter average sales were horrible there were a handful of winners in the chapter. The problem is that winners to losers in our chapter (my estimate) were 20 to 1. So for every 1 person that did a good business in BNI 19 others wasted their time.
Thats not a great result and it’s certainly not the sales pitch that member prospects are given. Quite the opposite. The pitch and show to new members was that a lot of business was transacted via referrals during the meeting. How would they know that most of those referrals passed were pure fiction.
Finally if BNI was as fantastic as you say why are there 70+ anti BNI posts on this blog post alone? Why would this blog get so much anti-BNI traffic? Because while there are a small percentage of BNI winners by and large it would seem that the majority of people that sign up for BNI waste their time and their money.
Here is the next article, Thank you for reading, especially you, Grumpy Nerd.
http://bizcovering.com/opportunities/after-leaving-bni-i-am-doing-real-networking/
I went twice to BNI and decided not to join. I felt the only ones to benefit were the folk selling stuff that ever business uses. Printer paper, ink etc. etc.
Also I was unhappy with the simple formula one member of each profession. This does not give a true breakdown of businesses in your area
say 15% builders : 10% engineers: 5% printers
I also felt that in a time like now in a recession, to spend 3 hours a week (and pay through the nose for it) was just not cost effective for me, a sole trader selling my own time as a database developer. I am a bit short of the hours I want but its only 7 0r 8 hours a week short.
If your looking for business try the chamber of commerce in your area, or some sort of non cult network organisation
Non-cult, well put Glasgow! That is exactly what BNI is.
You definitely need to be in your chamber. I am. I am in 2 groups, PNC and a local group. BNI was preventing me from getting out to change my business from closings to foreclosure defense. I am getting with the people I need to be successful. It will take months for me to transition my business, but I will make it work without wasting 4 hours a week in BNI related things. you were smart to save your time and money.
Jack, are you running any ads on the Internet? We’ve had good luck running Google Adwords ads in our local region.
Hey Grumpy: No, I haven’t. What you are doing sounds like a good idea. How much does that cost? Are you making good money with this blog? I am getting pennies, literally, writing what I have. I am patient, confident that my writing on anti-BNI and other topics will pay off eventually. I post my articles through triond.com Your site is No. 3 on my list of sources of article reads. Thanks again!
Hey Jack.
I’m making exactly zero from this blog. I don’t run any ads on it. It’s more of a public service and outlet for my pent up annoyances with humanity.
I’m fairly certain to make significant money with a blog you have to treat it as your full time job and sometimes be pushing a product or service.
I have a pal that did $500-$1000 a month with a tech related blog and Amazon affiliate links. He did quite a bit of work for that money. It certainly wasn’t free.
What I was talking about is using Google advertising for your legal practice. The cost depends on the market you’re in. Size of the city you practice in. How sophisticated your competitors are etc. You could probably get started for $200-$300 per month. Try it for a month to see if it works for your business. If it does great. If it doesn’t you’re only out $200. You also have to have a running website for your business and an easy way for people to get in contact with you from the website. Usually a contact form + phone number.
Hey Grumpy: I got a webiste for the business. I am getting into foreclosure defense since the real estate closings have dried up for the most part. I don’t make much money writing the articles, but I plan to have it be a “side income” eventually. I am looking into the best way for SEO for the site, but I think I may do that for the foreclosure defense instead of the law firm. LOL, I got two spicy comments on my last article. I deal with them. Have a good one
BNI is complete and utter bs. i went to a meeting this week as a guest and what i saw was a group of fired up mary k sales people and just about every other “professional” in attendance were all the local weakest link business people. you know the ones that appear to be working hard but are selling something different every few months and never accomplish much. It appears its more of a support group for business’s that underperform. it was apparent it makes those people feel they are part of something when in fact they are on the outside of the “real” business community. I would actually be stepping back by joining the group. All the members were very nice but they almost seem like cult members and act like there is some secret success deal by “locking out” your competitors. there were a couple people in the same line of work as me and quite frankly they are not competitors but if they are I hope they all join this group! Knowing they are all locked in there for 90 minutes each week giving each other hi fives and wasting there time is comforting to me. also the one year total of referrals was so bad (below 2) i dont see the point. i think this is a great business that makes the “founder” tons of money.
Colorado Raider: I think you nailed every important point in your post. I saw BNI as the equivalent of a double A baseball team. Those that are in there are on their way up or are going to stay mediocre. Yes, it is great for Mr. Misner. Yes, it does seem like a cult where anything said anti-BNI or anti-Misner was blasphemy and “bitching” Good for you to be out of BNI.
After attending a number of networking events in the past few weeks, I have received two phone calls, a letter and a personal approach extolling the virtues of BNI membership.
However, having also attended a meeting of a religious cult (yes, a real one) in my late teens, I began to notice uncomfortable similarities between the approach of the BNI evangelists, and the “love bombing” that I was subjected to by members of the religious cult after I decided not to attend any more of their meetings.
This evening, after the second phone call regarding BNI in 24 hours (from two different local chapters who both have a vacancy for - surprise - a photographer) I Googled the phrase “Is the BNI a cult?”
The first result was this blog. My conclusion? If it isn’t, it might as well be.
Armed with the information above, I certainly won’t be joining, but I might go to a meeting and play dumb, just for kicks. If I do, I’ll be sure to let you know how I get on.
LOL, Mr. Taylor, I found this blog after googling BNI sucks. Grumpynerd has done a great public service with this website.
Jack. Thanks for the comments as always. I feel for anyone that gets suckered into BNI that isn’t part of the very tiny minority that actually makes money in it.
I wish I had more time to dedicate to ranting on this blog! But since I’ve left BNI and been using real networking and online advertising I’ve been very busy with work.
Yeah, I was involved in BNI for 5 years. It really helped me to discover ways to build my business in the first year or so. After that, it was all downhill. You would be amazed at some of the conflicts of interest a chapter will have even with the one person from a profession rule. Chapter member’s family members may do what you do; you think you’ll get the referral? If you get some narcissistic people in there you’re screwed.
WOW! I was not looking for this and no idea how I got to reading such unhappiness and rantings of dissatisfied fellow humans. Why is it always someone else’s fault?
I have been involved with BNI for seven years and have averaged $50,000 a year the last four(travel business). It is a small PART of my overall marketing and the weekly 90 minutes is well worth the time and effort. It is not a panacea for bad salesmanship or lack of direction, business sense and target marketing. I have also made some good friends and business contacts that I can call upon for advice or discuss ideas. Some of us actually meet and figure out how we can help each other out. We do cross-marketing. We invite each other to speak at other organizations so we can expand our clientele. We pass out each other’s gift certificate to our clients when we can. Yes, your membership is what you make of it just like your own business. If chamber meetings work for you, wonderful! I find them to be an old boys club who are interested in drinks and the snacks at the mixers.
No, I did not drink the kool-aid. I, and my chapter members, simply concentrate on the benefits that a BNI meeting provides. All these negative comments(70+ from 100,000+ plus members) really made excited for my 7 am meeting tomorrow morning! Incidentally, we always have an orientation meeting with visitors and explain the ‘requirements’ of BNI membership so there are no misunderstandings later on. The more intelligent visitors even ask the attendance and referral question before we get to them! And if start to see that our chapter is doing thing that you all seem to have inexplicably experienced, we will leave without hestitation. I think the problem lies with your chapters, directors, leadership teams and shame on all of you not to try and fix the problems. I volunteered for the leadership team after I saw things happening that I did not like. But I was taught to do something about a problem and not just complain about it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, maybe you need to visit my Reno chapter and see how you can be a part of the solution instead of the problems. Remember what Gandhi said -”be a part of the change you want to see.”
Hey Grumpy, as you can see, I have been busy with foreclosure defense. So I have not had time to write a new BNI rant. Matt, your situation sounded like mine. A good idea out of the gates, but not anymore. Good luck with your business.
Suraj,
If you really read the post and looked past the sarcasm you’d see that I did in fact admit that there were 1 or 2 chapter members that did quite well in our chapter. However that was at the expense of the other 30+ members who were earning very little.
I see the flaw not in our personal execution or the execution of the local chapters but rather with the architecture of BNI. It is designed to show well to visitors insuring a high percentage of them fork over a membership fee. This while hiding the reality; piles of fake referrals, members trying to hard sell you on their services, and tons of turnover thus insuring a nice flow of cash up the pyramid.
All this so you can “network” with the bottom of the business food chain.
If you are in one of the few “professions” that can actually make money in this type of environment and you can stomach the bullshit by all means join up. But if you run a real business and want to grow that business there are many other options that will be more effective and waste less of your valuable time.
I think the BNI business model is brilliant. I admire Ivan Misner for coming up with it.
You get some one to pay to join a group.
Their role is to find more people to join the group.
They can also volunteer their time to help run the group.
If they quit, it does not matter because Ivan has made his dollar along with the the regional owner (in my case Dawn Lyons)
I want to start a business like that - everyone pays, they recruit new clients for me (thinking it is to their benefit) and they do my work for free.
BNI likes to pull \invisible rules\ out their back pocket when ever it pleases them. \You can’t do that, it is not BNI policy\ they say. Ask for the policies - they don’t exist
Yes - some people besides Ivan and Dawn make a lot of money. The realtor, the contractor, a few of the folks with services everyone needs. Most people get very little
My chapter was a million $ chapter. That should mean each of the 40 of us got $25k. I missed most of my $25k.
1) a few people in the group got huge chunks
2) a lot of the money is either on paper (it never existed) or was in trade
I did learn a lot fro BNI and it helped my business. I am glad to be out.
Of course, I never drank the kool-aid.
I never joined the cult.
I don’t think BNI intends for you to learn anything about someones business in 60 seconds and not much in the 10 minute presentation as far as that goes. What I fell for was that we were to get to know each other better with our \meetings outside the meetings\. I spent a lot, and I mean a lot of time setting up meetings and meeting people for coffee, to try and dig deeper to get to know the various members better and send them referrals. I also spent way too much time meeting with my \power group\ members and all they ever wanted to talk about was how to recruit new members and how the larger your group is, the more referrals you will get. I honestly believe the people thought that. At least on the surface. But as many on here have pointed out, upon further examination, many of them would admit they had worked their fannies off for not much return. The whole mess is forced, unnatural and downright uncomfortable for most people.
One of the most insidious things about this whole dynamic is that people indeed feel trapped and ashamed because they have been duped into spending a rather large sum of money, so they continue with the charade until they can at least feel like they have gone the extra mile. I would guess this is about 1 year. Personally, I couldn’t stomach it for nearly that long lasting only 4 months. One of the biggest wastes of time and money I have ever experienced.
Another thing that irritates me are people at other networking events coming up to me and trying to get me to come to their awesome BNI chapter. Theirs is always different and the best. What utter crap. I try to get as far away as I can and still be in the same room with these Koolaide drinkers.
I went to a BNI meet last week for the first time. I reckon just like the Grumpy Nerd that it is useful when you are selling a commodity everybody needs at some point, such as plumbing. So not for me sadly!
Our “friend” who helpes us getting our own business started and is a president of a chapter is his town is pressuring us to attend a meeting of a chapter in our region. Like he says “the first 2 meetings are free”. And if we go, he insist on going with us. Does he get a bonus for bringing new members to a chapter or what? This really upsets me and my husband to find out that he tries te set us up for a cult?!? We are really doubting his “friendship” for being sincere or a farce. I have been reading this blog since yesterdag till late at night and we put out a mail to him stating that we don’t have the financial means to the BNI membership. Since we’ve met this man a few months ago i allready got a strange vibe about this BNI he always likes to talk to us about. The first times i googled it on internet all i could find was BNI’s own website with the same raving stories that our “friend” is feeding us with for months. It’s a shame because we really liked this man. He genually seemed to take an intrest in what we were doing. He promissed us to sponsor our website for free. He later got back on that because the webdesigner he said was going to help us built our website couldn’t do it for free anymore because of the financial crisis that has affected her business. I feel so stupid and naïve to have almost bought this crap. This so called “web designer” is just one of his chapter members and we are just one of his leads. It’s all about the money!! We hurt a real friend for taking away his work on our website for a litte bit of money and a lott of his time for someone who was setting us up from the git go. Thanks grumphy nerd!! We would have been in deeper trouble if i did not read all this on your blog. You are doing important work. It’s still a mess we have to get out of but we got out just in time. Before i wrote this post i even considered the possibility that he might be an innocent victim of this brain washing cult. But now, i believe he knew precisely what he was doing every minute he was doing it.
I am fascinated to see the hate and mistrust for the BNI concept. I understand some of the comments and feel as though other comments are out of line. I have been a member of BNI for 2.5 years and have done quite well. I am in the mortgage business so I guess that makes me one of the lucky ones. I must admit that I have taken advantage of the BNI structure by holding the President and VP slot so I could extend my membership without having to pay. Gotta work the system. I do not really care for our area director. He visited one of my meetings and stood over my shoulder waiting for me to miss a step. With that said, I do think the concept is good if the members adhere to it. Our realtor has not recd a referral in a long time but at the same time she has joined our group but still uses none of our services. My question - why join? Just my opinion. I do enjoy the different views though.
I have found that many BNI members are cut from the same mold. If they are not at a BNI meeting, they are often networking at the Rotary or Chamber of Commerce events. If these people spent as much time working as they did socializing aka networking, maybe they’d actually make some money.
Morning, Nerd,
Some great posts here since I last checked in. After being in my chapter for six years, I have come to realize it is just like you say: If it works for you, it works for you. If it don’t, then get the flock out o’ dodge. I have also learned not to invite anyone that is looking for a silver bullet to becoming a gozillionaire. I actually don’t use any other marketing for my business and, good, bad, or ugly, it seems to work for me.
I think one of the tricks is to recognize BNI as a pyramid dressed in legitimate clothes. I too think the business model is fairly brilliant: Dub yourself an expert on something, convince folks they “need” your expertise, then get those folks to pay for what they already do on their own anyway. Brilliant! Certainly not original or deep, but brilliant nonetheless.
I can hear it now: Well are you pro BNI, or are you anti BNI? Simply put: I am pro me and my business. I stand up in our meetings constantly giving a “mentor’s moment” or “educational moment” and tell everyone that BNI is simply a marketing tool. Nothing more, nothing less. It is a tool that can be leveraged in marketing your product, good, or service. I also learned very early on, NOT to sell to the other members in the group. Doesn’t end well. I also follow up that message with “BNI is a means to an end… BNI is not the end in and of itself.” I usually have to trot that message out and hit the rest of the chapter over the heads with it once “Membership-drive hysteria” sets in; typically the Fall and the Spring. I remind people that BNI is only an “end” to Cardinal Meisner and the franchise owners. BNI is THEIR cash cow to tend to; not ours. Our focus should be on our own businesses bottom lines, not BNI’s. Needless to say, I am not on any BNI directors’ or franchise owners’ Christmas card list.
Make BNI serve you and your business, Pull the eject handles if your BNI chapter is only focused on “growing the ranks”. Great Blog! Look forward to more!
I see five or six folks defending BNI using their own success as a measuring point. What I want to know is, do all the other members in your chapter also enjoy similar kind of success? Is that success evenly distributed among your members, or does your referral $$ represents majority of the total referral $$ that is often touted to potential new members.
I like how Grumpy did an income statement-like calculation (with your own hourly rate) to measure success rate. Everyone involved in BNI should really include your time and hourly rate as a consideration when measuring your BNI activities investment, otherwise you are just cheating yourself.
Hey Al,
At the end of the day math will usually save you. If we’re dealing with a business activity you have to always judge the cost vs the revenue. How else can you judge success in a sales/advertising/marketing effort.
I spent x and I received y. Was it worth it? If you don’t evaluate the effectiveness of your sales efforts how can you tell what works and what doesn’t?
When you are talking about your time you always have to factor in the opportunity cost. While I was at BNI I could have been; billing a client, getting real sales done, running a more effect ad campaign…
Here is what shocked me; during the time we were involved with BNI Google advertising netted us 300 times more revenue than BNI. 300times. 30,000% more income from Google ads than BNI.
Google cost more than BNI in $$$ but far less in terms of time.
With that said BNI worked for 2-3 people in the chapter at the expense of the other 35-40.
Hey nerd,
You are absolutely right about the math either working for you or not. There are folks that come into the group where the math does not end up working out in their favor. The usually leave. The ones that have used your formula and the math is on their side, usually end up staying. I don’t personally buy into the whole BNI culture thing. I don’t drink the koolaide. I roll my eyes at the cheerleaders and have not read a thing that Meisner’s ghost writer has put down on paper… But, in the end, after using your formula to evaluate the math as it relates to me, the numbers work. Like you said, “In the end, math usually saves you.”
I was approached by a fellow chamber of commerce member to join BNI. I have to say that the idea of ‘locking’ out the competition just didn’t seem right to me. I am a new business owner and very badly need to make some money but in spite of this, I still believe in capitalism. People should choose a business because of what it offer to them, not because it’s ‘the only game in town’. To lock someone out because your think they are competition is wrong. What if the products you offer are inferior to the competition? Shjould someone just blindly support that person becuase they paid $430 to join the group? I want to earn business because I offer my clients the best product for the best price. Not because I’m the only ‘approved’ person in that catagory.
Besides the fact that Misner looks like a ‘televangelist’, BNI’s conduct does not seem to me to be about ‘doing what is right’, but rather ‘doing what is best for themselves’.
I’m going to save the money and invest in more Chamber of Commerce groups where I can earn respect and business based on who I am. not what group I belong to.
I have been a BNI member for seven months and will be attending my last meeting tomorrow, in which I will be telling them what I think for the second time, with the addition of a few more home truths and possibly a two word phrase ending with ‘off’, depending on what mood I am in at such an ungodly hour, which after BNI’s performance yesterday will not be a pleasant and polite one.
My business was practically ‘fresh out the box’ when I joined and in the time I had spent before joining had managed to get a few good clients which have given me repeat business. I was invited to attend a meeting and even though the alarm bells rang when the chanting and propaganda started, I still ended up joining, something I deeply regret. Since then, I have found BNI taking up more of my time and gaining me no new business, to the point where my business stopped growing and started nose-diving.
When I pointed out some of the flaws in BNI, some of the brainwashed members began to look at me as though I had handed them a dead baby and blamed the sudden lack of referrals I received as being my fault for destroying any trust members had in me (presumably because I had a mind of my own).
Yesterday I had a phone call from our chapter director demanding that I accounted for every minute of my working week and my reasons for being in business. I was also told that no one had any confidence in me and that no one would pass me any referrals, which to be honest I am glad about, since I won’t need to waste any more time phoning people that don’t want to do business anyway.
In the seven months I have spent as a member of BNI, I have realised that the chanting and the Manson Family recruitment drives are not designed to make you money but to get you to bring in more victims (visitors, sorry). I have also reallised just how similar to Communist Russia the BNI structure really is and was surprised that the BNI equivalent of the KGB hadn’t taken me in the night!
The other thing I noticed about BNI was the fact that there is not a lot of networking done in a networking organisation!
I have enjoyed reading people’s opinions of BNI and am very glad to now know that I’m not the only one who has come to their senses. And so, after tomorrow, I will be looking for a real networking group and will be free from the gulag!
Good luck to you Joe. You will do better now that you are out of BNI. Funny, I had a cool-aid guy in the group months after I left show up at my South Carolina office to get me to do a will for her New Jersey mother-in-law who was visiting. WTF? I am not licensed in New Jersey. He then goes to say “Come back; things are different.” Q” Is the mortgage person still there? A: Yes
Then we have nothing to talk about, go away
John, that is about right calling Misner a televangelist. I think all types of this networking groups are pointless. I am going to stay in my Kiwanis and I am going to get with an attorney networking group since I do what few people will do, foreclosure defense.
I have been reading through these posts for about 45 minutes, and find THEM to be a complete waste of time. When it comes right down to it, you get out of BNI what you put into it, just like any other group. What BNI offers is structure and consistency so that members can educate and be educated.
My chapter was a chapter that was having difficulty a few years ago. We were dropping members and morale was down. A group of members came together and decided to move back to the basics of BNI and to work the program is it was intended. Members began giving effective one minute presentations (which we prepared before the meeting so that we could pay attention to the other members during the meeting), having good 1-1 meetings (which focused on business and how to find business for one another), and adhering to the “recommended” policies of BNI.
And guess what - a $40k chapter became a $400k chapter in the course of 1 1/2 years. We finished our last six-month period with over $430k in closed business generated by the referrals passed in our meeting.
And the success continues. Since we are continuing to follow the BNI program as intended, and since we are all positive about it, our results continue to be solid. We report at least $15k in closed business each week, have passed over 120 good referrals since April 1, and we continue to grow as a chapter.
Yes, you can network with the chamber (I am on the board of our chamber) and kiwanis, rotary, and other organizations. And you should. But what BNI offers is the structure that, when followed, generates results that can be tracked. I can look back over the past year and tell you how much business came from BNI. The numbers are great, and I would be a fool to leave.
So, it is unfortunate that so many of you have had such bad experiences in your time as BNI members. I wish you had the opportunity to be a member of a chapter like mine. Of course, mine was like yours 1 1/2 years ago until the members MADE A DECISION to make the chapter worthwhile.
So instead of quitting, step up and lead your chapter to success. And instead of complaining because you cant work the BNI system, connect with someone who has been successful and learn how to make it work for you.
Have a great day. I am going to go write my sales manager minute for tomorrow. By the way, I asked for a specific business referral last week and guess what - I got a call monday from a member and am meeting with this potential client on Friday to do business. It works!
Hey CurrentMember. It wouldn’t be a cult if it didn’t have brainwashed members. I’m sorry that you’re a sucker. But the world needs suckers.
I don’t know about everyone else here that left BNI. I didn’t quit networking. I quit BULLSHIT networking and started doing REAL networking.
Real networking is when you do business with people that you like and trust. A real network is built over time by way of your good reputation. A real network doesn’t charge a quarterly fee. A real network doesn’t have a referral quota. Nope. When you actually build a real business network no one expects anything out of you except your integrity and honesty. If it takes one week, one month or one year between referrals thats what it takes.
If you grow out of your business infancy that perspective will help you understand how ineffective and self serving the BNI business model is.
I wish you luck and I hope that someday you come to a higher level of enlightenment.