PRESENTED BY MARK REBB

The following information has been resourced from the Housatonic Business Alliance training manual as well as 40 years of networking participation and experience. It’s always good to rely on our training and in the spirit of this new baseball season data… take batting practice to improve and sharpen our game.

It may seem simple but perhaps the number one rule to follow is to attend the meetings. Of course, there are times when we are unable to do so whether scheduled or unscheduled absence. However, it is incumbent upon us to ensure we are well represented with a sub when absent. Our networking group has provided lenience to the policy of 6 absences within any six-month rolling calendar. When we are absent and not represented it literally provides a void in the room.

Be early for meetings and network with members and make sure to introduce yourself to any guests before the meeting, which one can’t when we are late.  If we are late, we have also missed and or interrupted the Education speaker.

Being prepared is paramount. Use a great tag line and make that a consistent part of our 60 second commercial to reinforce our brand.  Let’s also be mindful to change our messaging to keep it fresh and widen our message.  For example, in Dorothyann’s recent commercials she focused on the elderly clientele during one commercial and pregnant clientele the next.  This technique reinforces the many advantages of doing business with you.  Keep your information positive.  When we use our time to speak of negative situations in general or about our clients, it dilutes our time and message.  Make use of the weekly Agenda to know when your time for Education or Weekly Speaker.  Prepare your materials a week ahead of time in case you’re needed to jump in because the scheduled speaker is unable to do so.

Have a schedule of one-on-one meetings.  This is both a core principle of our Training Manual and the best way to stay connected with our membership.  One-on-one meetings give us an opportunity to continue to learn about how we may benefit each other.  My rule of thumb has been to have a minimum of 2 one-on-one meetings each month.  That is not a lot when you consider that there are only 24 one-on-one meetings each year. We should rotate whom we have one-on-one meetings with membership.  Having 24 only gives time to meet each member for a one-on-one each year.

Give strong referrals.  As referrals are the primary reason for joining a networking group let’s make sure they include one or more of the following:  A strong hand-off which means to do one of the following ~ set up a meeting with yourself, the member, and potential client; make a phone or Zoom conference call with all parties to make the connection; or send a email introduction with all parties.  In each setting you should outline the client’s needs and why you felt strongly that they should meet with the member and use their services.  We should go beyond simply mentioning the members’ name to a potential client.  Lastly, if we receive a poor referral set up a one-one-one and in a positive manner detail why it was a poor referral and what would make a solid referral in the future.

So, in summary let’s

Be here

Be early

Be prepared

Be positive

Keep our message fresh

Have one-on-one’s often

Give strong referrals

Reviewed by:
Travis P. Mountain University of Georgia Extension

The term Time Management is a misnomer. You cannot manage time; you manage the events in your life in relation to time.

You may often wish for more time, but you only get 24 hours, 1,440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds each day. How you use that time depends on skills learned through self-analysis, planning, evaluation, and self-control.

People who practice good time management techniques often find that they:

• Are more productive.
• Have more energy for things they need to accomplish.
• Feel less stressed.
• Have more free time to do the things they want.
• Get more things done.
• Relate more positively to others.
• Feel better about themselves. (Dodd and Subdheim, 2005)

Finding a time management strategy that works best for you depends on your personality, ability to self-motivate, and level of self-discipline. By incorporating some, or all the ten strategies below, you can more effectively manage your time.

1. Know How You Spend Your Time
A time log is a helpful way to determine how you use your time. Record what you are doing in 15-minute intervals for a week or two. Evaluate the results:

• Did everything you needed to do get done?
• Which tasks require the most time?
• What time of day when you are most productive?
• Where is most of your time is devoted
(i.e. job, family, personal, recreation)?

Identifying your most time-consuming tasks and determining whether you are investing your time in the most important activities can help you to determine a course of action. Having a good sense of the time required for routine tasks can help you be more realistic in planning and estimating how much time is available for other activities. Many apps exist to help you keep track of your time, as mentioned in Strategy 3.

2. Set Priorities
Managing your time effectively requires a distinction between what is important and what is urgent (MacKenzie, 1990). Experts agree that the most important tasks usually aren’t the most urgent tasks. However, we tend to let the urgent tasks dominate our lives. Covey, Merrill, and Merrill (1994) categorize activities into four quadrants in their Time Management Matrix: urgent, not urgent, important, and not important. While activities that are both urgent and important must be done, Covey et al. suggests spending less time on activities that are not important (regardless of their urgency) to gain time for activities that are not urgent but important. Focusing on these important activities allows you to gain greater control over your time and may reduce the number of important tasks that become urgent.

Creating a ‘to do” list is an easy way to prioritize. Whether you need a daily, weekly, or monthly list depends on your lifestyle. Be careful to keep list-making from getting out of control. List manageable tasks rather than goals or multi-step plans. Rank the items on your “to do” list in order of priority (both important and urgent). You may choose to group items in categories such as high priority, medium priority, or low priority; number them in order of priority; or use a color-coding system. The goal is not to mark off the most items, but to mark off the highest priority items (MacKenzie, 1990). A prioritized “to do” list allows you to set boundaries so you can say “no” to activities that may be interesting or provide a sense of achievement but do not fit your basic priorities.

3. Use a Planning Tool
Time management experts recommend using a personal planning tool to improve your productivity. Personal planning tools include planners, calendars, phone apps, wall charts, index cards, pocket diaries, and notebooks. Writing down your tasks, schedules, and items to remember can free your mind to focus on your priorities. Auditory learners may prefer to dictate their thoughts instead. The key is to find one planning tool that works for you and use that tool consistently.

When using a planning tool:

• Always record your information on the tool itself. Jotting notes elsewhere that must be transferred later is inefficient and wastes more time.
• Review your planning tool daily.
• Keep a list of your priorities in your planning tool and refer to it often.
• Keep planning tools synchronized. If you keep more than one, make sure your phone, computer, and paper planning tools match.
• Keep a back-up system.

Apps on your phone can be great planning tools. Apps typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Time Trackers – Gain an awareness of how you spend your time.
• Time Savers – Increase productivity and break time-wasting habits.
• Task Managers – Prioritize and organize tasks to improve time management.
• Habit Developers – Create healthy habits to encourage time management.

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Today’s professionals know that building a network of strong relationships is important to receive good referrals for their business. However, sometimes we receive a referral that is just not that good. It may be that the referral needed something outside our scope of services or products. Sometimes they don’t need anything at all, or they weren’t expecting your call and don’t want to talk with you.

What does one do after receiving a bad referral? My experience is that clear, open, honest, and direct communication that is professional and polite is the only way to solve the problem. It is impossible to get to the heart of the situation without a conversation.

Three Tips for Dealing with a Bad Referral

1.   Always speak up when you get a bad referral and talk to the person who gave it to you. Tell them tactfully, but tell them! I’ve talked to many people who say, “Oh, I can’t tell someone that the referral they gave me was no good.”My reply is, “You can’t afford not to tell them.” Be direct without apologies. Simply say, “This is what happened. I wanted to come to you before I just assumed it was a bad referral,” and then listen to what they have to say. You can listen to an example here.
2.   Be positive and make sure they know it was the referral they gave that was bad, and not their effort. Let them know that you appreciate them thinking of you and your business. The best way to ensure that you don’t get bad referrals is to teach people what you consider to be a good referral. This is different for each person and varies widely among professions. You cannot assume that everyone in your networking group knows what kind of referral you are seeking. You need to be specific and clear about what constitutes a good referral for you and educate your referral partners.
3.   If that doesn’t work, go to your networking group’s membership committee. Don’t talk to other people in the group. It is extremely unhelpful when people talk about each other and not to each other first. Share your concerns with the membership committee. They may have received other complaints about that member giving bad referrals. A good membership committee of a chapter will have a conversation with them and take appropriate action as needed.

Bonus Tip: Track Your Referrals

An effective way to make sure you get good referrals is to monitor the referrals you receive. This can be helpful in several ways. It shows you how often you get referrals, who your referral sources are, the quality of the referral, the status of it, and how much money successfully closed referrals bring to your business. If you don’t know this information today, you may want to consider implementing a tracking system for monitoring your future networking efforts. Over the years, I have observed that people who use systems generate more business.

Referrals and Reputations

When you give a business referral, you give a little bit of your reputation away. So when you are giving referrals, make sure to give good ones. Talk to the potential customer about your networking partner and how they can possibly help them. Ask permission to have your friend call them before you share their phone number. If you give someone a bad referral it can seriously hurt your reputation in your networking group and in the business community. Of course, when you give a good referral, it helps your reputation.

For years I have said that one of the strengths of a BNI® networking group is that most of the members are friends. One of the potential weaknesses of a BNI group is that most of the members are friends. Accountability is key.

If you find yourself in a situation of getting a bad referral, follow the first tip above and talk to the member who gave that referral. You never know what might come out of that conversation.

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