Reactive and Pro-active Referrals

Reactive

Tending to be responsive or to react to a stimulus.

Let’s face it most referrals are reactive. We hear something, like “my photocopier is driving me mad” and that’s a cue for us to launch in to our business card wallet and tick up another referral on the PALMS report.

That’s great , but that’s not really going to happen too often. That’s happy chance or serendipity. Like William Herschel finding Uranus while measuring comets. Or Ricky Ponting slicing the ball in to his own wicket.

Proactive

Acting in advance to deal with an expected difficulty; anticipatory.

Lets see the difference, if I throw this ball at Kevin he has got to react to it. Either he catches it, palms it away or takes the hit right on the schnozz. (At this point I really did throw a ball at Kevin, it hit him on the head. It was only a soft ball and a hard head).

Now lets try something different. I will say to Kevin “catch”. He now knows it’s coming and knows what I want him to do with it and he’s much more likely to catch it.

Like the top level slip fielder who anticipates when the ball is coming, the best sales people anticipate the need for the product or service. They know you need it before you do.

So how do I know when someone needs a photocopier before they do?

Well that’s your job. You need to educate me as your unpaid multi-headed salesforce in how to get you business. You need to use you 60 seconds, your 1:1′s and your ten minutes to tell everyone here in how to be pro-active in getting you business.

What indicators and clues do I need to look for? What sort of businesses should I be mindful of? Where are the businesses that need your product or service? Hell, you know how to sell your products better than I do. You need to train me.

Tags: 121, bni, ed slot

Chimpanzees and 1-2-1s

Chimpanzee (often shortened to chimp) is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The better known chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes, the Common Chimpanzee, living primarily in West, and Central Africa. Its cousin, the Bonobo or “Pygmy Chimpanzee” as it is known archaically, Pan paniscus, is found in the forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo River forms the boundary between the two species.

Queen Victoria, on seeing an orangutan named Jenny at the London Zoo in 1842, declared the beast “frightful and painfully and disagreeably human.”

Chimps, not only look like us, they also share with us some human-like behaviors. They make and use tools and teach those skills to their offspring. They prey on other animals and occasionally murder each other. They have complex social hierarchies and some aspects of what anthropologists consider culture.

Scientists figured out decades ago that chimps are our nearest evolutionary cousins, roughly 98% to 99% identical to humans at the genetic level.

After the completion of the Human genome project, a Common Chimpanzee Genome Project was initiated. In December 2003, a preliminary analysis of 7600 genes shared between the two genomes

The genome projects are a tool that allow us to see in to the minute fractions of difference in our genetic code between chimpanzees and humans and as a result understand how we are different Results from human and chimp genome analyses, currently being conducted by geneticists including David Reich, should help in understanding the genetic basis of some human diseases.

The tiny differences, sprinkled throughout the genome, have made all the difference. Agriculture, language, art, music, technology and philosophy, all the achievements that make us profoundly different from chimpanzees are found within our genetic code. They give us the ability to speak and write and read, to compose symphonies, paint masterpieces and delve into the molecular biology that makes us what we are.

At BNI we don’t need the Chimpanzee and Human genome projects to see what makes us different or similar to our fellows.

At BNI we have the one to one meeting where we establish what each party does, wants and aspires to do.

Rather like the human and chimpanzee genome projects have advanced our understanding of the differences and similarities between humans and chimpanzees, the new BNI Power 121 form uses the appliance of science to help you codify and rationalise the differences and similarities between you.

The BNI Power 121 form breaks down the questions in to a common structure in the same way that science breaks down DNA in to the minute fractions of our genetic code and give you a re-usable measure that you can use.

When you do your 121s, you now need to use one of these forms and submit a copy to the Chapter Membership Co-ordinator.

Tags: 121, bni, chimpanzees, ed slot

Orangutans and Givers Gain

This is quite an old education slot I did about 24 months ago on a topical subject related to the BNI principle of Givers Gain.

Orangutans

The orangutans are species of great apes.

They live in trees and they are the largest living arboreal animal. They have longer arms than other great apes, and their hair is reddish-brown.

Native to Indonesia and Malaysia, they are currently found only in rainforests on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. Their name derives from the Malay and Indonesian phrase orang hutan, meaning “forest person”.

Researchers from the University of St Andrews have been playing a game with two orangutans, Dok and Bim.
They gave Dok and Bim tokens, which they could exchange for bananas which would be given to the other orangutan. So if Dok handed in one of the tokens Bim would get a banana and vice versa.

Initially, Dok, the female, was especially good at swapping tokens to get bananas for Bim, the male. Sometimes Bim would point at the tokens to encourage her. But he was less interested in trading tokens that would win bananas for her.

As she became less willing to help him out, Bim responded by trading more and more, until their efforts were more or less equal.

If you don’t give me enough, then I don’t give you either; but if you give me enough, OK, then I buy your co-operation, and I secure it by giving too.

This is the principle of calculated reciprocity.

Givers Gain.

It’s based on the belief that when you help others get what they want they’ll help you get what you want

It’s not just a belief. It’s an empirically proven fact that exists in nature for, orangutans as well as humans

Tags: givers gain, orangutans

Hello world!

This is my new blog that I am going to use to chronicle my adventures in networking at BNI and other places.

I’m going to use it to put a few of my BNI Education slots up as well as my general observations about networking and hopefully a few ideas on best practice.