In 1985, Ivan Misner founded Business Network International. His vision for BNI was to gather together local businesspeople for the purposes of sharing ideas, exchanging information, and helping one another find more customers and new business opportunities. Today BNI runs 7,000 chapters in 42 countries involving more than 140,000 members.
Networking groups have exploded in the last twenty years; a quick search in your local market will reveal dozens if not hundreds of options. In addition to the aforementioned Business Network International, there are groups like LeTip, SCORE and Sales & Marketing Executives. You’ll also find local chapters of national organizations such as Women in Business, Young Professionals Network, Business Exchange and various groups and networking clubs associated with your city’s Chamber of Commerce. Through ongoing weekly or monthly meetings and social events, local business professionals come together to interact, establish new connections, and most importantly, to help one another grow their businesses.
“Since the beginning of the year I’ve originated at least 10 deals from my BNI group,” one loan originator in Atlanta recently told me. “That’s more business than I get from my best Realtor.”
While several top producers like this one are active members of at least one networking group, most loan originators have yet to take advantage of this avenue of opportunity. If you’d like to explore networking groups as a channel of loan production, here are a few helpful tips for doing it right:
1. First, research your options. Doing online searches via Google or Yahoo, a glance in your phone book under “Groups, Clubs and Organizations” or just asking around will expose several great choices for you to consider. It’s best to start off with a list of three to five groups in an effort to find the right one that suits you. Besides, you may decide to join more than one group—many networking-minded loan originators do. Thus having a good selection at the outset helps.
2. Audit the organization. Most clubs and groups will allow you to be a guest at one meeting for free before joining. Call the organization’s contact person, tell him or her you are seriously considering signing up, and state you’d like to “audit” an upcoming meeting. When you get to that meeting, look for three things:
How many people are there? You’re not going to do a lot of networking or extract a lot of business from a small group of five to ten people. You want at least 20-25 or more active members to make it worth your while.
Is the group organized? Did the meeting start on time? Was everyone present and ready to go? Is there clear leadership at the meeting with a defined agenda and coordinated networking opportunities? A well-orchestrated meeting is a clear sign of a professional organization and one you want to be a part of.
Are members there to help one another, or just help themselves? If you detect that most people are there only to get something for themselves and give nothing to anyone else, don’t sign up. If you see or hear a few leads and referrals exchanged between members, sign up that day.
3. Join the club. Most networking groups and leads clubs have annual dues and specific rules. Dues typically run from $50 to as much as $500 a year. If the opportunity looks promising don’t be cheap about writing the check; you can recoup 12 months of dues with the revenue you earn on a single loan.
As far as the “rules” of the club, make sure you follow them. Some will require you to be there at every meeting, or allow you to miss only one or two meetings a year to remain a member. Some expect members to arrive at each meeting with at least one lead or referral for at least one other member. Others ask members to stand and deliver one or two minute “mini presentations” about what they do for a living or a recent referral success story.
These are good rules. People engaged in networking clubs must be committed to active membership and to the good of the group. If you feel you cannot comply with the rules of the club, or if you don’t plan on helping others, don’t join. (They’ll end up kicking you out anyway!)
4. Go there to network. Some people who belong to these groups will attend the networking functions—and never network. They sneak in late and slip out early. Others arrive quietly, get their coffee and seat themselves alone in the back of the room. Still others will talk to and sit with the same people every time.
That’s crazy. If you join a networking group, you have to network. Always take at least five business cards. Wear your nametag. Arrive 10 minutes early and stay 10 minutes afterwards. Say hello again to people you’ve met and approach members you don’t know and introduce yourself (remember new members are joining all the time). It might take you several meetings or a whole year to work your way around the room, but the broader the network you establish, the more you’ll get out of your membership.
5. Take your relationship-building outside the regular meetings. Many loan originators I know who harvest a steady stream of leads and referrals from their business club or networking group do so by getting close to people outside the regular meetings or events. If you come across someone of particular interest to you, exchange business cards at the meeting and say: “You and I might be able to help one another. I’ll give you a call this afternoon.”
When you do call, suggest a one-on-one meeting over coffee to get to know each other better, talk business, and discuss ways you can cross-refer customers. If the person declines the opportunity, he or she is not interested in helping you or in your helping themselves. If they accept, you’ve got yourself another referral partner. As successful loan originators have found, when it comes to networking groups the real referral relationships are often made outside of the meetings.
6. Add your new contacts to your database. If you have a database of people to whom you send regular letters, post cards, newsletters, emails or correspondence, make sure you add these new contacts you’ve made from your networking group. You want to keep your name “top of mind” as their go-to connection in the home financing industry and a ready-resource should they know someone who is looking to buy or refinance a home.
6. Track your investment. Involvement in a networking group costs time and money. Make sure you see a return on that investment by tracking the referrals, loans and commissions earned.
If after six months of good effort you have received no appreciable business or income from your networking group, consider it a noble experiment, cut your losses and exit the group. (Consider this: If you established a new relationship with a real estate agent and called on her diligently for six months and got nothing, it’s time to move on. The same holds true for this source of business as well.) If, however, you are getting referrals, writing loans, helping others and enjoying the new contacts you’ve made in your networking group, congratulate yourself for making a wise decision and for successfully expanding your business opportunities.
