Summary: Synopsis Today's podcast is a response to a new member's concern that the current reporting system pressures BNI members into valuing the quantity of referrals they pass over the quality of those referrals. "I believe I understand what a good referral is and is not, but the temptation to stick a fellow BNI member with an anemic referral increases with each PALMS Report. Perhaps a solution to this dilemmaâat least in partâwould be to replace the stuffing-of-the-big-envelope-with-referral-slips with a brief reminder of what constitutes a good referral and how to avoid bad referrals." So why can't BNI adopt this suggestion? In business, you achieve what you measure. Goals without measurement are just wishful thinking. That does NOT mean you should give out bad referrals. What we should be measuring are legitimate referrals. Here are 5 places you can go to learn more about what constitutes a good referral. The orientation CD that every member gets in the New Member Packet. The Member Orientation Guide, also in the New Member Packet. The Member Success Program Training. The book Givers Gain. Dr. Misner's article, "What Is the Definition of a Referral" in SuccessNet Online. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 291 - Priscilla: Hello everyone and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I am Priscilla Rice, and I am coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkeley, CA. I am joined on the phone today by the Founder and Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you? Ivan: I am doing great, Priscilla, thank you very much. Today we have a great topic, the value of evaluating. It is based on an email I received from a BNI member. I am going to read part of the email to you that he sent so you understand where he was coming from and then you will get what I responded to him because I think this is of value to all members. The member's email said, âIf I am not generating referrals, will it make me look like I am not a team player?â He said this is a flaw in the system because of the way we report stuff. He went on to say, âI am a new member and already a believer in the philosophy of givers gain, but my concern is that I have to hustle the referrals so I am not counted as a slacker. In my mind, this is reinforced by the weekly issuing of reports that publicly display the number of referrals.â You can find that in the reports. You can find it in the thank you for closed business, which we did a podcast on with John Meyer just a few weeks ago. He says it's being reinforced by the weekly issuing of reports. He went on to say that if he didn't fill out a referral slip and he isn't generating referrals, it would make him look like he is not a team player. He said there is a temptation to stick a fellow BNI member with anemic referral. That's an interesting one, just to increase the palms report. He was basically suggesting that we don't do those reports. It's not necessary because referrals are the lifeblood. We shouldn't do reports because it makes people feel on the spot. So here is my response. I truly believe that you achieve in business what you measure. So goals without measurement is just wishful thinking. So you have to have a way of measuring performance. Does that mean then that you should be giving out bad referrals? Absolutely not. I think that any interpretation of giving out bad referrals because of the report is a misinterpretation of the intention when I incorporated the report process into BNI. The truth is you do what to measure what is being generated, but you also want to make sure that it is legitimate referrals. Saying we are not going to measure because it reinforces bad referrals is a bad idea. Giving inappropriate referrals so that you look good is a bad idea.
