Summary: Synopsis This week Dr. Misner shares tips for giving good referrals from Whistler, Canada: Listen to other peopleâs needs. When you hear a need that matches someone you know, bring out your BNI business card file. Keep the testimonials youâve heard in mind. Ask them if itâs okay for your BNI colleague to call them. If the prospect isnât interested in receiving a call, that person may not be a good referral. Members of some professions are not allowed to phone potential clients, but you may be able to make an introductory call yourself. Know about the profession. Be entirely honest about what you know about both people. If your fellow BNI member charges high rates, say so. If you donât know much about the prospect, say that, too. If the referral is hot, pass it right away. Donât wait for the BNI meeting. Your colleague could miss an opportunity. Donât give marginal referrals. Bad referrals hurt your reputation in the chapter. High-quality referrals are more likely to turn into sales. What are your tips for giving good referrals? Leave your suggestions in the comments. Brought to you by Networking Now. Complete Transcript of BNI Podcast Episode 266 - 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 and where are you? Ivan: This week, I am in Whistler, Canada for the TLC meeting, the Transformational Leadership Council. I always get great ideas that I bring back to BNI at these. I am looking forward to sharing some of these maybe in a future podcast. Priscilla: Great. So what are you going to share with us today? Ivan: Today I am going to talk about the five pointers for giving good referrals. I think this is something that all BNI members should really understand. The five pointers for giving good referrals. So if you learn the art of giving good referrals, it's a way of really generating more business for yourself. If you give referrals, people appreciate that and they want to make sure to keep you in mind to pass referrals back to you. So here are the five pointers that I recommend. This isn't meant to be all inclusive. It isn't everything, but it's five really important things to consider when you are talking to somebody and you have a referral opportunity. First, listen to other people's needs. A good networker has two ears and one mouth and uses them both proportionately. When you are talking to people, ask questions. Learn about them. Learn what some of their needs are. Learn about their challenges. If you hear something that someone says that is an opportunity to give a referral, tell them that you know somebody who can provide that product or service. It's one of the reasons that you want to carry a business card file with all of the members' cards in it. âAs a matter of fact, I happen to have that person's business card right here with me. Here is their card.â Ask for their card in return and say, âIs it okay if I give that person your card?â and get a card back for them. Priscilla: Now, what if you had a testimonial from that person. Would you use it right then? Ivan: Yeah, you want to use it right there. Theoretically, you have either used the member or you have heard of other BNI members who have used the member. It's the reasons why we do testimonials in BNI meetings. So even if you haven't used somebody, you can give a testimonial. You can say, âYou know, I know five people who have used this person. They all had great things to say. Here is what they have said about the person.â Then give that testimonial. So when you hear somebody else's need and you hand that business card to them,
