Where are the rest of the Referrals?

I was recently asked by a local BNI member the following question:

The Real Estate Agent in my chapter is only giving me part of his closings as referrals, shouldn't he be required to give them all to me?

The short answer to this question is NO. No member of BNI is required to give all of or any of their referrals to fellow BNI members.

BNI is a Givers Gain Organization, so how many referrals have you given? If you want to get a referral you must first give a referral. Referral are built on trust and relationships. No one comes into BNI without some established relationships already in place. Since relationships take time to build we certainly do not expect members to give up all of their existing relationships.

When I was a member of a BNI chapter as an insurance agent, there was a CPA in my chapter. She was great and I really liked her. But, I had a long standing relationship with my CPA. Once morning Wendy gave me a referral that closed into a nice account, at that point I knew that if I was going to continue to get referrals from Wendy I would need to also pass her referrals.

So, whenever I had a referral that I felt was right for her they went to her, but if I had one that was a better fit for my CPA it went to him.

My recommendation, have a one to one and ask what will it take to gain more of your trust and referrals.

Hazel M. Walker
Executive Director