One way of getting more referrals is to have more people on board in BNI Rendezvous. For that, we need to collectively develop an effort to market our chapter in order to attract visitors – quality visitors.

There are many ways on how to do that, but today I would like to focus on online marketing for our chapter and how all of us can contribute to that.

Great ideas, hard work, the right connections and some of the smartest moves have gotten most of us to where we are today in our business. Be careful, that you do not become so dependent on the methods that got you here, that you ignore the latest trends. Business schematics have evolved, so your comfort zone can and will be your undoing.

I just finished my dance card with Timothy from SPCC Travel a few hours ago. I don't really know why (maybe because Dean happened to be next table "listening"), but I decided to follow what BNI recommends to all members and used GAINS profile to find out as much as possible about Tim.

I am still amazed, because I've already had 2 or 3 dancecards (one-on-one meetings) with Tim and yet I'm still learning new things about him and his company.

Let's face it, people are lazy creatures. They procrastinate, they make excuses and they love sleeping in. That makes it really tough to get people who've agreed to come to our meetings to show up!

We ask once, twice and thrice and then we worry if we're becoming stalkers. I'm never ready to give up just yet. I sit quietly and wait for a few weeks to pass and then I invite them again. Who knows, that might be the week that they feel a little more motivated and drag themselves out of bed, then attend our meeting and fall completely in love with Rendezvous!

BNI's philosophy is "Givers Gain". I really love it because it perfectly reflects and says what word-of-mouth or referrals should be all about, or any business in general. You give, you will get in return. We all know it, yet, it is sometimes difficult for us to unconditionally give.

In BNI Rendezvous, we should give 2 main things - referrals & testimonials. To give referrala, especially qualified referrala, you actually have to work for it and then you give it away. It is a very high level of giving. To be able to do that, we need to practice our givers' mindset every single day. We can practice by giving...Giving simple things that will cost us nothing, yet will improve our business and our life. These practices will prepare us in becoming true givers.

Here are 50 things you can give on a daily basis to practice your Giver's mindset. Forget about getting, that will come naturally and automatically, sooner or later.

One of the deadliest sins in the referrals-based business is not to follow up on a given referral. It does not matter if the referral is good or bad, you HAVE to follow up.

I went for Brad Sugars' seminar yesterday and he said "We only get, what we deserve and what we can handle."

I think it is true in our referrals business too. If you are getting bad referrals, then maybe you do not deserve better ones (for millions of reasons - maybe you are not educating members about your business enough or you do not do dance cards, etc.).

Perhaps you are not able to handle good referrals. You might not ready for those quality and big referrals because you are not seen as a person that can be trusted and relied on.

There are simple strategies and steps you can implement to make sure that from today onwards you will be perceived as a great person to refer business to. You can start by following up on referrals given to you through the following steps: