BNI GENESIS
BNI Genesis is a networking group that meets each week in Wirral.
The aim of the group is to build trust and strong relationships between the members so they can promote each others businesses with confidence. With a room of fellow businesses acting like your sales team, the challenge is for them to find you work and you likewise for them.
Our managing director, Mark Pollard was appointed President of the group in October 2018, with a view to growing the group and increasing the business passed.
We aim to prove that networking can be both profitable, productive &. fun!
THE CHALLENGE
When Mark became president of the group numbers had declined. There were 18 members and approximately £700K in business had been passed in the preceding 12 months.
The aim was to stamp Mark’s identity and style on the group in a way which added value to the brand and made the members part of the new chapter in the groups history.
Existing members needed to be re-engaged with the philosophy, new members attracted and more business passed.
THE SOLUTION
When assessing how to meet the challenge we identified that each BNI group in the region had its own name and culture. It was decided that we would provide a ‘Genesis’ brand, identity and culture which the members could embrace as their own, feel involved and be proud to promote their involvement with the group.
We created a supplemental logo to go with the existing BNI branding, allowing both to be displayed hand-in-hand. The weekly meeting agenda was also modified to include new features, exclusive to the group which would add fun and entertainment to the meeting. This was to make the meeting feel less arduous but without detracting from the important focus on passing work.
To attract new members we created engaging social media graphics and set up pages on all the major platforms to improve the chances of people seeing our invitations and raising the profiles of our members.
To ensure the fun element was balanced with a clear air of professionalism, we created branded materials to be used at every meeting. We created branded banners to guide people into the venue, meeting note sheets, name badges and place holders which were bespoke for each member and visitor, displaying their name, business and logo. This made them feel welcome and valued. We also designed a powerpoint presentation which mirrored the brand and professional approach, whilst also incorporating the fun vibe we wanted to generate.
We introduced a strategic means identify which trades and professionals we could pass most work to and tracked that value so as to be able to be specific about the opportunities joining presented and started a podcast to further increase the exposure of our members.
When Mark finished his term as president, the group had grown by 20% and the business passed had risen from £700K over a 12 month period to £1.2m. A further £3m had been identified as being passed out of the group and because of our tracking methods we were able to pinpoint the beneficiaries.