The One on One Meeting as a Process January 25, 2007
Posted by wnelson in BNI.add a comment
Effective one-on-one meetings are not events, they are part of a process. First, you need to develop goals for one-one-one meetings. How many meetings are you going to have during the month? One? Two? Four? Eight? Set a goal and measure yourself against that goal. Decide who you are going to have meetings with. A good way to choose is look around the room and decide who you aren’t comfortable referring. A one-on-one is your chance to find out how to give a referral for someone and also to build that trust so that all obstacles are cleared to you finding referrals. But, trust does not build at just one meeting. A good way to help build that trust is to have multiple planned one on ones with the same person. Set agendas for each so that the process of trust building and information exchange progresses. For instance, in the first meeting, exchange the Gains Profile. Be prepared to identify who (names of people and businesses please) you need to be in a relationship with. Talk about why those people make good candidates for you. Set up a time and date for the next meeting. At the next meeting, come prepared with a list of candidates to whom to introduce your fellow member. Strategize the most effective way to make the introduction. Is it to let the member call them? How about a conference all where you make the introduction? Or better yet, how about setting up a meeting with the person and your member associate? Your goal is an introduction, not a sales call. At the end of the second meeting, set up another meeting. During the third meeting, switch the roles and your member partner will present you with candidates for introductions and strategize introductions. Plan a fourth meeting. At the forth meeting, go through your progress together and fine tune the introduction plans. What better way to build that trust than to set joint goals and create joint projects!
