Visibility, Credibility, Profitability....

The fundamentals of face to face networking.

BNI Education slot transcript :

Thornton Holmes, your Education Co-ordinator. This week I would like to talk about something that’s been mentioned a few times and the long standing members will probably be very aware of it – VCP. Anybody know what it stands for? One does. Essential for BNI. Visibility. First process in BNI – visibility. What we’re all doing here today. It’s about our branding, about our websites, about our business cards, how we present ourselves, how we’re perceived by others. Very, very important. Because once you get this right, it will lead onto, credibility. By being here every week, by giving out referrals, by embracing everybody else’s brands, by promoting your own, by continually doing what we do week in and week out, acting as sales people for each other’s businesses, we’re going to build credibility.
That will lead to profitability. Over time, through the credibility, through building up the confidence, it’s going to lead to sales, it’s going to lead to referrals, it’s going to lead to profit. What I’m interested in, and this was key, I think we’ve bought the book, we might be buying the book for the chapter, I’ve got a copy if people want to borrow it, and it’s called ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen Covey. If you get chance, get hold of that book. I’ve got a copy if you want to borrow it.
What was interesting really, for me was the relationship between the visibility, the credibility and the profitability and it was all dependent on one thing. It was all dependent upon this – speed of trust. Low trust is the greatest cost in life and business. High trust produces speed and speed produces results and building all of this is part of your education.
The speed of trust increases re-orders, it compels people to recommend you and it turns you customers into promoters. So think about trust when you’re thinking about credibility. When you’re trying to build the credibility, think about building the trust. The faster you build the trust, the quicker you’ll gain credibility and the more profitability that’ll give you for your business.
If you want to read about it in depth, ask me and I’ll lend you the book. Hopefully the chapter is going to get a copy and you can read it. It’s very difficult to do all this in two minutes, but it’s given you an overview.

Thornton Holmes
Education Co-Ordinator
BNI Synergy