West Europe’s most successful business networking group - 43 Leeds entrepreneurs

A group of 43 Leeds entrepreneurs who meet and pass each other business referrals weekly have been named West Europe’s most successful business networking group.

This has been calculated on the high monetary value of the business referrals generated among its members.

According to BNI (Business Network International), the UK and the world’s largest business referral organisation, the group called Network Central was awarded the accolade for its members having passed the highest value business referrals in Western Europe for any one group, totaling more than £4 million, over the past 12 months.

Rick Armstrong, area director for BNI West Yorkshire, commented:  

“While all successful business referrals vary in their value, each member’s referral potential, on average over the past 12 months, totalled £93,023.  The success of the group’s ability to generate high value business referrals for one another is down to the care they took to truly understand and take a vested interest in their fellow colleagues’ businesses.  Many of the members have developed close personal friendships outside the formal networking environment and this, in my opinion, has helped the group reached its success.

According to BNI’s national office, Network Central Leeds is on track to reach £5million worth of business referrals by mid 2011.

The group’s members include a dentist, Marcos White whose practice has been voted best in England by the BDA, a personal trainer, Jason Dean, who is also a 32nd Lay Shaolin monk, and a private investigator, Ray Castlehow, a specialist in detecting vehicle accident insurance fraud.

All business referrals exchanged between BNI members are tracked to ensure they have resulted in a qualified invoiced piece of business.

2009/10's top networking region was Kent. This time it's Ireland, South and West

Ireland has officially been rated Europe’s top business networking capital, by the world’s largest business referral organisation.

  

According to BNI (Business Network International), their Ireland South & West region, the Republic’s largest business referral organisation, has qualified for the title based on the above average business referral rate passed from one member to another, compared to the rest of Europe.

  

Members of the Ireland South & West BNI groups have passed an average  of 30 per cent more business, per member, than the rest of Europe.   

This translates to 1.37 qualified business referrals passed between members on average every week.

How to make cold calling, warm / Charlie Lawson, national director of BNI

SMEs searching for that ultimate new client have to smarten up in methods used for attracting new business. 

Traditional direct marketing, impersonal emails, and of course unsolicited cold calling are limited in their success, especially in the age of mass-spam and rise of the call centre. 

Charlie Lawson, national director of BNI, the UK and world’s largest business referral organisation reveals how to make cold calling a lot warmer…

It’s 10am on a Monday morning and staff are well into their first cuppa of the day.  Facebook pages have been checked and updated, and unanswered emails are being dealt with.  The phone rings and the person at the other end launches into a sales pitch.  “I don’t know who deals with your stationary supplies, but I wanted to tell you about our fantastic offers…”

This immediately breaks the mood and instills a sense of irritation.  “No, sorry, we already have an office supplies company.”  End of conversation.  Imagine how the person calling felt, let alone you as the targeted customer.

Flooring man rated UKs top business networker / word of mouth marketing story Marketing News from Marketing Clout

Flooring man rated UKs top business networker word of mouth marketing story : Marketing News from Marketing Clout

A flooring specialist from King's Lynn Norfolk has been rated the country's most successful networker, and business referral giver. The calculations have been based on the high number of referrals given versus their average value.

Simon Johnson, 36, owner of Simply Interiors has, over the past twelve months, given 102 qualified business referrals and thus been thanked for £634,233 by colleagues, according to BNI
(Business Network International), the UK and the world's largest business referral organisation, with 15 000 members in the UK, of which Simon is a member at the King's Lynn group in Norfolk.