BNI Vs Chamber of Commerces

[VaDwayne]

Any opinions of joining BNI verses Chamber of Commerces?

Last month I signed up for my 3rd year in BNI. It has been very good to me on the Commercial Insurance side but the person who supplied most of my referrals passed away 2 days after I turned in my enrollment so I'm anxious to see what this year brings.

I hate Chamber of Commerce meetings with a passion but others love them.

 

[HuntAssuranceGroup]

I'm the designated life/health person in our BNI group, but there are 4 others who do life and health insurance in our group. A few of us offer 401K plans, as does our financial planner. Our personal lines P&C guy and commercial P&C can handle a lot of the same stuff.

Yet all of us manage to pass an enormous amount of clients back and forth between us, because we all specialize in a given area. We trust each other, and have built up that trust over 5-6 years, but we've found that it's more profitable to specialize in something and pass along a less profitable line of business than it is to do it all.

Our group is in the Chicago area. We don't pass the most referrals of area groups, we don't have the most members (only 23-24 right now), but we do pass the most business of any area group ($40K per member this past year).

Your success in a BNI group is to find the right group of people who want to push each other to success. If everyone isn't moving in the right direction, doesn't have a positive attitude, and doesn't want to see others succeed, you'll have a negative BNI experience. But if that does all fall into place, it will be a strategic move for your business.

Wow, 40K. Great group!! Thank you for relaying your experience. I attended as a visitor at another chapter. However, I meet the people where I would be located, the newly forming one, on Wednesday. Will keep everyone posted.

 

[VolAgent]

Wow, 40K. Great group!! Thank you for relaying your experience. I attended as a visitor at another chapter. However, I meet the people where I would be located, the newly forming one, on Wednesday. Will keep everyone posted.

Keep in mind, every group is different and some categories do better than others. It could be a total bomb for you and not be something you could have controlled.

What category are you joining under?

 

[HuntAssuranceGroup]

I'm thinking Medicare supplement or disability I believe the life/health is taken and the p/c.

 

[rbrewer]

Every group is different but all the insurance slots did really well in the group I was in. In fact the guy that had the senior Medicare slot was our president. The best advice I can give you is go with the intent to give first and build the friendships. Know your elevator speech and tell them in it each week who would be a client for you so it will send a trigger.
I would join BNI over chamber any day....but that's just me.

 

[Yagents]

Bni is a refferal monster. Chamber is a biz card social group. Built my biz with bni selling ind medical only. Told hsa story as my niche, before people knew how to spell hsa. Our group was 40 strong. All humourous commercials, fun group, favorite meeting of the week. Paid 300 to join, made 30k. Best return on dollar possible. Too tough to build a group in my opinion

 

[Bob Klee]

Every group is different but all the insurance slots did really well in the group I was in. In fact the guy that had the senior Medicare slot was our president. The best advice I can give you is go with the intent to give first and build the friendships. Know your elevator speech and tell them in it each week who would be a client for you so it will send a trigger.
I would join BNI over chamber any day....but that's just me.

++++ on all the positive BNI comments.

If you want to be in a good group, start one! Seriously. Recruit the BEST folks in each position you can find. Very, Very rewarding IMHO.

 

[Kenek]

Chamber is fine, but all you get out of it is a polished presentation as you get to speak with many other business people. Few if any referrals, as there are usually other agents who have belonged a very long time, and when referrals come in they go to the agent who joined 10 years ago and has held leadership roles within the Chamber.

BNI is the 800-pound gorilla of networking (and I mean that in a very good way) where you WILL learn how to give a good speech describing what you do. You cannot join and just hold out your hand expecting referrals - you must be willing to first give referrals before you get them.

If you don't want to pay or there are no seats available look around as there are many other referral-groups who model themselves after BNI - only one industry per seat, you must attend meetings, you must give out referrals, etc. One group comes to mind - Free Network International (FNI) is similar to BNI but, as the name suggests, is free.

Just google "networking groups" in your area and I'm sure you'll hit a ton of them.

 

[VaDwayne]

I'm thinking Medicare supplement or disability I believe the life/health is taken and the p/c.

I believe Med. Supps would kill in the right BNI group. I am in one as a commercial insurance agent. Another thing that works for me is the fact that we have a personal lines person who is captive and he refers all of his business to me that his carrier won't write, like surplus lines. I just wrote a welder that he couldn't write with a $15,000 premium. Since I write through a broker I get quite a bit of business like that.

 

[iiinycboi]

For BNI,

are you penalized for not having referrals within the first few months?

do they typically look for established businesses?