Business by Referral

BNI is not a business networking group, where everyone frantically sells to each other. BNI is the UK’s leading referral organisation whose only purpose is to develop qualified business referrals.

What makes BNI unique is that they bring business professionals together in an exclusive, non-competitive basis to refer business. They work strategically following a proven system. Exclusivity means that you won’t find your competitors promoting their business at our meetings.

Belonging to BNI is like having dozens of sales people working for you because all the other members carry copies of your card with them. When they meet someone new that could use your products or services they hand out your card and personally recommend your services. It's as simple as that!

Last year BNI members passed 3,300,000 referrals, which generated more than £1 billion worth of business.

The 60 second speech

At the heart of the BNI meeting is the "60 Second Speech" slot. This is each member's opportunity to tell everyone at the meeting all about their business, the kind of leads they are looking for, and anything at all that will help the other members generate business for them.

60 seconds may seem to be the briefest of speeches, but BNI have developed a system to harness the power of this format, and regularly organise free training workshops to allow the members to develop their presentations, introducing techniques such as the memory hook, and effective ways to ensure that the message is remembered.

This system has immense practical benefits outside BNI, where in real-life networking situations, the BNI member is trained to be able to give an instant and concise account of what they do.