Best in the business

By Bridget Cook
A BERWICK business group is equipping its members with a useful advertising skill – word of mouth.
BNI is a business referral group that only allows one member from a business category to join each chapter.
Chapters are formed to enable members to pass qualified business referrals between themselves and each meeting ends with a referral session.
The Berwick chapter, which currently has 26 members from local business hold meetings every Friday morning.
The members enjoy breakfast, while passing around business cards then each briefly talking about their business and suggesting to the group their “perfect referral” for their business.
At the last meeting, BNI Melbourne South Executive Director Brent Edwards was the guest speaker, providing members with information about working the room at a networking event.
Mr Edwards advised people to look for open configurations of people when walking into a business networking event.
“Closed configurations are when the group of people all have their backs to the rest of the room,” Mr Edwards said.
“Look for open configurations, welcoming new people into the conversation.
“People standing by themselves are also a great opportunity to go and introduce yourself and make conversation.”
Mr Edwards said people could network their business anywhere.
“Learning to read a crowd, whatever size, is an acquired skill,” he said.
“Just remember networking is a contact sport.”
“In BNI meetings, you want to maintain open configurations to welcome visitors to open networking.”
In July, the Berwick chapter had referred 82 people to each other’s businesses, resulting in $26,000 of closed business. The group has also welcomed 42 visitors to its group this year.
For more information on BNI Berwick contact Mr Edwards on 0410 330 077.