The success of BNI is built around its people, and the connections made between individuals to help grow their businesses. When you create a strong and dynamic network that consists of business owners that share similar goals and values, you are certain to find success. In BNI, a Power Team is an extension of that idea, and can be incredibly beneficial to you and your business. So, today let’s chat about what you should know about power teams.
What is a Power Team?
The main purpose of a Power Team is to generate referrals. Power Teams work in non-competitive but complimentary industries. A Contact Sphere is a group of professionals who complement rather than compete with each other. A Power Team is a subset of your Contact Sphere that actively works together to pass referrals to each other.
It is important to understand your target market when creating your Power Team, as you want to ensure you can have a mutually beneficial relationship and offer valuable referrals to one another. Therefore, be as specific as possible about the people you want to work with.
How to build a successful Power Team?
When creating your Power Team, you want to build it with individuals in your contact sphere, discovering those who will be an asset. You want to get to know the people within your power team as well as possible so that you can provide the best quality referrals to them, and vice versa.
In his podcast episode, Boost Your Referrals with Power Teams, Dr. Ivan Misner discusses in detail 7 questions you can ask your referral partners:
- How did you get started in your business?
- What do you enjoy most about what you do?
- What separates you and your company from the competition?
- What advice would you give someone starting out in your business?
- What are the coming trends in your business or industry?
- What strategies have you found to be the most effective in promoting your business?
- If there were anything about your business or industry you could change, what would that be?
Once you have identified and connected with those who are now part of your power team, you want to ensure you are successful! You want to consider the following tips, which are discussed by Tom Fleming, to help ensure your team is as powerful as possible:
Structure: Does your team meet regularly? Do you have a clear agenda for your meetings?
Accountability and Engagement: Are people participating and engaging in providing valuable referrals?
Leadership and Communication: Your power team won’t succeed without excellent leadership and communication between its members.
It is important to invest in your Power Team and deliver the benefits that you would like to receive in return. In the same regard, it is key to build the right Power Team. If you spend time connecting with people within your contact sphere and ask the right questions, you will more easily be able to identify whether this person is a good fit. If you find once you have built your Power Team, that someone isn’t invested or not driving valuable referrals for its other members, you can remain part of the same network, but don’t have to be in the same Power Team.
Power Teams are an incredible asset to your business, and we would love to hear about your own successes. Find us on LinkedIn and share your stories with us!
