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BNI's origin goes back to 1985 in Southern California where Dr Ivan R Misner was looking for a new way of generating business for his business consulting company. Cold calling was not Ivan's favourite way of finding new clients, so he put together a group of business friends to work on building their businesses through networking and word of mouth marketing. What was at that time known as "The Network" was born. Dr Misner quickly realised that the success of this group could be duplicated across many other groups of business professionals and he set about developing a structured system that he implemented in the Los Angeles area.
Networking Grows...
Over the following few years "The Network" grew steadily throughout many states in the US and Dr Misner became known as an authority on Business Networking and Word of Mouth Marketing, having published his best selling book; "The World's Best Known Marketing Secret" - Building business through Word of Mouth Marketing.
He re-named "The Network" to BNI (Business Network International) and the organisation began chapters in the Caribbean and Canada. The UK/European operation was formed followed shortly after by Australia in 1997. where there are now over 180 chapters and still growing. Today, BNI operates across four continents in 39 countries with over 5,010 chapters and 102,000 members, a clear global leader in the business of Word of Mouth Referrals.
Unlike other networking groups, BNI provides its members with a structure and a plan to enable them to network in a deliberate and professional manner. As an organisation, BNI keeps track of the number of referrals passed by each chapter and encourages the members to record the dollar value of the business they receive. In 2007 BNI Members worldwide passed 5.5 million referrals worth an estimated AUST$2.75 billion.
Dr Misner has published many books including "Seven Second Marketing", "Business by Referral" (co-written with Robert Davis), "Masters of Networking", "It's in the Cards", a brilliant analysis of what works on business cards, the second in the Master series "Masters of Success". "Truth or Delusion" which busts networkings biggest myths, "Masters of Sales" (co-written with Don Morgan) went to no. 1 in the New York Time, Amazon Books within its first month and the latest "bestseller", "The 29% Solution". To check out these books check out the BNI Shop.
The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive, and professional “word-of-mouth” program that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.
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