Should You Join BNI? The Final Word for HR Consultants

BNI promises community, referrals and opportunities — but is it the game-changer you’ve been hoping for… or just a costly distraction?

In this week's podcast episode, I’ll give you the clear, honest answer so you can finally decide if BNI is worth your time, money and energy.

Here’s what you’ll discover:

• The surprising truth about what BNI actually is (and what it isn’t)
• The essential resource that BNI drains which matters more than the membership fees
• Why joining can quietly knock your confidence if you’re not careful
• The simple way to avoid the sunk-cost fallacy trap most members fall into
• Whether BNI will get your business to £70K, £100K, or even £150K.

Overall, by the end of this quick episode, you’ll know if BNI is a smart move for your consultancy — or a detour that keeps you stuck.

So tune in now by clicking here.

And if you’d like some help making your elevator pitch clear, memorable and referral-friendly, here's the link:

https://theinfluentialconsultant.co.uk/downloads/the-ultimate-networking-elevator-pitch-for-hr-consultants/ 

Timestamps:

00:00 – Should HR Consultants Join BNI? 
 00:57 – Why Many HR Consultants Struggle to Get Premium Clients and Leads
 02:11 – What BNI Actually Is and How It Works
 03:22 – The True Costs of Joining BNI (Time, Travel, Fees, and Food)
 03:57 – How BNI Referrals Work and Why They’re Not Ready-to-Buy Leads
 05:25 – Real Benefits of BNI for HR Consultants (SME Exposure, Community, Pitch Practice)
 08:19 – Building Partnerships and Alliances Through BNI Networking
 09:36 – Why BNI Won’t Build a Reliable Lead Generation System
 10:29 – BNI vs Facebook and Google Ads for Consistent Client Leads
 10:58 – The Hidden Downsides of BNI (Slow ROI, Quality Mismatch, Pressure to Refer)
 14:59 – Why BNI Can Feel Repetitive and Drain Your Energy
 16:28 – How to Make BNI Work If You Decide to Join
 17:27 – Crafting a 60-Second Pitch That Gets BNI Referrals
 18:30 – How to Track Your ROI and Avoid the Sunk-Cost Trap with BNI
 20:13 – BNI vs Real Growth Strategy: What Will Actually Scale Your HR Consultancy

Want My Help to Build Your £70K+ HR Consultancy?

1️⃣ Grab a copy of my book – The Complete Guide to Building a £70K HR Consultancy – and discover how to get every lead and client you need.

2️⃣ Apply to Join The Fastlane Formula – so we can work together 1-to-1 to get you earning £70K+ faster (and easier) than going it alone.

Transcript

00:00 Hello there, welcome back to another episode of Marketing Made Easy for HR Consultants with me, Nick Poninski. Today's episode should you join in B.N.I, the final word for HR Consultants.
00:11 I've wanted to record this episode for a while because the episode- I recorded with Sarah May, uh, a while back turned out to be the most popular episode that I had recorded.
00:21 Umm, and- and I love that chat with Sarah. I'm- I've got big respect for Sarah. I love the business that she's built, but as a B.N.I, Chopped a President.
00:30 Umm, it's fair to say that she, uh, sees the best of B.N.I. and has a bit of bias towards it.
00:36 So today I'm wanting to give you a bit of a nuance. What B.N.I. is, what it isn't, who it genuinely suits, the likely ROI and the hidden costs and how to- test it for six to twelve months without wasting that time.
00:51 So if you've ever thought, maybe B.N.I. is the answer, then today's episode is for you.
00:57 Now I'm gonna make an assumption about why you are listening to this episode. And I'm gonna make this assumption that it's that you don't have a reliable, consistent way of getting premium paying clients and leads without chasing.
01:12 Selling hard, overwhelmed, uncertainty, all that bad stuff, right? Effectively, you are not getting the clients and leads that you want.
01:21 You are not getting the profits and the sales that you hold for. You don't have the world that you wanted when you first went so often played.
01:29 And you might be thinking, well, everyone keeps talking about BNI. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe if I pay them, you know, if I give them two grand, maybe these problems will go away.
01:40 Maybe I will have all the leads and the clients that I want. Well, here's the truth. Let me put a spoiler alert.
01:47 Um, no, no. That's not going to happen, right? Joining BNI is not a magic bullet. You won't get all the leads and clients you want.
01:56 You won't have that consistency that, uhm, of getting lead. And clients consistently, reliably, and frequently. And by the end of this episode, you will understand exactly why BNI won't fix those problems and what to do instead.
02:11 But first, let's be clear on what BNI actually is, right? BNI is a global ne- working organisation made up of local chapters.
02:19 And each chapter it meets once a week, usually early in the morning, 6, 6, 3, 7, whatever. And when I went myself, I found just getting there, not early, to be a pain, right?
02:30 I- I'm an early bird, but, getting, somewhere for 6, 6, 3, 7 o'clock was hard work. And here's the thing, you are expected to be there every week.
02:43 Every single week you have to be there. And you're going to be building relationships with these people. You'll have in one-to-ones outside of these weekly sessions.
02:52 So not only do you have to be there every week, but you also have to build and maintain these relationships with the other people.
02:58 So, right off the, right off the bat, B and I, I want you to be aware it's a big time commitment.
03:04 Several hours of week, every week. There's obviously also that financial commitment, that £2,000 or whatever it is for the annual membership fee.
03:12 There's the travel costs, and there's often food or venue costs too. So it's, it's not free. And there are no guarantees of, uh, r-o-i, right?
03:22 Now, one of the other things about B&I that you might not be aware of is the exclusivity. This is really cool, right?
03:29 Only one person per profession is allowed in each chapter. So if you join, you'd be the only HR consultant in the room.
03:36 That's really- really cool. And the other really great thing about B&I, this is the big draw, is that their whole model is built on referrals.
03:45 They call it givers game. The idea is that you refer clients to others, they refer clients to you. Uhm, so it's a lot more structured than a k- visual local networking group where you just turn up and hand out business cards.
03:57 Now, that structure is appealing. But here's what people must understand. That's not a system. It's a community. So it might give you the names of people to talk to, but those names aren't.
04:09 Clients, they aren't leads. So to put this into context for you, when you meet somebody for the first time, they start at zero on the trust scale, right?
04:19 Your marketing's job is to get them further along that scale as close as possible to 10. And the s- ills process takes over at that stage and gets it to the 10.
04:30 That's when you get somebody to put their hand in their pocket and give you their money. Right? Now B&I Referrals, they might come in, that person, instead of being a zero out, and they're, uh, th- 3 or a 4 out of 10.
04:43 Because they've been recommended by someone. You can go and speak to Cephanit, she knows what she's talking about. But they're still not a 10.
04:50 That person isn't coming to you as a 10 out of 10. You still have to do the work to move them there, right?
04:55 And that's why B&I won't solve that problem. You're n- not going to get all the- all the- all the, uh, clients and profits and sales.
05:03 And the other thing is, it's not a consistent lead gen machine, right? It's just a community that might pass you some names.
05:10 And whether they turn into those clients, it's still entirely- entirely down. From to you. Thank you.
05:14 Now, as I say, there are other benefits to joining BNI. It's not just the fact that somebody's going to come to you a little bit further along the scale of, uhm, trusting.
05:25 They won't be, going to be a zero in the media. They're going to be a 3 or a 4 out of 10, right?
05:30 So that's not the only benefit. The other benefit is that there is great exposure to your audience of SMEs. You know, this is why a lot of HR consultants say, I work with SMEs.
05:41 You know, that's why they go to a BMI, BNI meeting or whatever, and they are going to be exposed to SMEs.
05:47 So that's great if you want to do that kind of stuff for, if you want your audience to be there, if you want to turn up to a networking meeting every week.
05:58 Or every month or whatever, and so that you're looking for SME work and people refer them and blah, blah, blah.
06:03 It's, it's certainly a possible way to build a business. There's no control as I say. Uhm, and a lot of this work that you will get exposed to is going to be lower level stuff.
06:14 You know, contracts, policies, disciplinaries, training, blah, blah, blah. If you're looking for the more strategic work, like, uhm, you know, um, mergers and acquisitions, if you're looking for, uhm, working with a bigger organization on their engagement structures, uh, strategies.
06:30 You know, et cetera, then B.N.I. is probably not going to be able to give that work to you, because that's not the kind of leads that you will be the basic HR setup type situation.
06:49 The other real benefit of B.N.I. and I love this aspect of it, is it breaks the isolation of solo work and keeps you accountable.
06:57 Now, what I mean by this, is that, I mean, you know, we know this, we're self-employed with, stay at home all day, every day, unless you go to a co-exface, which I really advocate for.
07:07 You are on your own all day, every day. Um, and nobody really gets what you're doing, you know, when you're building your business, etc.
07:14 Right? I saw Sarah and Mae post on LinkedIn the other day, umm, one of the, her husband's friends was patronizing to her and said, oh, how's your little project coming along?
07:23 You know, and, and, and I think, because people, you know, that guy was obviously an asshole, um, or at least he was an asshole in that moment in time, because that's rather patronizing.
07:34 But I, I think as well, like a lot of it comes from misunderstanding. People don't really understand what we're doing when we're building our businesses, right?
07:42 Whereas with BNI, you get that, um, you, you get to interact with people who understand what you're doing. Um, so the, the, the, the, the.
07:50 There's no out of solo work. There is that camaraderie and it also keeps you accountable. You know, people are turning up every week and they are passing leads around and that's, that's really good.
08:01 It also really helps you with your pitching because, you know, you have to have your elevator pitch so it refines that messaging.
08:06 And that confidence. So, you know, you get that 45 second pitch at the start and then obviously there's the one-to-ones, et cetera, and you can build those relationships with people.
08:19 They may even pass their HR work to you as well. And you will be exposed to potential allies, right? You know, if you go to a network in me and, and you are a HR consultant, and BNI, generally speaking, there will be recruiters, solicitors, accountants, et cetera.
08:36 You can do joint ventures, you can. Cross-refer, et cetera, et cetera. It is a strong network for that. That, that is really awesome.
08:44 Uhm, but I think, well, no book. It is really awesome that those people are there in the room with you.
08:53 If those people aren't in the- room with you, then that's probably not the chapter for you to join. You know, you do need people who can potentially refer people to you who have the similar audience.
09:05 You know, if everyone else in the room runs a local DIY shop or, or, you know, they run the- printing or those, um, what- what is that, uh, energy company?
09:15 Uh, utility warehouse. They're always in the room and someone is always selling holidays, etc. Um, if it's just those people, you might struggle to get the referrals you're looking for.
09:25 So be careful when you're- come with- which chapter you're considering joining you. But I guess, you know, just to summarise, there are loads of benefits to joining in B&I.
09:36 Um, but the most helpful thing that it is is really- it's helping you with the top of your pipeline. They will give- you names, it will give you leads, it will- it will give you people who are referred to you.
09:50 Aye, you can trust Stephena. Stephena knows what she's talking about, that person will come to you a 3 out of 10, not necessarily an-e-a.
09:59 ehm, but it doesn't build that reliable lead gen machine that you actually need. You will not get leads every day, right?
10:10 You know, if you were thinking about, say for example, Facebook adverts, or meta adverts, or- Google adverts, meta on Facebook, anything, if you were to do with, erm, Facebook and Google adverts, you are putting your message in front of your perfect audience day after day after day.
10:29 That is a reliable way of- getting leads into your world. So, that could be a better way of spending your money in, certainly, in my opinion, and it's working for me and it's working for my clients.
10:42 So, that's all good. And as I say, this is not against B.N.A. I, like, I want to be very clear here.
10:49 B.N.A. is, it can be very, very useful. It's just not a reliable
10:58 Now, on top of that caveat to BNI, as I say, BNI isn't perfect, right? There are issues with it.
11:05 Now, the one big thing that I think people misunderstand, or don't, uhm, realize, realize with it is that it is a big time commitment.
11:14 So, if you are, you know, if you are driving to your local chapter, I don't know, let's say the meeting's an hour and a half, give or take two hours, uhm, that's two hours out of your day, plus, let's say, half an hour drive there, half an hour drive back, that's three hours of one working day, that's
11:31 half your working day gone. Now, let's assume that you have to do, you know, uhm, not have to, but let's say you're doing your one-to-ones with people, that's half an hour there, an hour here, give or take consistently, right?
11:45 So, you are repeatedly showing up with these people, so that's, that's more time out of your day. And then, yeah, there's all the prep for all these meetings, etc.
11:56 So, you are spending a lot of time. To build your own network inside BNI, in terms of getting your return on your investment is a lot of time.
12:08 Uhm, there's also, there also can be a slow ROI, right? Just because you meet these people immediately doesn't mean they're going to refer people to you immediately.
12:17 It will take a bit of time for them to start to understand who you are, to trust you, to trust you with their clients, to trust that when they pass somebody to you, uhm, you are going to deliver the best services for you.
12:31 So, possible. So it can take, you know, three, four, five, six months, whatever, to get a return, to get those leads.
12:38 And that's if that happens, you may join a local chapter and it may not be the right chapter for you, alternatively, you might be in a room for one or whatever reason where it just doesn't work out for you and you get no leads.
12:51 That can happen. There could also be a quality mismatch. Again, you know, depending on which chapter you're in, but also in terms of the businesses that you surround yourself with, you may have not be able to charge the fees that you want to charge.
13:06 You know, one of the popular podcasts that I released was about pricing. Pricing is always one of those things which is really difficult to really nail.
13:15 But I say to my clients, there's nothing wrong with you being the most expensive. H.R.com. People are and out there somebody has to be that.
13:22 Right? So, would you rather get paid £100, an Socialist? Would you rather get paid £200 an hour? Would you rather get paid £1000 an hour?
13:30 Someone out there has to be the most expensive, it could be you if you want it to be you? So.
13:35 You know, if you want to be the most expensive, or you want to charge the higher prices, B&I might not necessarily be the way forward because the people that they're exposed to, the businesses that they're exposed to, the ones that they're referring to, They might not be able to afford the fees that 
13:56 you want to charge. And I guess the next big problem with B&I is, uh, it's the pressure to refer. fair.
14:07 So. You are expected to refer people to other people, right? And inside your chapter, there are other businesses, let's say up to 20 or so.
14:18 So there is always, it can be easy to refer people to them, and it's not your responsibility to close. The sale for them, but you are expected to send out referrals to these people.
14:29 You, it'd be an eye, as we say, it's not some magic pill, it's not some magic solution. You are expected to help build other people's businesses.
14:38 That's the reality. If you up for B&I, yes, you do have to do referrals. You have to refer other people.
14:46 Otherwise, yeah, you might have your membership in jeopardy. Um, so that is a reality to be aware of. I think as well, it can be slightly repetitive and draining.
14:59 You are going to turn up week in week out. You are going to hear the same people give the same elevator pitch week after week after week for a year.
15:08 Now that can be draining. That can be boring. You can be sat there. I think in, why the hell am I here?
15:15 I've heard this stuff every single week. Why do I have to hear it again? And if that's the way, you know, eventually your brain probably will say that to you.
15:24 You're like, ugh, am I hearing this person again? Um. But, yes, that is the reality. If, if that doesn't bother you, no problem whatsoever.
15:33 I guess I want to really emphasize for you that, that B&I, it can help you get claims- it can help you get, erm, leads, erm, but it won't fix the real issue.
15:45 It's, you're not going to have a system that brings in premium fit clients and leads reliably, consistently, frequently, week in, week out.
15:56 That problem stays, whether you join or not, because you cannot hang your hat on B&I, delivering those leads on repeat, because it's over people, and they are responsible for building their own business.
16:09 They are responsible for feeding their family. Umm, so if you are effectively outsourcing your lead gen to other people with the expectation that they refer leads to you, you may be disappointed.
16:22 So it's, it's, in my opinion, it's better to have something that you control. 
16:28 Now, if you do decide to be an I, uh, join in be an I, if you do decide to join in be an I, I want to help you make sure that you get the best out of it.
16:34 Make sure that you get the ROI that you're expecting. So- It can be really helpful to be super clear on your ideal claim.
16:42 If you turn up to a B&I meet and say you want to meet any SME meeting, hopefully someone there will point this out to you.
16:48 But you're gonna make it really hard for people to, uh, refer people to you. Because SMEs doesn't mean it. Anything, right?
16:55 It's business jargon. I'm an SME. You're an SME. Everyone's an SME. It doesn't, it doesn't really relate to us though.
17:02 When you have an SME, you are thinking of a specific person, a specific business. So it can be really helpful when you join B&I to snow exactly.
17:11 Who it is that you want to be referred to. That way, there is a data point in someone's brain that says, hello, they're looking for a hairdresser.
17:19 Right, I know a hairdresser, I will refer a hairdresser. But if you say SME, there's nothing in their brain that says SME, so they won't be able to refer.
17:27 You also want to make sure that your 60 second pitch stands out to help you with that there. I've included a link in the show notes to nail your elevator pitch.
17:36 So, as I say, there's a link in the show notes, you can nail your elevator pitch. That way, if you do go to B&I or, any other networking meetings, you will make sure that you stand out from the crowd and that you get leads and clients, et cetera.
17:51 You also want to make sure that you nurture every referral like it's gold. So, when somebody refers somebody to you, I need to make sure that that person gets the best experience possible so that the referrer, that person in your chapter, feels confident about referring more people.
18:10 If, you know, if, if John refers Janice to you and Janice gets the great experience, then John's going to become, comfortable referring more people to you.
18:17 And that's on you to manage that situation. You also, I mean, you know, we talk about this quite a lot in, um, in marketing, but you need to track your data, track your time, track your ROI.
18:30 If you're investing, 10 hours a week into B&I and getting one client or something, is it worth that 10 hours?
18:37 You know, because that's, let's say you're charging 100 pounds an hour, and obviously time isn't valuable, we don't get any more of it.
18:44 But let's say you're charging 100 pounds an hour, that's a thousand So you're pounds, so you're paying a thousand pounds.
18:47 For one client, is it worth it? That's a lot of money. So, yeah, track those, how much time you're investing into your B&I and to whatever networking it is.
18:59 And don't fall for the sunk cost fallacy of, oh well I've paid 2,000 pounds to- joy and I better keep going because although you have, yes, invested 2,000 pounds, if it ain't working for you and you're having to work a hell of a lot, really hard to get those leads and clients, then it may well not be
19:17 worth that extra effort. You might- just want to write off the two grand, there's a loss and just said, you know what, yeah, that doesn't work for me.
19:24 I gave it a shot, and I'm not going to keep investing time in this because time is precious, I'm not going to get any more of it.
19:33 I think maybe I guess the overall thing- that I would say is, if you aren't going to join, say that you'll give it 6-12 months, whatever it is, then review.
19:42 I, you know, 6 months. Probably, I would say, get reviewing a lot earlier than that, in fact. Umm, review it every month, and- see where you're going, see what is happening.
19:54 You are investing all this time and effort to go to all these meetings. Are you getting a return on investment?
20:00 How much effort are you putting in to getting that return on your investment? And I guess, don't confuse- who's that activity of going to your networking meetings with progress, right?
20:13 BNI is a great tactic. It can work for you. It can get all the leads, but it isn't your growth strategy.
20:20 It shouldn't be your growth strategy. It's not how you're going to build a hundred K business. So to recap, BNI can help.
20:27 It really can help you build your business. But it's not going to fix that proper problem of a reliable, scalable lead gen.
20:36 System. It just isn't. It's, it's, it's a nice topper-upper. It can be a lot of fun. You can meet some great people.
20:44 But if you are relying on it to deliver leads and clients into your world, BNI is not the way forward.
20:50 If you, I mean, If you don't join BNI, your business isn't doomed. I want you to be reassured. Um, you can absolutely grow without it.
20:59 As I say, meta-adverts, Google adverts, et cetera, lumpy mail, direct mail, all that good stuff, this can be a much better return on your investment.
21:08 Now, if you want to take this a step further, umm, you know what, obviously I run the Fastlane Formula, the success squad, go and check those out on my website because they will help you.
21:19 You build that consistent inbound lead system. They will help you scale to 70k and above. Both of them come by, uhm, come with a money back guarantee and BNI doesn't provide that.
21:30 So that might be the better way forward. I would argue that it is. But that's obviously up to you. Uhm, but anyway, thank you for taking the time to listen along to today's episode.
21:42 Hopefully it's been interesting and insightful for you. Uhm, and yeah, as ever, get marketing. Because if I'm marketing, there's no sales.
21:51 And without sales, there's no business. So get marketing. back to you. Thank you. I do not Okay.