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Member makes sales of £1,000,000 in four years, thanks to BNI

We have just heard some exciting news about BNI member and assistant director Trevor Smith, who is based in Maidstone:

Independent travel agent Trevor Smith is celebrating after hitting an impressive £1 million in sales, which he attributes largely to his extensive business networking alongside the unique level of personal service he delivers to his customers.

Running his own travel business from home with the support of award winning travel company Travel Counsellors, Trevor is a keen networker and since joining the company over four years ago has built up 80% of his sales through his local BNI group as well as other BNI contacts around the UK.

Trevor says: “I am delighted to have reached £1 million in such a short space of times.  I really believe the ‘Giver Gain Philosophy’ of BNI and the relationships I have built up in this time has brought ‘word of mouth’ referrals and attributed largely to this figure. Of course these referrals wouldn’t come if I didn’t provide the right service, and I am so proud that working as a Travel Counsellor I am able to deliver a truly personal travel service to my customers that goes above and beyond. I am available to my customers around the clock and using the company’s award winning technology I can provide expert advice and great savings; from specialist areas such as tailor-made holidays, cruises and business travel to a simple flight or hotel booking. This achievement really means a lot to me and wouldn’t have been possible without all my loyal customers.”

With over 22 years’ experience in the travel industry, Trevor has built a growing following from the region’s holidaymakers and business travellers. He has attended an astonishing 600 BNI morning meetings since he joined in 2007, and has racked up 372 referrals in his own Member Chapter ‘Maidstone Invicta’.

Working from home, Trevor is one of over 1,100 individual Travel Counsellors located throughout the UK and overseas, who all pride themselves on the personal service and attention to detail they offer their customers. Unlike most high street agencies which are owned by a big name tour operator, Travel Counsellors is completely independent, meaning that Trevor is free to recommend the holiday or business travel trip that exactly suits his customers’ needs.

Trevor adds; “I am proud to have built up such a successful business and am extremely passionate about what I do. I really do believe it pays to network and would encourage all businesses to engage in some type of networking, as it really allows you to showcase what you do and there is nothing more powerful than personal recommendation from others. ‘Invicta’ is the motto forKentand is Latin for ‘Unbeaten’, which I feel reflects the way in which I run my business. I even attend my meetings first thing in the morning as I believe the early bird catches the worm!”

Travel Counsellors is one of the top scoring companies in the world when it comes to customer service, having achieved a world beating score of over 90% in its customer satisfaction survey. In addition, the flexibility of working from home allows Trevor to be available at times to suit his customers – 24 hours a day, seven days a week if the need arises.

For more information or to discuss your future travel plans please contact Trevor on 0845 058 7708 or email trevor.smith@travelcounsellors.com.

Feedback from the recent motivational & training seminar

We recently held a special motivational & training seminar in the South East (full details can be found here)

Following the event, we have had very high feedback from attendees with the majority scoring it as 9/10 or 10/10.

Key questions asked, which most attendees have said they achieved are:

• Did the training give you lots of ideas / tips to implement in your Business?
• Did the training give you lots of ideas / tips to implement in your BNI Chapter?
• How would you rate our Guest Speaker Phil Berg?
• Will you encourage the other members of your Chapter to attend future events of this type?
• Will this training have a positive impact on your Business?
• Will this training help you increase your return from your BNI Membership?

We would suggest perhaps arranging a one to one meeting with those members who attended, so that you can benefit from their knowledge and increase your own business and chapter growth.

Have you visited the new BNI South East websites?

We now have three new websites available for people to find out more about BNI, as well as to see where their local group meets.

These are being very well received, and are helping visitors to discover some of the many benefits BNI has to offer.

They can be found at:

http://www.bnisurrey.co.uk/

http://www.bniessex.co.uk/

http://www.bnikent.co.uk/

Please do visit them, and also pass on the addresses to your contacts.

BNI training now qualifies as CPD hours

We are all aware that one of the benefits to members of being in BNI is that they receive high quality training as part of their membership.

On a number of occasions over the years, many of our professional members (eg solicitors, accountants, architects etc) have asked us whether the training can be accredited to allow them to count it towards their Continuing Professional Development hours that they are required to do each year.

We are delighted to let you know that BNI has managed to get BNI training accredited by the Institute of Continuing Professional Development:

This means that now any AD or equivalent running a workshop for BNI anywhere in the UK is entitled to issue a certificate stating that a member has attended a course and the number of hours with the CPD logo.

We will be producing certificates in due course to provide to Members after workshops as and when appropriate.

We hope this will provide excellent added value for our professional Members.