Dear David

Working on one's own, as I am for most of the time, it's all to easy to let things drift, day dream, search the internet or concentrate on those things I know I can do easily, rather than those I really should be doing now.

So it's nice to be woken up out of one's reveries by the nuggets of inspiration that come by e-mail from the keyboard of BNI Sterling's Mentor-in-Chief.

I find these weekly e-mails inspiring and relatively easy to implement. They invariably contain just a few snappy sentences that one can make use of pretty well immediately, if not NOW, the subject of this week's mail.

Thank you David for these flashes of inspiration. Keep it up, and why not compile an "anthology" ? the Nuggets of Marks, or something similar. I'm sure they would have more combined effect that several hours sitting in a room and then not putting into practice what one has learnt.

Neil Hornsby - Director
VKA Business Development
12th August 2009

TESTIMONIAL FOR NEIL HORNSBY OF DRINKS OF FRANCE

I recently ordered 30 mixed bottles of wine including 6 rose champagne bottles from Neil. This was for a family tea party at my house for ten of us to celebrate the 90th birthday of my mother in law. Her husband who is 94 was there too and both are renowned for being difficult normally and extremely difficult on the subject of their likes and more often dislikes when it comes to wine. However working from the advice of Neil I ordered six bottles of a magnificent rose champagne; four bottles of which relaxed their moods.We then turned to the 24 bottles of white and red which Neil had recommended and polished of a dozen rapidly .At this point Neil's choice had been so spot on that not only were my inlaws in a mellow mood but so was my wife and my sister in law. I took advantage of this notable part of the family being legless to polish of some more wine, whisky, brandy and ports with my brother in law.

The whole experience of dealing with Neil was superb. The choice of wines, his knowledge about them, their prices, their delivery to my home...all was par excellence. I would not hesitate to order from Neil again nor to recommend him to anyone wishing to have a damn fine drink or even for the purpose to smooth internal family relationships.

Sadly I have no memory at all of when the party was over but am still living at the same address and being allowed to recycle the empties.

Peter Batkin
Bugbusters
27th April 2009

Dear Roland,
Thank you for your help and advice in getting my display panels organised for the in-store promotion I'm running in Dulwich village.
I was impressed with your service, pricing and attention to detail all the way through the process.
The results speak for themselves and have cement my relationship with my client.
I'm looking forward to working with you again.
Phil Ripley, Ripley Photography

I would like to thank Neil Hornsby of Drinks of France for the excellence of his service both to my business and to my family in providing champagne and fine wines for special occasions.
Starting last summer with a supply of sparkling rose for a garden party, then dealing with a difficult delivery to my office in the City - boxes of red and white Chateauneuf du Pape (Christmas presents to clients) and more recently an order for champagne (home consumption).
The quality of the wine has been equally excellent, and we are now planning a wine tasting evening which others have told me has proved to be a superb occasion when managed by Neil.
Mike Leaney, Managing Director, ML Select Ltd

“I would like to thank you all for the work you put into the design of our new website. The results speak for themselves:

• Enquiries up over 200%
• Continuous comments about a very professional website
• We have sold more contracts so far this FY than in the whole of last year

Please pass my comments to the rest of your team and I know we will speak soon about further work.”
Nigel Davey, Managed Networks

“Crop Print claim that their unique service capability stems from their independence from manufacturers and printers, and the way they can take a flexible approach to solving customer requirements.

“We can do anything” is the way I read it.

Last week I was in a bind, I needed to arrange a PowerPoint presentation on a client site, and I knew there was no plain white wall to project onto. The solution I was looking for was a portable projector screen, small and light enough to be carried on public transport. Having been thwarted three times on Ebay, I was concerned that I would not have a screen, and that my presentation would lose both its Power and its Point. Bethan Emerson of Crop Print was at the BNI meeting, so I gave her a referral, get me a portable screen, help!

One day later, and well ahead of the presentation time, I had just what I was looking for, thanks to Crop Print. Bethan quickly drew on her vast network of contacts to find what I needed. That is the kind of service I value, and we are now discussing my printing and display requirements.”
David Marks, Kingston Business Coaching

“People buy from people when they like each other, trust each other, know what they can do and what they want. As a lifelong sales professional I pride myself on generating instant rapport, and getting quickly to win-win. However, it is only with BNI that I have discovered a community where we can develop real partnership, get behind the façade, learn the real capabilities and needs, and deliver real value to each other and our customers.  There is real business friendship behind the referrals and co-operation. My aim is to build a reliable pipeline of over 60% of my new business from BNI."
David Marks, Kingston Business Coaching

“Since joining BNI Sterling a little over a year ago, I’ve won almost £30,000 in new business, met several companies who I now work with regularly and, most important, made some real friends.”
Paul Rodger, Bull Rodger