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Member Recruitment Evangelism
If you expect your trade association or professional society to serve you well; you must become an actively engaged evangelist for your association. You must bellow it from the rooftops; the value you receive from your membership. You must tell all your colleagues, competitors, and suppliers why they too should become members. It is your job to drive a continual membership recruitment campaign. More members, among other things, mean a louder voice in legislative matters, more programs to help you improve your business, and better affinity programs. A trade association or professional society should be a wonderful, industry wide strategic ...
Membership Recruitment Evangelism...while the term evangelism is generally used in conjunction with religion, past evangelicals have proven to be exceedingly effective marketers. Case in point; Apostle Paul is considered by many to be the world’s most effective marketer. Evangelism, simply put is the selling of an idea. In this article I’m going to focus on how paid association staff and executives can help their volunteer members to spread the association membership word to colleagues, competitors, and suppliers. And, why it is in the members’ best interest to make the effort. Yes, evangelism needs a little push in these uncertain economic ...
It’s an association or society executives’ perpetual question, “Which group is best suited to lead the charge in new member recruitment?” What is your answer; the professionals, the amateurs, or both? Today, this question may be more crucial then ever before. Let’s explore what each side brings to the member recruitment, assimilation, and retention table. Paid Staff (Professionals) Driven Benefits: Stuff gets done; since member recruitment can be part of their job description there is a strong motivation to get the job done. One will rarely hear the excuse for non-performance; I have been busy running my own business. Consistency; ...
The trade associations and professional societies, especially ones that serve mature industries have been hit particularly hard the last couple years with their membership rosters. Unfortunately, the old member value delivery and recruitment formulas seem not to be working like they once did. First Explore Belonging While there are numerous reasons to belong to an association or society, most fall into one of two categories: career/business improvement and industry/profession affiliation. Credentials & Certification Organizations that offer valuable credentialing tend to lock members in on both of the above reasons. The idea of value in certification and credentialing is important to ...
As I read comments on member-get-a-member ideas by association membership directors at a Linkedin Group discussion, I can’t help from wondering if they are even considering member retention. An important thought for association and society executives is; do you want the instant gratification of a membership spike or the satisfaction of sustainable organic growth? Incentives for Member Recruitment Giving current members an incentive for recruiting new members can be a great way to temporarily boost membership numbers but is a poor method for true organizational organic growth. This is similar to a sales person that is only interested in making ...
For effective member recruitment, highly engaged and long-term retained members are your first, best hope. Who more than these members are qualified to sing the praises of the value your membership organization delivers to members? These members could easily be converted to member recruitment evangelists. Since these members can also access their (non-member) colleagues far easier than can professional headquarter staff, why not make the most of what you’ve got? The Problem The majority of your engaged and retained members are of Baby Boomer age. Their membership paradigm is that of joining their trade association or professional society because they ...
(645 words) In order for any trade association or professional society to best serve its market and constituents, it must reach, maintain, and hopefully surpass critical mass in its membership ranks. Today’s challenge for organizational staff and volunteer leaders in doing this is in the influencing of younger stakeholders in your industry or profession to join in and support the cause. Here’s the rub; younger people tend not to join the cause, just because they should as did their predecessors, the Baby Boomers—bummer! There are three basic ways to recruit members: Direct Sales where you have commissioned sales persons on ...
Recruitment Evangelism, is it possible? You’ve heard it before, “You’re either green and growing or ripe and rotting.” This has never before been truer in the world of trade associations and professional societies. Too frequently, what your baby boomer aged members want is not consistent with what today’s recent college graduates desire. What’s an association executive to do? Change your organization’s culture to that of Recruitment Evangelism. Help your long-term members to see the wisdom behind diversity and inclusion, especially in the generational area. Help them not to fear the young upstarts. Help your current members to see the value ...
Member ROI
Price differential the real feature of membership. It's very interesting that a lot of association executives association volunteer leaders and others seem to think that the feature of membership or the benefit of membership is something like…the meeting or other things in which Members can participate. Here's the thing…if non-Members ...
Devastating your organization’s member value proposition is quite easy if you follow my below listed five steps. These steps will help you to create a bankruptcy of member value in your organization. Give your printed and/or online magazine to non-members. Sure you advocate that by giving it away potential members ...
In order for your organization to prove membership is a good business decision, you first have to survey your members. This can be tricky of you are not familiar with qualitative research. Qualitative (focus group) gives you richer and more accurate information than quantitative (online survey) because in a live ...
My work over the last 20+ years has revealed to me that the member perception of value is paramount. What members (or prospective members) believe is all that matters. Associations frequently do a good job of creating member value, but not such a good job of communicating that value in ...
Member value proposition is what most new and current members want. Your member value proposition is determined by the beliefs, perspectives and emotional connection of members to the organization, its staff and volunteer leaders. The other side of that coin is how the industry, in general, perceives your organization. If ...
I recently had a discussion with an executive director of a construction industry association. The discussion revolved around giving members more value. Through my querying about this association’s member ROI activities, I discovered that this association was putting on seminars and charging non-members the same price as members. Hmmm… Challenging ...
Does a professional or trade association exist to serve its members? How about to serve the profession or industry? Or, perhaps the association exists to perpetuate itself? Sure, your answer is based on your personal experiences. Unfortunately though, I have come to believe that there are simply too many people ...
Has attendance dropped at your association meetings? Has your membership numbers contracted? If you honestly answer either of the above questions in the affirmative, you are not alone. Both association executives and their boards of directors are asking, “What do we do about our shrinking membership?” Your membership and meeting ...
The quick answer is a bunch! However, that is not the kind of answer that quality professionals generally desire. Today, armed with three years of data, I believe a have a substantive answer to this question. Over three consecutive years (2005-2007), ASQ invited me to attend the World Conference on ...
Trade associations and professional societies are wonderful industry or profession collaborations and deliver high value to their members. After a decade and a half, speaking at association and society conventions and board meetings, I can safely make the above statement. And I believe I can also safely say that most ...
Learn the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process for non-profit membership growth. The Problem: For trade associations and professional societies, identifying the value your members want without the Rigsbee Member ROI Valuation Process can be a bit like threading a needle in the back of a Jeep, while crossing granite boulders, at 40 miles per ...
Discovering the Real-Dollar Value of Your Association Membership Grow your organization by proving membership is a good business, financial, and career decision. Gone are the days where professionals and business owners would simply belong to their association because their should or for “networking” opportunities; that was a Baby Boomer paradigm ...
Your membership organization is most likely delivering quite a bit of value to the members. Unfortunately, very few of your members know about the real-dollar value. In reviewing, yet another, association magazine I’m reading a two-page article about this particular association in which the virtues are explained for the members ...
(678 words) If you are taking advantage of the “member-only” products, services and activities that (fill in org name) provides—you realize that membership is a smart decision. You demand a reasonable return on your investment (ROI) in membership and you should get it. You have done more than the non-member ...
State associations, more than national associations, are riding the member ROI wave of accelerated member recruitment. They are proving the real-dollar return on investment (ROI) of membership in order to influence industry members into joining. These associations have realized that the "join because you should" died a long time ago ...
If your membership organization wants to grow, your member ROI quotient is important (return on investment). Engage industry stakeholders through delivering honest and usable value. The universal thought that is whirling around in everyone’s mind is, “What’s in it for me?” Perception is reality; and today’s associations and societies must ...
Member Retention
Ultimately yours like most associations and societies are looking for net-member growth and there is no better way than member retention through relationship bank deposits. Some do a great job keeping members but still lose many to attrition. Some are awesome at recruiting but tend to have a turnstile of members coming and going. Unfortunately, net-growth seems to be illusive to many. Offense and Defense To enjoy net-member growth, it’s obvious but frequently forgotten, that an organization has to be excellent at both recruitment and retention–every day. This is a challenge as many find it hard to continually focus on two things (1) how to get them and (2) how to keep them. Member Retention through Relationship Bank Deposits relies on the features of membership you make available to members. This can help with the hard part...communicating how the features make members’ life better. This is the Achilles Heal of most associations and societies—communication. Specifically, communicating value. Too many of the communication directors want to concisely communicate facts to save their readers time. That’s great, but in doing so there is a massive opportunity loss—opportunity to prove value, remind of value, and subliminally lock in the perception of value among ...
New member retention is critical to the success of your organization and member retention is a contact sport. Both conventional wisdom and numerous member surveys tell us that (first-year) new members are most at-risk for non-renewal. Fair enough, I couldn’t agree more. The important question is what to do about it? I suggest to my clients that they create a 12-Month/12-Touch New Member “Showing the Love” Assimilation System. The idea is a combination of my Relationship Bank Deposit recommendations in my second book, Developing Strategic Alliances and an idea from John Gray, Ph.D. who is the author of Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. I’m sure you’ll agree that one must make Relationship Bank Deposits before one attempts to collect a withdrawal. For new member retention, this is huge. For anyone that disagrees…try getting money from a bank with which you have no prior relationship and you’ll quickly see it is a no-go. In relationships the ratio is generally 10 to 1, meaning 10 deposits for every withdrawal. A number of years ago I sat in the audience when John Gray addressed the National Speakers Association and I’ll always remember this; it is about the points. He had ...
The acquisition of industry or profession knowledge, today called Knowledge Management, has been and will continue to be, a primary driver for individuals and companies to hold membership in your member-ROI-centric organization. Efficient and effective knowledge management, (how your organization develops, archives, and makes specific knowledge available to members), should be a member-only benefit. Most non-profit organizations will define their knowledge management activities and resources as keeping tract of, and making easily available, industry or profession knowledge. This typically includes: Policies, standards, and guidelines Best practices Trade press/scholarly journal articles News releases Other industry/profession specific documents Expert opinion Availability of, and access to, subject matter experts Peer review committees Research Surveys* Safety and occupational issues Knowledge sources created by staff Collective industry/profession stakeholder knowledge Chances are that a large segment of your members are not aware of the knowledge resources you make available to them. This is a sad situation because so much of the potential member perceived, return on investment (ROI), can be demonstrated in this line-item member benefit. However, this is also an amazing opportunity to accelerate your member awareness efforts. There is also an even stronger chance that non-member industry stakeholders are also bankrupt in the awareness of ...
Meetings Feature Membership, what does it mean? Here is the bitter pill…if non-members can attend…your meetings are not a feature of membership. However, the discount on registration and member-only events are. Nearly every membership organization can further its mission more effectively, with more members. More members generally translate to larger meetings. To recruit more members, especially Millennials, there must be an outstanding perceived return on investment (ROI) offered. Contemporary membership research, surveys, and reports all indicate that many membership organizations are challenged with trying to justify why one should join their ranks. There is the good old admonishment, “Join to support your industry.” This has become increasingly ineffective. Let’s not forget the old standby, ”We have great networking.” Perhaps your organization has progressed to a more contemporary “We have great live and online communities”? Yet, something is still missing…a truly compelling reason to join. What’s an association executive or director of membership to do? How to make your meetings a feature of membership? Accelerate Your Action In order to grow your membership and member meeting attendance, perhaps it is time to push against conventional wisdom and look in a new direction? Consider the inaccuracy that most of what is offered ...
The Membership Value Myth; you’ve heard it time and time again. Membership in our organization is priceless. Oh really? You mean like the MasterCard commercial where another person figuratively ends up with egg on their face? When someone says that membership in their organization is priceless, what they are really saying is, “I have absolutely no idea of the monetary value I receive from my membership dollars.” What they are saying is that they see their membership as an expense rather than an investment. They are perpetuating the Membership Value Myth and that is a huge problem. If your organization’s members see their membership as an expense, during tough times membership is one of the first things to go. Monetizing the Membership Value Myth Because the majority of North American trade associations and professional societies have not gone through process of determining the actual yearly real-dollar value delivered, their members are yearly forced to justify the annual membership dues expense for themselves. This puts many organizations in the precarious positioning stature of being a mere commodity and the Membership Value Myth continues. There are two basic ways to determine real-dollar member value: staff determined or member determined. In the staff determined model, ...
Strategy
Membership Growth Membership growth and member recruitment are not what they once were. Guilt is not much of a motivator ...
Power Struggle For a number of associations, power struggle is the primary core issue hampering membership growth. This revolves around ...
As an association executive, you are continually seeking great speakers. And frequently, your board of directors expects you to do ...
Sure, you want the best possible speaker for whatever your budget might be. A dynamic or informative speaker generally is ...
In uncertain economic times, the question of how to deliver value, true ROI, to your conference attendees while still keeping ...
Technology enhanced meetings can be a wonderful thing when the technology drives attendee engagement and learning enablement. Doing more with ...
What’s Your Treatment Paradigm? Some associations treat their supplier members like lepers while others consider their associate members to be ...
What better time to grind up sacred cows into hamburger than during an economic downturn? Why; because the sacred cow ...
Association Leadership
Conventional Wisdom about Millennials Is your conventional Wisdom about Millennials accurate? Just as bald white male baby boomers are not all the same—neither are millennials. One would be wise in considering this in member recruitment and retention. To paint such a broad-brush stroke is to leave many behind. While everyone, ...
Oh how things have changed, where has the will to perform gone? The association world was once filled with members that pretty much did everything…and if they were lucky, they could afford an executive secretary…mostly to keep the clerical in order. Today, that executive secretary, in many associations enjoys the ...
Real leadership should be the beacon for today’s organizational leaders as they have much working against their success. Sometimes leaders can be their own worst enemy. However, this is not cause to crawl under a rock and hunker down for the duration of these difficult times. Sure, the press almost ...
Collaboration is a mindset...it's actually entrepreneurial collaboration...some get it instantly, but it often takes people attending several of my seminars for my partnering concepts to sink in...and unfortunately, some never get it. For association and society Chief Staff Executives (CSE), this is huge! Helping people to see personal value in ...
A recent meetings industry headline stated, “ASAE Adds Diversity Officer.” The article stated, “…the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership announced that a 20-year veteran…has been named director of diversity and inclusion.” I have a suspicion that finding ways to offer inclusiveness to contrarian association ...
If you are an organizational leader, and have been for any length of time, when the word contrarian comes up you see a particular person(s) in your mind’s eye. The words mal-content, disruptive, and pain-in-the-neck come to mind. But stop, I’d like to take a shot at changing your perception ...
How is the line, “Membership is Priceless” working for you these days in recruiting new members? “Not so well,” you say? The heyday of trade associations and professional societies recruiting members under the pretense of nebulous value propositions has gone the way of IBM Selectric typewriters. Stakeholders in your industry ...
In their book Frugal Innovation: How to Do More with Less, Navi Radjou and Jaideep Prabhu show how global companies have accessed talent from developing nations, relying on their cunning and ingenuity to develop new products at high speed and low cost. This is heresy to most of the western world's ...
Trust is defined as confidence, reliance or resting of the mind on the integrity, veracity, justice, friendship, or other sound principle of another person or thing. It's also the glue that binds an organization together. Just think what you could accomplish with your spouse, business partner, alliance partner, supplier, customer ...