Seven skills and qualities that every leader should have to survive a crisis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

I have spent some time over the last several weeks reflecting over leadership qualities and skills needed to survive the unprecedented time for our business. Here are some of the things that I have learned that have helped us survive – and in some ways flourish – during the pandemic.

 

Go where the money is

The first and most important thing that we, as a business, do was go where the money was. One of those things included the PPP loan. There was a moment in February and March when there was no money in association sales, membership, and sponsorship. Everyone locked down. Where was the money? The money was with the government. We as a business, felt like, "Hey, this is what it's for, let's go for it!" We spent a lot of time and effort trying to secure the additional funds and it really helped us navigate towards future.

Long standing virtual workplace

We have had a virtual workplace for years. When the pandemic hit – and we had to shut down the office – our work was not disrupted. We measure work based on what we do, not where we're at. So, while people were struggling with making the switch, we were already set up for it.

Diversified revenue streams

It is important to have diversified revenue streams, but without losing focus. If you have been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that we do association sales in membership, advertising, sponsorships, and exhibits. All of that work over the years has also allow us to develop about 40% of our revenue to come from consulting in those same areas including value proposition, dues levels, membership categories, sponsorship pricing and inventory. Our ability to have the consulting work and the sales work in the same areas of expertise is really important because, in some cases, the sales were really dried up, especially in sponsorship. Membership sales activity stayed pretty consistent. If we didn't have multiple streams, we would have had a big problem.

Stay focused

The consulting and sales work is different in terms of the revenue stream, however, we remained focused on organizational growth.

Know your strengths

What are you best at? What is your core competency? To us, it is important to us to know how to describe our value to our prospects. We had a pull to get into meeting management and we've lost business because we've been focused on our core competencies and not on being an all-inclusive consulting operation. I never thought that we would be the best at meeting management, expositions, or trade shows. I know that we're the best when it comes to membership development, strategies, and sales for trade associations. What stopped be from expanding our portfolio was the Jack Welch theory: if you’re not number one or two at something, get out of it.

Get paid for your work

There are a lot of sales groups in the association space and others in the advertising space that will do sales and business development for commission only. We get paid commission and we also get paid to pick up the phone, craft email campaigns, host webinars for non-members, sift through crappy old prospect lists, track everything in Salesforce,

On this special holiday episode, JP shares morsels of advice for association leaders and small business owners.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

Today, I have a special holiday themed episode of the Association Hustle. You might have your own traditions around the holidays. I love them. I'm recording this the day before Thanksgiving and we’re already in the holiday spirit. We all need it.

I've got my own traditions around this time of year. I always listen to Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving Day by Arlo Guthrie. I watch the movie The Last Waltz about the band's final concert, which was recorded on a Thanksgiving Day. It’s a great documentary by Martin Scorsese with a fantastic performance by Van Morrison. I love these traditions.

In today’s episode, I'm going to work my way “around the plate” and give you tidbits and morsels of advice. Some of the helpings are going to be larger and we'll work around it give you a little turkey, a little dressing, lots of gravy, a dab of yams, maybe a special green bean casserole, whatever it might be.

Be Honest

I want you guys to tell the truth. The absolute truth about your business, not “kind of” the truth. Stop telling lies. It starts with you. Quit telling yourself lies like your team is well trained or that you're doing all you can to make your business successful. Your clients and your team will value it.

Be Your Best

I want you to be the best that you can be. Offer the best solution, develop the best program and the money will come. If you work on being the best, the finances will take care of themselves. Stop worrying about the money. Stop crying, stop judging, work on your skill and talent – those things will help you win majority of the time.

Speed

You will lose business development and sales deals without speed and velocity. I see it over and over again. Get to know the person – your potential client – by learning something personal about them. Drop that knowledge into your conversation. Go to LinkedIn after your first meeting and connect with them and learn something about their professional career. Get intrigued by something in their story, look at their bio, and check out their thought leadership. The wait time between the presentation, the discussions, and the proposal is now shorter. Weave parts of their story or anecdote into your conversations as you share information with them. Is there a piece of content that could be helpful to them?

The day before you get back together to go over the proposal, send them a quick video message, "Hey, I can't wait to see you and talk about what we're going to do together!" Scan any content or leads from industry blogs and send it to that prospect. Offer value every time you're interacting with them. Do it quickly and consistently.

Follow up

Follow up is about helping others and most people don't do that. They follow up by saying, "Hey, I'm just checking in." They’re checking in because they have to and check off a box for activity purposes. Instead, follow up by adding value and because that is what your potential clients expect from you. They'll expect that from you as a client, too. This will allow you to differentiate yourself from every other person that's calling them.

Business model diversification for associations is more important than ever. Tune in to this week's episode to learn how you can diversify your association's revenue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

We’ve learned this so much over the last eight months during the pandemic, including the importance of diversification for revenue for associations. Diversification comes in many shapes and sizes; however, it is more important than ever to associations’ business model moving forward.

Being a one trick pony probably not going to be enough to sustain your organization. Here's what I see associations doing right now:

If you're reliant on non-dues revenue, like a big event or a meeting, data shows that you are going to have around maybe 40% to 60% coming from events. It's difficult to rely on only event revenue to pull you through. Associations are adapting and putting additional emphasis on membership development to offset their event revenue shortfalls by doing the following:

Improving the process for membership renewal. Membership renewal is a lot more than a billing cycle. The best associations are emphasizing the benefits, services, and return on investment regarding membership at least 10 times a year in a variety of different formats: webinar briefings about services, email campaigns, outreach and calls to the members from the staff and volunteers about new programs that are available to them that might be helpful.

Creating a very intentional membership recruitment program. To do this best, segment the membership to ensure the value proposition is specific and well-articulated to each group. For example, suppliers have different needs than the core membership in the manufacturing sector. As part of the sales process improvement, we need something that involves demonstration of the services and benefits. We need testimonials. We need a good CRM to track our activity and our hard work. The interpretation of government relations, activity, regulations, and PPP loans and all those things is a great ROI on government relations.

For years, we talked about how government relations is intangible. Not now, friends. You're showing them the value of government relations and they're getting your content because of your expertise and the way you interpret what's happening.

Marketing General's economic impact study for associations states that about 70% of the associations reported an increase in engagement this year. That means your value proposition is valuable because they want more of it. People in your industry are seeking more of your content, information, and they want to access your experts. This engagement and your facilitation means that non-dues revenue is a great opportunity.

Conversely, let's flip the coin. If you're primarily a membership dues-based business model, you might need non-dues diversification. I'm working with a great association that's launching its first ever sponsorship program because they have access to the entire supply chain. Buyers and sellers may need you to facilitate and provide branding, marketing, and business networking opportunities – even in a virtual format. So, how do you do that? Conduct virtual meetings until you can meet together and reach more people than ever before. We're seeing this type of engagement where the numbers and the data is more robust...

What does it mean to lead an organization these days? Tune in to this week's episode as JP shares lessons he learned from a wartime general and how they can be applied to your organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

Today's episode is about leadership. I don't think there are bad companies or bad associations, however, I believe that there is poor leadership and that is the primary reason why associations and organizations don't perform well. Yes, we're in the middle of a pandemic and I understand it’s challenging which means strong leadership even more so important right now.

If you study business – even if you're a casual follower – there are so many examples of companies and associations that grow, flourish, and expand when times are bad and industries are in decline. Even in times like these! Take a look at the association business, some organizations are circling down the drain right now while others are adjusting, rebounding, and increasing industry influence. In any case, leadership is a major factor regarding the trajectory.

 

What does it mean to lead an organization now?

I've been studying and reading materials from about half a century ago from General Bruce Clarke. West Point, World War II, Korea. He wrote the book on how to lead an army and so much of the information resonated with me. I’d like to share with you a few of General Clarke’s teachings with my own twist because, in some ways, I believe we are in a war. We're in a business war right now.

1. Don't ignore problems. They've been exposed during this battle. You know what they are your organization. This may be a little bit different than commanding an army, however, I believe it is important for organizations to address their problems; it's an essential part of leadership.

If you're unable to articulate the challenges and problems and address them as a team, you fail to portray credibility. Your team knows what's going on and that you're ignoring it. Your team knows an issue likely before you even do and if you address problems or challenges regularly, you will have a reputation as a leader that does not ignore issues.

In the same vein, I’ve learned that permissiveness doesn't work. When you address problems, you're going to be pulled to ignore or avoid them. Don't take the bait. You can tell how great a coach is because of the things that they don't allow. They're not permissive. They stay on the details and that's why they're great coaches. That is why great leaders don't ignore problems, they address them. Great leaders look for challenges.

2. Tell your team what you expect, it is not their job to ask you. Clarity is important characteristic of a great leader.

An important exercise that I learned from Manager Tools, a podcast and a blog, that is absolutely critical to my leadership – and a very simple task – is to ask your team members to list the five most important responsibilities of their job. You, as the leader or manager, list the five most important things of their job, compare and give feedback. My guess is there are some folks that are going to be totally aligned with you while there may be others that you're not on the same page with. This gives you the opportunity to address specifically wh...

Takeaways from the 2020 elections and how you can apply those lessons to your association.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

Hey, it's great to be with you this week. November 11, 2020. A historic week for our country. An election held during a pandemic. There are unbelievable takeaways and things that I've learned that I want to pass along to you.

What are the lessons that association can take away from the most recent election?

Do we look at – and utilize – all of the options that we have available to us to engage our members? Are we, as associations and organizations, going to continue to rely on a legacy model to pull across the finish line and expect our members to get value from you? Donald Trump used an Election Day strategy that focused on people showing up to the polls on the day of and voting in person. That strategy has worked for a very long time. However, over the years, that has become a narrow strategy. There are now numerous ways that we can vote here in the United States: absentee, mail-in, and early in person.

There now needs to be a more diversified strategy to get us more votes, engagement, and activity. And, you have to work hard to implement it. It takes new strategies, optimization, and engagement efforts.

Now, I don't care really who you were pulling for, however, I think what we have learned from that is that it's not all about advocacy. If you're just an advocacy organization, that's a pretty narrow strategy. If your non-dues revenue stream is determined by a singular meeting that brings in a lot of people for one week out of the year – and you're not diversifying the delivery system – you might lose opportunities when it comes to membership and engagement with your members.

Are you looking at the playbook and the rules of the game and are you doing all the things that you can to connect with your membership and to deliver value?

A recent Marketing General study revealed that 70% of all associations reported increased membership engagement this year. Read that again. An increase in membership engagement during a time when we have to be socially distance and cannot meet in person. That amazes me! Your members need more value from you than ever before. Your industries want more services from you! You have to be able to deliver them in a different way – rather than just in-person, during a certain timeframe of the year, during your three-day event, during your Superbowl, during your election day. That's what I learned from the election.

 

The other thing that I’m very excited about this week is that I attended my first in-person meeting since March of this year. It was fantastic. Limited attendance. Well executed by the hotel with masks and social distancing. The social events were held outside and the doors were open for air circulation when possible. Every safety precaution was taken into consideration and implemented.

I was more eager to participate in the content than ever – hear people live – than I have been in a very long time. It was just like my first meeting ever! I was taking notes and very engaged. I will say this, though, the networking felt a bit clumsy, especially with people that I didn't know well. It's hard to connect, speak with, and read people when they've got a mask on and they're six feet away.

The less concerned you are about being liked – or caring what others think of you – the more liberated you might be and it could be the catalyst to your greatness and meeting your full potential. Listen to this week's episode for hard truths on integrity, customer service, and delivering value to your clients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

The less concerned you are about being liked – or caring what others think of you – the more liberated you might be and it could be the catalyst to your greatness and meeting your full potential.

We're in the service business at The Moery Company – whether we're selling for an association or offering consulting services – we're interacting with our clients on a pretty regular basis; if not daily, weekly. What I often see is a differential mentality; a one down mentality, if you will. In some cases, it's because you just want to be liked.

This sometimes starts during the sales process, "Hey, I'm so appreciative of your time!" Or, "Gosh, I'm so grateful you would do business with us!" Yeah, I get it, I am thankful. However, my time is just as important as yours.

In the association industry, we have a cult of personality of deferral, "Oh my gosh, I can't have any CEOs mad at me, it will be very uncomfortable at the next reception we're at together!" I don't think about it that way. Associations can also see this with their members. When I worked at an association and paying member was upset – like a former chairperson mad about their room – there was a meltdown in the office and a fire drill reaction to it. It's ridiculous.

The best customer service is not about being liked or being differential, rather it's about being respected. You hired me – or joined an association – because you have a problem that we can help you solve. There might be an avoidance of the problem or a lack of admission of the problem and, deep down inside, you likely reached out and hired me to clean it up or change the trajectory of your company. To perform the best customer service, you may need the very best advice, even if it's tough love. You hired me for advice and the very best recommendations, so let's reframe a few specific tactics that will make you great at customer service because these things really count when serving a client. Be on time, don't miss a deadline, make every meeting, sign on to Zoom early, look like a pro even if you're working from home, and so on.

Look at the agreement and project scope regularly. I'm always referring back to ours to ensure that we're delivering exactly what our client asked us to do. From my experience, most problems in business are based on someone not doing what they promised they would and they didn’t do it in the expected timeframe.

Deliver value every single time you engage with a client, even if it is a status meeting. Provide expertise, observation from the field, nuggets of information, and anything else that might be helpful.

Have integrity. It’s not about a billing statement or over charging someone. It’s about perspective. If it sucks, tell them. If someone on their team is slowing you down and undermining your ability to deliver, say so.

I admit, I've sugar coated the truth before. And, you know what? I got fired anyway. The fault was mine. It was my mistake,

Associations that have adopted business like behavior are succeeding while those that have not will continue to struggle. Which camp does your association fall into?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

Associations are adopting business like behavior and are operating more and more like corporations.

Some people, including myself, have said over time that associations should be acting and performing more like business-oriented groups. Now, we're starting to see more and more associations changing their mode of operations.

What does that mean for the consultants, members, and staff members?

Shorter timeframe to make decision. For example, new contracts are being negotiated and signed at lightning speed because association leaders have a desperate need for services; they need to change the trajectory of their business and they're ready to make decisions quicker than ever before.

The pace of decision making for associations has decreased considerably. Organizational patience is also shorter. They want things done tomorrow and are putting pressure on their partners and staff members to execute quickly and efficiently. Association CEOs are even more results oriented.

Staff consolidation has reduced association’s ability to carry out the necessary changes. Reduction has occurred for multiple reasons, such as financial reality or the need for new skill sets. If you're not able to adapt from in-person meetings to virtual there’s not much that we can do for you.

This means that associations have to get out of the gate quickly, launch, and start doing the work. Don't wait. If you're an associations consultant then I advise that you do not wait for an internal staff member to slow things down because you're going to be the one held accountable and expected to perform stringently. We're acting faster for quicker results; we need them now. We may find ourselves in an environment where we’re having to step on some toes to get things done.

 

Association CEOs are looking for deep expertise and advice. Sometimes, consulting feels like we're building a watch needing a lot of data, information, and backstory. The work to do so serves us well to do that; we need to do the background work. However, ultimately, they want us to tell them what the shot is. The association leaders that I'm speaking with want to know exactly what to do and what to do now. This is encouraging as we approach what I think is the year of the association.

Here's why I say that:

Associations have demonstrated why their existence is essential. While industries were falling apart and failing, what happened? Associations stepped in and helped their industries and members with government relations. In many cases, for the first time ever, associations secured specific aid and assistance through the CARE Act, PPP loans, and through other types of relief. This was the ultimate culling of the herd.

A lot of associations express that they are in the government relations and influence business. However, for those that did not deliver, their members will have second thoughts when it comes to continuing to be involved with them in the short- or long-term future.

Associations have delivered more programs, education,

Your sponsors and exhibitors are no longer the folks who are underwriting your food and beverage costs at an in-person event. They're now your business partners. Listen to this weeks episode to learn what to include in your 2021 sponsorship prospectus to win over existing and new sponsors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

I want to give you some encouragement – and a dose of reality – in regards to what is about to happen. I want you to be successful. That's what I'm all about. That's my main goal with this podcast! I'm so grateful that you listen and I want you to take the information that I share and turn into something good for you.

Here are some thoughts around sponsorships for 2021 because you're probably getting ready for it right now.

Your sponsors and exhibitors are no longer the folks who are underwriting your food and beverage costs at an in-person event. Now, and in the future, they're going to increasingly become your business partners as registration fee revenue continues to be reduced for a significant amount of time.

Recently, I pulled research information from IEG's sponsorship.com website showing projections that approximately 40% of all global sponsorship revenue will need to be made up in 2021 because a lot of the inventory disappeared. We know this from our own experiences in the association area; when events were cancelled, so was the sponsorship revenue. This means that we need to make up 40% of that revenue in other ways. Associations were way too reliant on sponsorship inventory built around live events to sustain themselves.

Associations that did not have good inventory prior to the pandemic – such as a coffee break sponsorship with the same company for a decade plus – get ready, you’re going to get a butt kicking this year if you don’t change now. However, I know you can change. I’ve seen it happen where organizations have completely transformed their sponsorship program.

Sponsors are going to reconsider their play not only with you but with everybody else. This is an opportunity because they're rethinking all of the other association that they have worked with before. There's no silver bullet solution to this; we've got to ask the sponsors about what they're most interested in and their intended ROI. We've got to reconfigure our inventory and we've got to provide diversity in our offerings to them.

If we can't perform – a live event, for example – they will want their money back. Your sponsors want to see clear statements around risk mitigation and how they will get their money back if things don't happen as planned.

Collection and analysis of data will be a priority so male sure that it is part of the value proposition especially if you’re doing a lot of virtual stuff – webinars, podcasting, etc. – because your partners need to see what their money did for them.

Contracts and agreements are likely to look different than they did in the past. By the way, that's fair, because our event contracts look different these days. Sponsors are now our business partners and we have to treat them that way. We do that by reducing their risks which will give us a chance in the market.

Here are some ideas to include as part of your 2021 prospectus:

* in-person events

* virtual event

This is the most important year for membership renewal and now is not the time to take your foot off the gas. Listen to this week's episode for tips on how to prepare to have a successful membership renewal season this year and beyond.

P.S. Stick around for a free offer at the end of this episode!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

 

I have a special offer at the end of today's podcast so hang with me over the next several minutes to find out what it is!

 

We're seeing a fast track to 2020 being the most important membership year in the history of our association industry. Why?

We've had contraction across industries due to mergers and acquisitions and companies coming in and out of a recession. This has caused non-dues revenue to become uncertain and reduced for associations. If you look at the ASAE operating ratio study, the average association brings in anywhere between 30-40% of their revenue from meetings and events. That gross revenue is clearly reduced because we're currently using virtual formats. Some associations are seeing success. They’re making money and we're helping them net more money than we did prior to the pandemic. However, we're not bringing in the volume and the gross revenue that we were before. All of these things are affecting our business model, which makes membership renewal that much more important.

A Marketing General study shows that an average association experiences an approximately 90% renewal rate. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw at least a 10% reduction in renewal rates next year to be closer to 80%. Association membership renewals are very important for 2021 and beyond.

In addition to the expected ruction in renewal rates, we are also seeing layoffs across the association industry. If you read CEO Update, Axios, or Politico you're probably monitoring some of these layoffs and cutbacks that associations are making right now. I get calls from executives right now looking for their next deal.

We’re seeing it firsthand with the distribution of our e-newsletter. Every other week, we send out a newsletter and our reports show hard bounces – indicating that the e-mail address no longer exists – and out of office responses showing that the subscriber is no longer with the association. This is affecting the ability for us to develop and implement a good membership renewal and recruitment program because a lot of these people were in charge of that function. Membership related work will be the most important work that you do this year.

 

There’s a trend in membership development showing a more holistic approach when it comes to onboarding, renewal, engagement, and recruitment. We used to look at recruitment and renewal as two separate seasons with different methodologies and now there’s a lot more synergy.

In the last several months, associations have been delivering value in a variety of different formats: Zoom calls, webinars, newsletters, podcast, video, and more. You’re communicating with more people in your industries than you ever have. We also are facing what people are calling a K-shaped recovery that may affect renewal and recruitment efforts. Some of your membership segments may be doing better than others and we need to take this into consideration as we go into the renew...

This week JP shares insights gained from listening to his favorite podcasts and six steps to launching a new sales project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hello and welcome to JP Moery’s Association Hustle Podcast. President of The Moery Company, JP’s mission is to arm today’s associations with insight and strategy to thrive and a progressively complex and competitive business landscape. 21st century associations must move forward with a little bit of hustle and revenue development at their core.

Here’s JP.

Today's podcast covers two topics. The first will cover insights learned from listening to podcasts and the second will cover the steps to selling a new project – maybe a new prospectus, maybe a new membership category – I’ve got some thoughts on how to do that.

 

The Art of Discipline

There are five podcasts that I listen to on a regular basis – daily or weekly – depending upon the frequency of that podcast. Those podcasts are:

1. The Gary Vee Audio Experience about branding, entrepreneurship, and hustle.

2. To Sell or Die by Jeffrey Gitomer. This guy is hilarious and he's great on sales tactics. Even if you're not in sales, I'd listened to it because it's that awesome.

3. Marshall Pruitt's podcast talks about IndyCar racing and you know I love my fast cars!

4. In the Circle is about fastpitch softball. You know what I learned from it other than softball? I work with a lot of women and I value their opinions. By listening to this podcast, I learned a lot about communicating and working with the leading women in the industry.

5. Tim Ferriss’s two podcasts, The Tim Ferriss Show and Tool of Titans – in which he breaks down every chapter of his book by the same title. The chapter that really resonated with me this week was an interview with Jocko Willink, a Navy SEAL and a general badass. One of the points that he makes is that discipline equals freedom.

 

This led me to identify four areas of discipline for association executives that I think will help you be successful in the long term.

1. Members – or prospects – first. Their needs and objectives comes before the pitch or what the association has to say. We spend so much time talking about us, and not enough time thinking about them.

2. Prospecting. Allot time and activity each week on people or companies that you have never worked with before.

3. Renewal. It's never a waste of time or money to develop intentional process on keeping a current customer, member, and sponsor. Identifying what they need, stay in touch, and observe them to see what they're doing in the marketplace. Their desires and needs with you may change, however, if you're not paying attention – and you don't develop a discipline to revisit – you may lose them in the long term.

4. Action as a strategy. If you take extraordinary amount of action, you're going to beat 90% of the organizations in the association game. I see it in sales and in consulting projects. If you continue to work and take action with a certain amount of speed and velocity, you're going to wow your members and your customers.

Discipline equals freedom. What disciplines do you need for you, your association, or your business?

 

Selling New Projects

During one of our recent sales meetings, a question came up about the steps one needed to take when launching a new sales program for membership or sponsorships. Here’s how I would tackle it:

1. Create a plan.