Have You Kicked That Sacred Cow to the Curb Yet?

It's been a couple of years since I last talked about kicking sacred cows to the curb.

Have you had any success in dropping your sacred cows?

The past four years, with the economy and our chamber budgets, has given us the perfect opportunity to review our program of work and drop those programs that don't make sense anymore.

And the reasons could be:

• No value to members;
• Nobody attends; or
• It loses money.

Let's get back to focusing on what our boards want us to do and get rid of those losers that just drain the resources of our chamber.

I strongly suggest that you look at all your programs at your next annual retreat and prioritize your program of work and kick those sacred cows to the curb.

Stop trying to be all things to all people, nobody benefits from that strategy!

For a previous blog post on sacred cows go HERE.

Recruiting New Members: Use Multiple Marketing Channels

It's important that you consider using all available communications channels when recruiting new members.

I'm sure you've already used the following at some point in your past campaigns:

• Direct Marketing
• Member-get-a-member
• Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Print ads
• Radio
• TV
• YouTube
• Etc.

Make sure all the channels you're using have a consistent look and message (i.e. branding). That's key!

The following also play a major role in an effective campaign:

• Frequency - the number of times you mail your offer will improve with the frequency in which you send.  And remember, you should know the lifetime value of a member. Think long-term and not short-term when it comes to your campaigns.

• List - the most important aspect of your campaign. You need to have clean data. If your data is bad, your results will be equally so. You can read all the articles you want on recruitment, sales, etc, and they will all tell you the same thing - it's the list!

Also, always remember the four key elements of your campaign. Each will affect your results:

• List
• Offer
• Timing
• Price

Clean your data first, then start your campaign.

Measure your results and tweak as needed!

For a couple of blog posts on a marketing plan by Marketing General, Inc. go HERE.

For their 2015 Membership Marketing Benchmarking Report go HERE.

What Blogs Do You Follow?

In the old days, I bet you read up to two papers a day, two magazines a week and a couple of books each month to keep up-to-date on current events and every day management issues.

Enter the technology age.

Now all you have to do is follow six blogs and you're covered.

And today's technology makes it simple!

You can follow the blogs you want through an RSS feed to your personal blog or feed it to your Twitter account.

Isn't technology great? It's also fun and for the most part, free.

Here's a list of blogs I follow and have delivered to me directly every time there's a new blog post by the author or organization:

• Content Marketing Institute
• Kivi's Nonprofit Communications
• Nonprofit Marketing Blog
• NTEN
• Beth's Blog
• Leadership Now

Not only will this save you time and money, but you can set it up that you get what you want and avoid all the white noise that can come with social media.

Only subscribe to what you're interest in and what will help you do your job better.

For a link to the top 150 nonprofit blogs go HERE.  For a great resource on how to grow your blog go HERE.

The Four Levels of Competence

There have been many articles over the years written about the four levels of competence.

I remember coming across this concept years ago in my training days when I was in the grassroots business for a DC based grassroots company.

Every new client brought a new project with new issues we had to get up to speed with in a hurry.  Hence, we were always starting out at the bottom rung of the ladder.

As trainers, it was our job to get the staff up the ladder so they could get on the phones and start selling.  Yes, grassroots is selling just like membership you're just asking them to write a letter, make a phone, etc. instead of asking for membership dues.

When you hire a new staff member at your chamber it's likely they may not be familiar with our industry or what a chamber does for its members. Again, they're starting at the bottom of the ladder.

Whether you're familiar with this concept or not, as leaders you've been helping folks climb the ladder on a regular basis.

The four levels of competence in a nutshell are:

• Unconsciously competent - you don't know you know.
• Consciously competent - you know you know.
• Consciously incompetent - you know you don't know.
• Unconsciously incompetent - you don't know you don't know.

As stated before, we all start out at the bottom rung of the ladder (I've ordered them this way for illustration) in our first job, new job or a new assignment.

The goal is to make your way up the ladder with the ultimate goal of leaning towards the top ring.

The problem with the top ring, in my opinion?

That's a place where boredom sets in.

As managers of staff, that's a red flag for its time to potentially find a new job. The reason?  There's no challenge anymore.

I don't know about you, but I like a job that continues to challenge my intellect and curiosity. I want to keep trying new things (i.e. programs, projects, or services).  That's what keeps us sharp.

Where do you fall on the ladder?

Here's to climbing the ladder - consciously!

For more information from Wikipedia on the four levels of competence go HERE.

Or for a great article titled The Conscious Competence Ladder from Mind Tools go HERE.

Who Are The Leaders in Your Community?

Are you new to your chamber job?

If you're not from the area, how should you go about identifying the leaders in your "new" community?

At the very least, the following exercise will give you a chance to identify who the community leaders are on your terms, not just from a sheet of paper someone at the chamber gave you in your CEO orientation packet.

Here's a place to start:

• Identify board members of the other local business and community groups;
• Identify business sectors and size (retail, manufacturing, health care, etc); and
• Finally, meet with the leaders of those sectors (i.e., hospital CEO, plant manager of the biggest manufacturing plant in town, etc.).

Once you've collected this information see where the lists overlap. That's a great place to start.

From that list, meet with them individually and ask them questions about the community.  Find out who is in their inner circle of friends by asking them if there is someone they know that you should meet.

Sound familiar, we have a circle of friends in the social media space.

This time meet face-to-face with these folks. You might find that some of these individuals are not current members of your new chamber.

Ask why?

Let them know you're the new leader of the chamber and invite them to join or rejoin.

For a previous blog post on a new chamber CEO's first hundred days go HERE.

Creating a Government Affairs Program

I was recently meeting with a local chamber CEO and they asked the question "How do I start a government affairs program at my chamber?"

It's very simple!

Start by:

• Forming a governance structure, identify a chairman (current member of the board) to head your Government Affairs or Advocacy Committee;
• Survey your membership to identify the issues that are important to them;
• Have the committee discuss the issues; and
• That committee should make recommendations to your full chamber board on what position to take on any legislative issues.

This new government affairs committee does not have to meet every month. I'd suggest quarterly will do the trick as you get started, unless you have a very active legislative session.

Who should you pick as your chairman?

A current board member without an ax to grind and a consensus builder would be a great choice.

Like any chairman, it's important to pick an individual that will put on their "chamber hat" and work on issues that affect all businesses.

And there will be times when you will have members on both sides of an issue, don't worry that's what your committee is for.  My guess, in those situations you won't take a position.

But once the board has approved a position (support or opposing an issue), communicate that position to all stakeholders:

• Your members;
• The legislators;
• The media; and
• Your community.

Chambers were created to stand up for their members and take pro business advocacy positions. We are membership organizations, right?

It's as easy as that.

For a related blog post on Advocacy: Three Elements of an Effective Program go HERE.

Or you can access this blog post titled Advocate: What's Your Chamber's Role HERE.

Effective Messaging

I recently read an article in AssociationsNow magazine that quoted James Carville as stating:

"...for a message to be effective, it has to be simple, relevant, and repetitive. It has to fit all three elements."

So true!

I also recently attended a special training on executive communications.  While there are many keys to an effective presentation, the three themes I learned there were:

• Be yourself;
• Be energetic; and
• Start and finish with the same point/message.

As chamber executives it's important to keep these suggestions top of mind. You remember the KISS theory, right?  Keep it simple stupid.

I'm suggesting the same thing here!

Don't over complicate the message. Keep it in bite size portions so people can digest and understand what you're saying or what you’re asking them to do.

It's like the 30-second elevator speech we're all familiar with and I wrote about in a previous post HERE. All your staff should have that speech down pat when asked what your chamber is known for.

So, continue to educate yourself on becoming the best communicator you can be. Your chamber will be the beneficiary. You'll benefit too!

I'll end with another quote from James Carville from the article:

"...if you want people to know three things about you, have three parts to your message. If you want people to know nothing about you, then have nine."