Four Business Tips to Start a New Year

I’ve learned four concepts during my business life that have stayed right here in my head for more than twenty years. What makes us remember certain lessons while others go into one ear and out the other? The four tips below have become so much a part of my work life, they are now an automatic part of my thinking. I hope this will be a good reminder for you and maybe even a pass-along to your staff:

1. Plan, Organize, Implement – It’s the business equivalent to “ready, aim, fire.” Whenever I begin a project, I plan what outcome should look like. In light of smaller association staffs and more emphasis on deliverables, the planning step is sometimes shortchanged.

Planning means deciding goals first—yours, your staff’s, and even your boards’. Put yourself inside the head of your association’s members and consider how they will see the final product. What are their current expectations, perceptions, needs? Do you plan to meet those standards or offer an alternative? Answer these questions before you start.

Organizing means putting yourself at the event, reading the e-newsletter, or otherwise stepping into the shoes of your members. What will your audience be anticipating, and what will it take to overachieve your goal? What steps will take to get from here to there in an uncomplicated, logical fashion? Organizing helps anticipate speed bumps, even while in the heat of putting a project together.

The success of any project or event is in direct proportion to your preparation. You deliver more than meets the eye. You deliver assurance that you know exactly what your members need out of the project.

2. Trust. But Verify – This has helped me both as a businessperson and even as a parent! It’s the notion of not trusting every spoken or written word. An example is hearing a board of director say in a meeting, “We know our members want more services. The problem is they’re not willing to pay for them.” Sometimes, a membership survey reveals that members are, in fact, willing to pay more for additional, tailored services. This is the business equivalent of trusting that your kid is at Jake’s house, then calling Jake’s mom to be sure.

3. Manage Up – When I finally grew up to pay more attention to the little things in my career, I remember when my most memorable boss sat me down and said, “Melynn, you have to learn to manage up.” I didn’t understand the concept until years after he spoke the words. What he meant was that every effort, every day, making the boss look good boosts the entire organization. This may sound self-serving to my boss—and I suppose it was—but it has become a priority in my business, and has paid me back in my own career. The passion in my work with associations is to master your communications and value proposition. If I do it well, I make the CEO and staff look good. Yes, I like to have pride in my work. More importantly, the Association CEO and staff have pride in the work they helped create. My first boss might have long forgotten this conversation, but I never will.

4. Once in a while, you will need to sit and have a drink with someone you don’t especially like – I’ll explain with an example: I meet some of the most professional, forward thinking, smart Association CEOs, AEs, EDs and EVPs in this business. Sometimes, there is a “rub” or a disconnect between him or her and their incoming elected leader. This is frustrating for the executive, not to mention unproductive, inefficient, and a waste of a lot of energy. Is the conflict a result of an ulterior motive by the elected leader? Does the leader really want interfere with the AE’s business? Or is the disconnect because of two diverse personalities and backgrounds that just don’t naturally blend together?

When you reach into your sock drawer with your eyes closed, unless the socks were in pairs already, you’d have about the same chance of finding two perfect mates as you would of finding a perfect balance between an AE and volunteer leader. Sometimes getting away from the formal setting and getting to know your colleague as a person first starts to build a small bridge to respect and trust, not to mention a respectable working relationship. It’s a small effort with maximum potential. So have a drink with someone you don’t especially like—and see what happens.

Four simple business ideas. I can attest that these lessons are tried and true. Although I continue to learn new lessons every day, I value the wisdom of the mentor who taught me these. I encourage you to pass your most treasured tips on to your staff. There are future leaders in your association who will appreciate the lessons you’ve learned along the way.

Four Business Tips to Start a New Year

Why Would I Brand My Association?

Your members have options. They can 1) use your service to get what they need, 2) get their services somewhere else, 3) do it themselves, without anyone’s help, or 4) do nothing at all. What will it take to get them to choose you?

Whether your goal is to grow membership, or improve value to the member, the better you can articulate your promise, the more members you will attract, and convert from joiners to lifetime members. Loyal members get involved, respond to calls-to-action, read your mailings, and tell their non-member colleagues about you.

Your brand is your promise.

A brand tells your member the one thing that makes your association valuable to them – bar none. The brand is your promise to them. It is a statement – a symbol that describes clearly how every staff person and board member will interact with members. The brand begins with your knowledge of your members’ biggest needs. It reflects your culture, your philosophies, what you’re good at (or what you aspire to be), and ends with promise that never ends.

There is an important, unexpected benefit to branding. When you declare your promise to your members, it’s a unified statement of your value. When a company commits to a promise that “We Try Harder” (like Avis) or “We’re In It For You” (like OKC REALTORS® Association), the staff and leadership is responsible to deliver on that promise.

 It is not only a “marketing promise”,

it is an organizational commitment delivered

in every single interaction.

• People have the obligation to reinforce the brand for their small piece of your business.
• When leadership makes decisions based on the brand, it is a demonstration of their commitment over time.
• Finally, the brand is a tangible way to measure the efforts of your organization, so that each staff member and leader is not only satisfying his/her piece of the pie, but also delivering on the association’s unified brand promise.

Branding doesn’t stop when new leadership takes office, or when a staff member is replaced. Brand building that lasts requires trust and consistency, year after year. You earn your brand by continuing to deliver it over time.

It’s not about your logo.

The definition of “brand” (noun) came from cattle-ranchers, who burn a mark – the “brand” – on the haunches of their cattle to differentiate their cattle from other ranchers. Unlike the literal definition of the brand, this is not what I mean by a brand. In marketing terms, a brand is a distinctive characteristic that sets a product, service, person, or place apart from other products services, people, or places.

The European Brands Association proposes that a “brand is a constant point of reference; a contract, a signpost, a relationship. It is a signpost because it shows consumers a way to fulfill their needs. It is a relationship because trust and loyalty are earned over time.” This may be the most misunderstood and undervalued marketing concept. Let’s explore more below.

Good customer service is not a brand.

Customer service is a basis for running a good business. However, it is difficult to call it a true point of differentiation. You will need to work harder to determine a promise your members will consider valuable and one that gets their attention.

Building your brand and then delivering can actually provide your members a return on their investment.

As Warren McKenna says, “You brand yourself through your people, your places, and your things.”

Branded People – Consider your association staff, volunteers, committee members, and board of directors as “Agents of Change”. From the mailroom to the boardroom, your constituents can be a strategic force for change.

Branded Places – Build events on a philosophy of “anticipate, experience, and remember.” Any physical place is an opportunity to build a relationship. Every place you are in front of your members, at industry conferences, training events, seminars, etc., you have the opportunity to build on your brand.

Branded Things – Develop touch points that can demonstrate value while also providing unique channels to service members: membership materials, websites, brochures, newsletters…the list goes on. The continuity of these vehicles is essential in building a two-way dialogue with your members, to build on your brand.

What’s involved in determining a brand?

• A brand will be useless if it doesn’t help you improve your members’ experience. For your brand to be relevant, you must identify what your members really want (the vital needs). Discover their top three needs through a member survey. Find out what members think is most important.
• A brand can be a way to change the skills or direction of an organization. You must evaluate your desired strengths against your current strengths in order to brand yourself realistically. A branding assessment, though not long or involved, will help you direct your efforts. It can bring your staff and board closer, can bring focus to a trait that requires development, and can position you to attract a more involved membership.
• Ultimately you want to fill in these two blanks:

1. Why would members join if they didn’t have to? In other words, what one valuable member benefit do you want to be known for?
2. If you are known for the one benefit above, how will it help you achieve your association’s goals?

Selected properly, and embraced by your leadership, your brand is an intangible yet invaluable asset. It is the basis of the way you communicate your association’s value.

For more information on branding, click here for nSight Marketing’s one-pager on the topic.

Melynn is dedicated to improving value to your members through communications and committed to the success of trade Associations. She can be reached at melynn@nsightmarketing.com or 913.220.7753.

Why Would I Brand My Association?