What My Dentist Taught Me About Being Relevant

Lynne, my dentist, is also my client. I have spent the past six months helping position and promote Lynne and Abbie’s practice to their patients. The goal for their marketing is more referrals. They so some of the common things that all dentists do. But they do it much differently than any dentist I have ever seen.

While helping Lynne and Abbie express the promise of their practice I began to think about how I feel about my current dentist’s office - and the differences. There are three things that differentiate Lynne:

1.  Schutte & McKnight’s promise is a personal and satisfying dental experience. They communicate how the health of your teeth is connected with your overall health. They explain how health problems show up in your mouth, and how something wrong with your teeth can affect other parts of the body. What an attention-grabbing concept I had never thought about. This made dental health relevant to my life.

2.  First impressions matter. My appointment began in the dentist’s personal office with she and my new hygienist (Stacey), just talking for 15 minutes. We talked about why I decided to come to the office, what I expected, and  if there was anything about a dental office that bothers me so she could make sure to avoid that concern. Unique. Really thoughtful and engaging.

3.  When your level of service is authentic and very consistent, it’s easy to live your brand. What Lynne showed me had heart, and expertise. She tactfully showed me, at 50 years old how to properly brush my teeth. She taught me something.

Needless to say they deliver on the other little things too: Lynne’s handwritten thank-you note, the iPod that distracted me from the drill, and the late afternoon phone call “just because”.

Lynne and Abbie did not start off thinking I would be their patient, and neither did I. Like any other service business, you can gain great advantage “…doing common things in an uncommon way.” (George Washington Carver. That, to me is the best definition of relevance.

If you can say “wow” about a dentist, I just did.

To learn more about Drs. Schutte & McKnight's practice, please visit www.schutteandmcknightdds.com.

What My Dentist Taught Me About Being Relevant

Be a Good Listener to Find Out What Members Need

Go ahead, ask your members why they belong to the your association? Ask open-ended questions, and I’ll bet your members will free flow with ideas.

If you ask them, members will probably answer with many of the same reasons associations were formed as early as the 1830’s: education, networking and referrals, information (in the form of research and statistics), forums to discuss common problems, and standards (or codes of ethics) to keep the industry strong. How about this: a sense of community.

In a challenging economy, the answers will be more specific and tactical.
                  
From surveys from associations across the country, I find that members really want three things:

1. Teach me something I can use to keep me relevant with my customers,

2. Communicate with me about the market, new trends, and what you to advocate on behalf of the industry and my business, and

3. Help me make more money.

Let’s just suppose for a minute that every member wants some or all of these three things. Are these needs specific enough that you can answer them with your services, products, and programs? YOU BET YOU CAN. If you deliver on your members’ biggest needs, will you become more valuable to your members? YOU BET YOU WILL. Are these three member needs universal across industries? YOU BET THEY ARE.

If you haven’t recently asked these kind of questions, now is the time to start. Here are three tips to make your survey worthwhile:

1. Ask filtering questions so you can look at the responses by category (new members, or age groups, or full time v. part time members)

2. Be specific in the questions you ask so that you get specific, actionable input and ideas

3. Do something with the results!

Is it smart to trust (what you think your members think) but verify that it’s still true? Is today a good time to survey your members? YOU BET.

Be a Good Listener to Find Out What Members Need

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?

Communicating using the Internet Tools

At my Rotary meeting this week, two of our young members presented a program entitled: "Social Media: Why it's Not Going Away and More on What it's About" (Average age of the club member in this club - 58 years).
.
My boomer-age Rotarian friend leaned over and said "Do you have facebook?" I said "Yes, I have it all". To which he replied: "I don't know why I would use it except to keep up on my kids".


It made me think of three things I would say to him, and other baby boomers who still want to grow their business:


1) For the 95% of us that are actually looking for new business, a blog, a Facebook profile, or LinkedIn page are necessary places to establish a brand, and credibility and relationships. Blog about your specialty. Offer up helpful tips on your Facebook page that people you know will value. It helps show that you know your stuff. Without advertising. (It's especially helpful to have someone specific in your mind - a "persona".)


2) The same reason you belong to Rotary or frequent social, philanthropic luncheons, or other networking functions is the reason Facebook is an efficient way to get connected to your community and get into conversations. Conversations lead to introductions, and meeting new people is simply good for business.


3) Information is abundant on the internet, and access to knowledge and ideas are available from unlimited sources. Quickly get information right to your desk by Googling the exact information you need! My last Google search was for a remedy for my dog after being sprayed by a skunk on Halloween! Without the instant access to information, and a subsequent 6am visit to Wall Mart, my house would be unlivable (and my animal impossible to live with)! This info, not out of a veterinary journal, came from bloggers about their pets. Who knows when people are looking for financial planning or accounting advice in a pinch will run across you!


Remember, the purpose of communication falls into one of two categories: to inform, to build a relationship, or a call-to-action. When people talk to each other, it is either to exchange information or to ask someone to do something. As Stephen said this week at Rotary, the fastest segment of users on social media are over 40 years of age. Try it for yourself. In the end, you have the choice not to use this technology, if you don't find it useful!

The generation gap seems to both widen and become narrower at the same time! I hope more of our clubmates will chose to see what it's all about.

Communicating using the Internet Tools

Get What You Pay For

In this summer's edition of REA Magazine (a publication for association executives in the real estate industry), I wrote an article that any association executive, association ceo, or executive director should consider reading. Any executive who juggles members, staff, and a changing market likely has faced this same conversation in a board meeting.

The article compiled a list of seven ideas to keep members motivated in a downturn. AEs surveyed talked about how their offerings change in times of economic distress. As expected, conventional wisdom was split right down the middle: offering education and other member services for free is a real draw.  To balance this out, other AEs believe that associations actually create more value for their offerings when they charge a small fee for a class or an event. (Read the article here_Marketing in a Downturn)

Since publishing, two convincing  arguments have surfaced to add to the list! One AE has acquired a fax-to-email service that he gives away as an incentive for joining - generating nearly 200 new members this year!

Another board of directors made the decision to raise dues - by 30%! At the same time they laid out several payment options in advance to help ease the transition. "It was a necessary step to keep the association healthy" says the executive director. The jury is out, but he believes transparency in communicating the association's finances helps to build member loyalty.

Executives and marketing types have mixed feelings about which direction to take when the goal is delivering more value to the member. Corporate giants have experienced the same dilemma, with related consequences. It is a great article that we in not-for-profit marketing should learn from. Why Charging Just a Little Can Be Smarter Than Charging Nothing at All. (Link to Fast Company). 

Free is tempting, but is it a legitimate business strategy?

Get What You Pay For

Are you listening?

My favorite quote of the week: “In a society of super-sophisticated communication, we often suffer from a shortage of listeners.”                                                                                                      – Erma Bombeck


If you and I haven’t met yet (or better yet if we have), you know my mantra from spending the past 20+ years with real estate professionals: REALTORS® really want three things from your association:


     1. They want to LEARN something they can apply to their work,
     2. They want you to ADVOCATE for them to keep the industry healthy, and
     3. They want you to help them MAKE more money! That’s it.

In a recent article I wrote for an association newsmagazine outlined how Nobu Hata, a REALTOR® in Minneapolis uses his Facebook business page as a referral and sales tool. He admits to getting nearly 30% of his leads there. Instead of telling you more here, you can link to the article by clicking here.


If you want to give your members a two of their three biggest asks – learning helping them make more money, you have my cyberspace permission to link this article onto your blog or forward it to your membership in your e-newsletter! Please use caution when promoting this: Social networking is not a selling strategy; it is a social strategy, and is meant to build relationships. As you well-know, the best sales professionals approach the relationship first, before (and many times instead of) a direct solicitation.

Let me know if Facebook is helping your members by replying to this post.

Are you listening?