I just had a book come out, The Competition Within. We need to visit all of our association clients and see how they’re weathering the economic downturn and what we can do to make sure that, as their partners, we both come out the other end of this recession whole and ready to tackle the new world order. We need to reach out to associations with ways to save money via outsourcing and consultative help on providing membership value. In other words, busy times.
So what did I do? I went to India for three weeks. I can either chalk this up to extremely bad timing or to a chance to, as they say in England, ‘get out from under the elephant.’ The elephant in this case would be the unrelenting bad news weighing us all down at the moment. The chance to step back and look at the elephant critically allowed me to see it for what it is: A big, grey hulk but one that can be moved and that, as they do in India, can even be painted in bright colors and turned into an exciting ride.
Ways to Move the Elephant
- This is your chance to off load some things you don’t need: outdated processes, weak programs, redundant systems. No one changes unless the pain becomes too great so we hang onto things that need to go away but aren’t really hurting anything. Now they hurt—a lot.
- Downturns are the time to plan for upturns. Face it; you’re just not that busy. Take the time to do strategic planning, to prepare yourself for the rebound.
- Focus on the metrics. What really works? Your magazine? Your website? Your e-newsletter? What is your members’ preferred way of interacting with you? Base your decisions on hard data not sacred cows and then serve your members as often as you can.
- Call them. Remember the telephone? We’re all so busy tweeting and blogging and emailing and we’ve relied on the collection of many members in one place at a conference to the detriment of just talking to them. Call 10 members a day. Call 20.
Elephant Rides
- This is the year of the virtual event. I really believe that. Association event business is down by 40%. Some meetings are being cancelled all together. Make maximum use of online meetings for small and even larger events. Webinars are great but how about a full-blown conference? Probably not the multi-day one you usually host and with no golf outing but an education and networking-rich event that brings in revenue from attendees and sponsors. With none of the constraints of physical events, virtual events allow you to be more global, more targeted, more cutting edge.
- Social media marketing is the future of associations. You may already have a page on Facebook, on LinkedIn but are you really working it? Where are your members and potential members networking online? Be there, be there often.
- Hold a reinvention summit. Don’t talk about how bad things are. Talk about how your association can be reinvented. Be creative. Be bold. Grab the elephant’s ears and go for a ride!
