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May 2010
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Chairman's Message
Shortly after the article hit inboxes I found myself in Nashville for ACCE’s second National Sales Conference. I was pleased to find that folks had read my article. And then I, the soon to be 45 year old, was approached by the under 40’s. (In fact some may have been under 30 but I couldn’t get myself to ask.) Seems like something is missing here. What did they say that was so noteworthy? More importantly, I got a quick lesson on the future. Therefore, I am officially announcing that I am a dinosaur. And as such, I have asked a few gentlemen whom I both trust and respect to share how social media has helped their chambers. I highly encourage you to click through and read both accompanying entries: one from Kyle Sexton; VP, Salem, Oregon and the other Ben Wolf; VP Nashville, Tennessee.
Lastly, for those who joined us in Nashville, thank you for your support of ACCE and your enthusiasm for our industry. Milwaukee is right around the corner, so make your reservations soon. Doug Holman Samples Call for Samples – This month we are requesting Membership Survey samples. Please forward your samples to cmoore@acce.org. Circle of Champions ACCE Sales Conference a Success! Almost 80 Chamber membership sales professionals met in Nashville in late March for the 2nd ACCE Sales Conference. Our opening speaker was Tom Black – Center for Selling and he set the stage for a great event! He encouraged us to be enthusiastic when selling memberships, to find or create a need for our services, and to ask for the sale! Then participants picked from concurrent sessions that included Social Media for Membership Sales, Membership Sales Tactics in a Tough Economy, and Sale Solutions Roundtable discussions. There were great tips for maximizing your use of Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn in our membership sales efforts in the Social Media session! In the Sales Tactics session we were encouraged to be empathetic and really listen to prospects before trying to sell them and to realize there are only 2 objections we may not be able to overcome – they truly don’t have the money or they don’t like our organization! And the Roundtable discussions gave us an opportunity to get advice from and share ideas with our fellow Chamber sales professionals! The afternoon ended with a dynamic panel who gave us their Best Practices for Effective Member Recruitment. Luann Feehan – Kansas City, MO Chamber of Commerce served as Moderator for this informative session with Colleen Evans – Lubbock, TC Chamber of Commerce, Vicki Keibler – North Myrtle Beach, SC Chamber of Commerce, Lisa Mullin – Greater Cleveland, OH Partnership, and Carrie Subity – Bethany-Fenwick Area, DE Chamber of Commerce serving as panelists. All members of the Circle of Champions, they shared thoughts with us on a variety of membership sales related items and gave us useful information we took home to implement in our daily sales efforts. The next day we kicked off with another great speaker, Greta Schulz – President and CEO of Schultz Training and Consulting. Greta gave us the Straight A’s for Success – Attitude, Activities, and Approach and, once again, we got specific suggestions for ways to improve our own effectiveness! Greta was followed by The Member’s Perspective with three members of the Nashville Chamber. They each shared their reasons for joining and continuing their memberships in the Chamber. It was interesting to hear their prospective from 3 very different points of view as they were totally unique businesses of different size and focus. The event concluded with a version of the ever popular 60 ideas in 60 minutes with a session entitled The Best of the Best Practices in Sales. I came home from the conference with at least a dozen great ideas to help me in my day to day efforts to grow my Chamber, and I’m sure other attendees would agree it was an information packed event! Planning for the 3rd Sales Conference will begin soon! Plan now to attend! P.S. Thanks to all who had a hand in making the event a success – the Nashville Chamber, Crystal Moore and the ACCE staff, the committee who planned the event, those of you who volunteered to be presenters, etc. Events like this just wouldn’t happen without you! Emily Waite, CCM, IOM, CECD The Rainmaker Maker If you look at the timeline of the earth, you'll notice change happens faster as time passes. At first, change took billions of years, then millions of years, eventually millenniums and centuries. I remember learning about the roaring 20's, the depression in the 30's, the war in the 40's, then living through the 50's, 60's etc. When I started college, I shared a huge computer that filled a clean room. Today, my phone has so many more capabilities then that ‘super computer' of the 70's. Today, change doesn't take decades. Last year's 'greatest' is now obsolete. Yesterday's news is old. We have so much information at our fingertips, that many have suggested that "the power has shifted to the buyer" and that salespeople and marketers need to adapt. So, about a week ago, I promised my top ten must do's if you want to do business in today's world and it doesn't matter if you think you're a marketer or a salesperson.
You might notice that I haven't mentioned tactics, questions, closing, prospecting, techniques, or the like and I intentionally didn't provide a lot of explanation. Your customers may already be wanting something that hasn't been designed yet. Your competition may be moments away from offering the solution that the world is ready to want. Their delivery, their awareness, their ability to engage may be just enough better than yours to get the business and every piece of business that they get is a piece that you don't. Here's the last point. Nobody can do it all. There's too much information. There's too much change. It needs to be a culture and it doesn't matter whether you're in marketing, advertising, sales, accounting, engineering, production or anything other position, it's your job. If you want to add, please do. If you'd like elaboration on one of the ten, ask in the comments. And in case I haven't told you lately, thanks for reading.
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In my last Chairman’s article, addressing social media, I suggested that as chamber professionals we hold our ground lest we lose sight of what we are good at—getting people together. I will not lie to you. I liked what I wrote - thinking it both clever and potentially prophetic.
