Webinar May 12th: Four Business Profiles For Chamber Growth

You have revenue budgets to hit, and a million things to do before your next board meeting, like produce the membership report. Another 15 members lost; only 11 new. Maybe the board won’t say anything about the losses since you had a good March: 24 new members and 16 dropped.

If you’re honest about the state of your chamber, you acknowledge that you have membership activity without membership strategy. Strategy, it has been said, is the art of knowing what not to do.

We’re going to talk about what not to do in a live training event hosted by ChamberMaster on May 12^th. Register here»

I was working with a chamber in 2011 in one of Canada’s largest cities when, as part of my research, I was presented with a study they had conducted on the strategic opportunities of their organization. It was a simple four-quadrant matrix with terms I instantly recognized because I had been using my own variations for years. Turns out this matrix had been making its way around Canada, as Mick Fleming had discovered it at the Kitchener-Waterloo Chamber in Ontario some time earlier.

To explain member needs and behaviors, I had been using terms like participation versus partnership and aspirational or transactional, so I knew exactly what to do with a matrix of invested to involved and get something done versus get something from.

Later in 2011, Cathi Hight hired me to consult on a challenging menu transformation for a group of organizations about to merge. We needed a breakthrough in communicating the challenge ahead to a consortium of board members from the various organizations. Being the obsessive nerd that I am, I reached for my small black journal which carried my most prized notes and discoveries (before Evernote was an app). Cathi and I huddled around the contents of my journal in an attempt to help them understand.

Finally, a breakthrough.

Since then, I have been using this matrix as a map for chamber boards and staff. That simple old matrix has been blown up into a three-dimensional conversation about the four distinctly different business profiles that live within your chamber. It’s also blown up into a six-foot by four-foot downloadable canvas called the Map to reMembership.

Chambers who are frustrated by having the same membership problems for years are likely catering to just one of the profiles. Even more sophisticated chambers are most often missing out on two of the profiles.

On May 12^th, I hope you’ll join me as ChamberMaster hosts a special live event to introduce you to the four business profiles. Those who sign up will receive the Map to reMembership for free. We’ve already got nearly 350 signed up for this event. If you’re in the planning stages for the next fiscal year, you’ll find this information invaluable, and the resources essential.

Busy that day? Sign up anyway. Get the resources and we will send you a link to the recording when it’s over. See you on the 12^th. Register here»

// Kyle Sexton is an award-winning marketing strategist and international speaker and author on the topics of membership development, marketing and innovation. He was recognized in 2011 by Chamber Executive magazine as one of the most influential innovators in the chamber of commerce industry, and is the chamber industry's foremost authority on membership tiers. is the author of Follow You Anywhere – 22 Little Lessons for Team Leaders and reMembership: New Thinking for Tomorrow's Membership Organization.