Putting Commerce Back in Your Chamber of Commerce: How to Run Your Organization More Like a Business

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Putting Commerce Back in Your Chamber of
Commerce How to Run Your Organization More
Like a Business

• Presented By
• K E I T H W O O D S
• Chief Executive Officer
• North Coast Builders Exchange
• Senior Advisor on Chamber Trends,
• California Chamber of Commerce
• [phone]
• keith_at_ncbeonline.com

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My biggest fear

• Could this be the most insulting program in WACE
  history?

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• Most Fun Interesting Office Buzzwords of
  2006

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Blamestorming

• A group process where participants analyze a
  failed project and look for scapegoats other than
  themselves

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Clockroaches

• Employees who spend most of their day watching
  the clock instead of doing their jobs

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BMWs

• Bitchers, Moaners and Whiners

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Plutoed

• Any project or program that is unceremoniously
  dumped or relegated to a lower position

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Adminisphere

• The upper levels of management where big,
  impractical and counter-productive decisions are
  made (sometimes called Board Meetings)

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Bobbleheading

• The mass nodding of agreement by employees, even
  when the boss has a really bad idea

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Deja poo

• The feeling that somehow youve stepped in this
  bull before

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Mantra in Chamber work since the early 1990s

• Weve got to run our Chambers more like a
  business!

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I still believe in the concept because of the
basic similarities

• Products and services
• Customers (that we call members)
• Managing staff
• Payrolls to meet
• Budgets to balance
• Competition
• A need to innovate in order to survive

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I also recognize the differences

• Decision-making is not ours alone
• Bosses change every year
• Our non-profit status
• A subtle perception that somehow we work for
  the whole community
• Our need for a diversified income stream
• Businesses send out billswe send out dues
  statements, which are optional to pay

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Running Your Chamber More Like a Business The 5
Key Elements

• Apply sound management techniques
• Understand your customer
• Develop good products and services
• Excel at marketing, advertising and promotion
• Dazzle your members with great customer service

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1)Apply sound management techniques
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Great management starts by surrounding yourself
with excellent people

• If people are known by the company they keep,
  then a company is certainly known by the people
  it keeps
• The Answer
• Hire well, Train well, Treat em well!

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Desirable Employees

• Smart energetic
• Smart lazy
• Dumb lazy
• Dumb energetic

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Actual traits of great employees

• Good time management skills
• Follow-through and reliability
• A work ethic
• Good communication skills
• Technological proficiency
• An ability to work with others
• A flair for the creative
• Quick learner
• The capability to multi-task
• An ego thats under control

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The best hiring observation Ive ever heard

• We seem to keep hiring people for what we think
  they know, and then fire them for who they are!
• Bob Brady
• President, BLR

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The 80/20 rule of management still applies

• 80 of your time will be spent managing the 20
  of staff you never should have hired in the first
  place!

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Spend all that you can afford on staff training

• Receptionists
• Administrative Assistants
• Bookkeepers
• Sales people
• Program managers
• Yourself
• Would you rather have a poorly-trained staff
  that stays or a well-trained staff that might
  leave? (Henry Ford)

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Results of a World Success Survey conducted by
the Wharton School of
Business

• Average tenure of a CEO in business is 48 months
• The survey asked long-term successful executives
  what main principles they believed in and
  practiced

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Top 3 Principles

• Board bonding
• Learning from failure
• Speed up innovation

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2)Understand your customer(the member)
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The key business-like points to remember

• They are actually more like clients, not
  membersand each is on a one-year renewable
  contract
• In their mind its a business deal, not a
  membership
• Members buy into the Chamber for their
  reasons, not yours

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The characteristics of our members

• More demanding than ever before (whats their
  ROI?)
• Desire new, fresh, different, and current
• Have less time for the Chamber than ever
• Have a deep concern for only one economytheirs
• Are getting older on average, not younger

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3)Develop good products and
services
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The key point

• Create and offer demand-driven products, not
  supply-driven
• Provide what people actually want, not just what
  you want to do
• Why? Because the last words of a dying
  organization are usually
• But weve always done it that way

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How do you identify demand?

• Know your memberstheir wants, needs and
  expectations
• Have good market intimacy (Colin
  Powell)
• Do effective surveying Market Intelligence
  Gathering
• Steal or borrow from other Chambers

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• Find a business need in your market and fill it
• Utilize the K.M.E.A. test
• Keep, Modify, Eliminate, Add
• Planning major program changes? Find a
  volunteer Champion

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4)Excel at marketing, promotion and
advertising
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Simple advice Advertise and market on a
consistent basis

• If youre not going to advertise regularly,
  just put your money in a pile and light it on
  fire

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It All Begins With Market Research

• Define your market area
• Identify the most likely to join businesses
• Find out what they read, watch or listen to
• Set a reasonable budgetor some budget
• Look into piggyback advertising

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Its all about developing a strong corporate
(Chamber) identity

• The buzz word remains branding yourself
• Create a professional family look to all your
  materials
• Hire a communication pro for adviceor get
  really good volunteer help
• Funniest comment by a Chamber exec
• My members are stuck in the 1960s
• and they like it there

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The best newspaper ad that ever appeared, as run
by a handyman

• I always return phone calls and I show up on
  time. Call 522-1234.

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Find a similar theme that strikes deep into the
heart of your members

• You want customers, and we know where to find
  them.

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Last but not least, create and maintain a superb
website

• Not a good onea GREAT one
• In todays world, even a small Chamber can look
  big
• Link it everywhere you can
• Fastest-growing segment of business is online
  shopping how are you cashing in?

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5)Dazzle your members with great customer
service
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J. Conrad Levinson said it

• Its not enough just to be interested in the
  customer. You have to be obsessed with the
  customer.

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• All success is built upon exceeding expectations

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The 3 Magic Letters of Business Success

• E Q N
• Easy Quick Nice

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The 5 Golden Rules of Great Customer Service

• You dont get a second chance to make a first
  impression
• Its not just what you say, its how you say it
• Your staffs attitude is contagious and will
  infect the customer
• High-tech will never replace high-touch
• Great member service is everyones job

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One of the most difficult parts of running a
Chamber like a business is figuring out how to
measure success

• Membership growthslam dunk
• Balanced budgeteasy to identify
• Building up reservesa good yardstick
• But so much of what you do is not easy to
  measure
• The metrics may end up to be subjective, but
  thats the nature of Chamber work

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My concern about measuring success comes from
Warren Buffett

• Sometimes I think organizations shoot an arrow
  of success at a canvas and then carefully draw a
  bulls-eye around it.

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You cant talk your way out of problems that you
behaved your way into.
-Stephen Covey
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Final thought None of this is easy

• Norm on Cheers
• Its a dog-eat-dog world and Im wearing
  milk-bone underwear.