MEMBERSHIP SELLING AND
SALES MANAGEMENT INSIGHTS

Getting Back In The Game - Next Steps For Prospecting As Businesses Reopen

Things have been lean for a while now, right? Especially for those of you whose paychecks depend on you bringing in revenue for your chamber.

We know that's got to be hard on you, and hard on your family. We understand why you may be eager to jump back in and start making some sales. Communities across the country are reopening for business, yours may be one of them. And, as your community reopens, opportunities to bring new members onboard will emerge. But we cannot emphasize enough that for you to be successful in recruiting post-pandemic, you must stay true to your values.

Times have been tough, and if you don’t keep your values top of mind, you may start thinking about and acting upon what's most important to you - your quota, your commission, your needs. And that’s just not the way to successfully bring new members into your chamber.

When you are in it just for the sale, you reek of it. Prospective members can sense that you’re looking out for your own best interest, not theirs, and they will quickly back away from having a conversation with you.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PROSPECT

So never forget this, because it was important before COVID-19, it’s especially important now, and it will remain important moving forward. Every single membership conversation you have should be about the prospect and what they need.

When you make it your mission to help prospective members succeed, you both win.

The only way to find out what they need is to have a meaningful conversation with them. You and the prospect have no way of knowing if or how the chamber can help them until that happens.

Successful membership sales has always been about building and nurturing relationships, and right now, that could not be more relevant. The challenges and upheaval to “business as usual” that COVID-19 has caused mean you need to approach prospecting differently than you have in the past. Count on spending more time on the front-end before the mention of membership even comes up in the conversation.

We offered some step-by-step instruction on reaching out to prospects in our recent “Building Your Pipeline During The COVID-19 Pandemic” webinar. We invite you to head over to our webinars page to watch the recording, peruse the slide presentation and download the free playbook. The playbook includes message maps to help you confidently conduct outreach calls with empathy and compassion.

As always, we’re easy to talk to. Feel free to reach out with questions you have about post-pandemic prospecting or any membership sales or retention issues.

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