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What Is the Value of Our Association?
What IS the value of being a member of this association? For many, that answer easily comes to mind. Common answers are typically things like: “I value being part of an organization with the strongest advocacy for the real estate industry of any at the state level” or “being a member of an association that helps me navigate a myriad of complicated regulations and laws that affect my real estate business” or even “I value the association’s strong education program that helps me stay up-to-date on our rapidly changing industry”. Certainly, these are excellent answers, but there are so many more that could be mentioned here as well. It should be noted that these would be the type of answers that come from members who are engaged and involved in our association. Unfortunately, in our case, they come from less than 10-15% of our more than 12,000 members who are active participants. And the rest – well, frankly they may have forgotten why they joined us. If we are lucky, they might occasionally attend one of our education classes or they could be involved in a professional standards case. The hard fact is that most don’t know any of the other good work we are doing for them since they may not open our emails or attend an event – AND, I don’t fault them in the least. Here’s why:
The fact that only a fraction of our members engage and become involved may not have anything to do with whether or not we have a wide offering of programs, initiatives, and services.
In the current world in which we live, the distractions and competition for our members’ time and attention are innumerable. If we are going to get their attention and a piece of their time, we better be “selling” something awesome and that they absolutely NEED. Just as important as the product offering, however, is the language we use to convey
to them what we have to offer and how we get those messages to them. This is quite often referred to as our “Value Proposition” and there’s a good chance that over time it can become stale or the audience changes and when that occurs, we better change with it. From where I sit, I am quite amazed STEVE STEVENS, RCE, CCE, IOM at the many opportunities to be gained
CEO – KENTUCKY REALTORS® through membership in this association AND the same can be said for being a member of both our local and national associations. All of us have plenty of beneficial programs and services tailored specifically to the needs of REALTORS®. At the state level, Priority #1 is to represent REALTORS® at all governmental levels and speak as the Voice of Real Estate whenever needed. We are here to serve our members and I’d venture to say would do just about anything to find those “things” that will do that best. So, what do we do? Periodically, every organization needs to take some time and revisit its Value Proposition and make sure it is speaking to its customers. In the coming months, we will be examining this a lot closer. Perhaps we will end up talking about the same things to our members we always have, but in different ways. It may be our message differs depending on the subgroups within our membership and this may just need repackaging. On the other hand, it is important to reach deeply into the ranks of the unengaged, non-participating group and find out “if we could be the perfect association for real estate professionals, what would we do that would give you a reason to engage?”. Is a young professional looking for something different from the association than the seasoned and experienced veteran member? With a rapidly changing real estate industry, do we need to offer new tools and support to members we’ve never contemplated? My belief is that the answers are out there and our members will be eager to tell us how we can continue to strive to be the most effective trade association anywhere.
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