2024 Membership and Revenue Conference Recap

More than 160 dedicated chamber professionals recently participated in ACCE’s Membership & Revenue Development Conference in Nashville, Tennessee. This year’s sold-out event featured sessions and discussions highlighting the latest trends and innovative strategies for membership management and non-dues revenue generation. Here are some key takeaways and highlights from the conference. 

Productivity Strategies for Sales Professionals

Conference Keynote Ray Sidney Smith estimated that only 40% of a membership professional’s work week is truly dedicated to making sales.  Consider these strategies to enhance your productivity: 

• Focus: Identify what distractions exist during your workday and which resources support your productivity (lean into your supporters). 
• Routines: Ensure that you are tracking your key tasks and routines so you can evaluate your efficiency. Tie sales activities to key times of the workday. 
• Accountability: Self-accountability isn’t always the strongest way to meet your goal. Share your goal with as many coworkers as possible- you'll be more likely to meet it. 
• Organization: Find a productivity methodology that fits your workstyle and stick to it. 

Reverse Engineering Revenue Goals

How do you calculate your sales goals each year?  Dew Tinnin, head coach and co-founder of Skillway, offered insights into redefining sales as a strategic numbers game. 

By reverse-engineering revenue goals, membership professionals can calculate how many leads they’ll need to generate each month. Once you understand your monthly targets, you’ll need to set your minimum goal, stretch goal and dream goals.  Tinnin explained the calculation step-by-step in this article.   

Developing a Strategic Non-Dues Revenue Plan 

When identifying new revenue, it can be tempting to chase the latest trends or experiment with anything that will generate dollars. Cathi Hight of Hight Performance Group discussed how to align revenue opportunities with the strategic priorities of your chamber as you look beyond membership and event dollars.   

• Align your revenue to strategic priorities.  
• Leverage your chamber foundations to serve as the philanthropic arm to complement your mission. 
• Create value-aligned partnerships to support your mission and strategic initiatives. 
• Identify opportunities for underserved customers or where there are gaps in service.  
• Diversify your revenue streams to include advertisements, merchandise sales, job boards and other fee-for-service programs. 

How to Keep Talent Within Your Chamber 

It can be challenging to retain talent within your chamber, especially when competing against other industries offering potentially higher salaries. One peer roundtable brainstormed several non-salary benefits to offer employees: 

• Keep it simple: One chamber purchased rubber ducks and uses them to celebrate the small wins for those on their team. The ducks have become a source of pride among the team members and a great conversation starter around the office.  
• Give back: Another chamber gives back to their employees in the form of time. If there’s a holiday on a Monday, the office also closes on the preceding Friday. If the team hits a goal, they get a celebratory lunch and can take off the rest of the day. Working half-day Fridays or having flexible in-office hours in the summer is also a big hit.  
• Work your partnerships: If your chamber has partnerships with venues in town, use those relationships to offer perks for your staff.  
• Engage: Offering team bonding activities is a great way to motivate and show how they are valued. One chamber has quarterly team outings planned for the entire group by someone on staff.  

Ultimately, it’s important that you continue building relationships with your team and figure out what they want and need in order to keep morale and performance at peak. 

Thanks to our sponsors:  

Platinum- Growthzone, Thryve Leadership 

Exhibitor Sponsors- Chamber Media Solutions, RoleCall: Revolutionary Talent Attraction and YGM: Total Resource Campaigns 

Special thanks to the Nashville Chamber for hosting.