McKinley Marketing, Inc.

Q:  What unique sales skills are necessary in the association world? What makes a good association sales person?

A:  I am not so sure if it is "skills" or just an approach. We treat sales like any other product that we are marketing and I think this has really enabled our success.

We understand the product that we are selling - the benefits, features, pros and cons - then work with the various companies to ensure that whatever we are selling them (sponsorship, ad, or exhibit) is a good fit for that company. The last thing that we want to convey is that we are just extending our hand to ask for money. It needs to be a win-win for both AABB and the company. We also have centralized corporate sales into one department. This ensures that the company isn't being approached by several people for many different opportunities.

We communicate on who is being asked by whom and we can also make sure that the opportunity we have is appropriate for a specific company. Another good tool is the media kit. So many associations do not have a media kit that outlines their advertising, sponsorship, etc. We have taken the media kit a step further and developed a document entitled SourceOne. This document outlines all the opportunities that the AABB has to offer for the coming year. This way a company can develop its marketing plan for their target audience early in the year and not feel like they are being approached several times during the year (we do still keep in touch throughout the year, but in a different manner).

Q:  Are there any universal challenges when it comes to sales in the association world?

A:  This is just my opinion, but I think there is a lack of sales training opportunities specific to the association setting. There aren't enough communications between peers at associations who are faced with the same challenges. There is a lot of focus on fundraising, but not very much on true sales and business development opportunities. I guess it is because for so long associations didn't focus on making money.

Q:  What are some successful sales tactics you've used at AABB?

A:  It depends on what type of sale. For book sales, our publication catalogs are very successful. We now do three a year as opposed to one, which is how it was when I first started. We also run promotions in the summer when sales are typically slow. The one that works best is free shipping on all online orders and then a catalog featuring all of our "sale" books. On the exhibit side, selling space onsite for the following year is very effective. We used the ASAE model and that has been extremely successful. Our larger exhibitors like it because they can see exactly where they will be a year in advance. Additionally, signing up in advance saves the company money if we have a rate increase.

Q:  Outside of membership, what does AABB sell? What are your greatest successes?

A:  We've got everything from publications, conference registrations, audioconference registrations, subscriptions, sponsorships, advertising, to exhibits. Our exhibit sales program is our greatest success. From 2000 to 2004 we increased sales from $600,000 to sales over $1,000,000. This was done through a slight increase in booth fees, but mainly by increasing the number of exhibitors and their booth size.

Q:  Members and customers typically know what they need and where to find it. The challenge in building association business is to deliver what they don't know they need.  Do you have any strategies to handle this challenge?

A:  Our approach currently is to do annual membership surveys, keep an eye on what our "competitors" are doing, attend their meetings, visit their websites, etc. This helps us understand what else is out there. We also keep in mind what the general public is facing right now, which is a lack of time to concentrate on both work and family life. So anything that we can do to make their life easier (to streamline education, resources, information) is where we are currently focused.

Q:  How well does AABB understand what members and customers want and need?

A:  We do much better now than we did when I first came on board in 2000. We now conduct regular market research that includes your typical member needs assessments, as well as research on new product development. We don't always conduct research before launching new products, but recently we've had two potential projects where we employed market studies prior to moving forward. As it turned out, our members didn't see a need for either service so the research proved invaluable. Our CEO sees the value of this and is very much in support of allocating market research dollars.

Q:  How do you go about soliciting/collecting/using this information?

A: We work with an outside market research company to conduct surveys. We have done focus groups, online surveys and telephone interviews. Telephone interviews have given us a great return. Also just recently we began using an online survey provider, which our members seem to like. I expect that we will turn to this technology more often in the future.

Q:  How about soliciting member opinions for other purposes at AABB?

A:  We haven't really taken it to the next step, like using research to develop marketing materials. It is a goal, but probably one that we won't achieve until a few more years. We are still just getting the market research thing down.

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