YGM Total Resource Campaigns

Improve Your TRC Communications

July 01 2020 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: communications, sponsorships, total resource campaign, TRC

Are you planning your fall Total Resource Campaign (TRC) now? One of the first things on your timeline is most assuredly to promote it to your members and community.

In the YGM TRC world, you know that all communications and promotions should be centered around your members. If the focus is put on how involvement in the TRC through sponsorships benefits the members and their businesses, that communication will be more successful than if it is focused on how the TRC helps the chamber.

Now, we know TRCs help chambers. They give you a deep dive into strategic planning. They give you funds for your budget for an entire year. They bring in new volunteers and new members.

But Total Resource Campaigns – if done well – are also really beneficial to your members because they allow them avenues of contact with their target audiences that they might not have otherwise had. Let your pre-TRC marketing reflect that.

How do you do that?

Don’t simply announce in your newsletter/e-news that your TRC starts on whatever date. That’s boring and not informative.
Tell the story of your TRC by telling the story of your members. And let them tell their own stories, either in print or video.
Ask successful volunteers for the names of businesses they worked with that saw significant growth as a result of their sponsorships. Ask that volunteer to do a 60 second video interview with the business owner about how the sponsorship helped them reach their target market.
Include information in your communications pieces regarding the different sectors that were reached in your last TRC and how your sponsorships helped your member businesses reach those sectors.

Above all, you cannot overemphasize in your communications leading up to the campaign that the TRC is about finding ways to best assist member businesses in furthering their unique missions. Find new and different ways to say that. Even if you grow tired of saying it, your members won’t grow tired of hearing it. Because for them, the chamber should always be about how you can be of service to them.

Do your communications pieces communicate the right messages? If not, now is the right time to discover that and make any changes necessary.

If you need any help with a communications review, let us know. We are here to help you.

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The Best Engagement Plans Start Close to Home

February 07 2020 admin Blog 0 comments Tags: Engagement, TRC

If you have been involved in a Total Resource Campaign with YGM, then you know that we talk a lot about engagement.

Everyone in the chamber world (the business world in general) knows that we all work with and engage with a wide arrange of people and constituent groups. And while the benefits of this are great, the challenges can also sometimes be great.

I think about the following quote a lot when I think about how we interact with those constituent groups.

“It all came down to employee engagement. It all came down to recognition. It all came down to leadership, which led to every sailor feeling ownership and accountability for the results. You can ask a team to accomplish a mission but you can’t order excellence.” –Mike Abrashoff, Commander USS Benfold (retired)

Real engagement is necessary to be successful whether we are in a chamber or in a small business or in a megacorp. And in all of those places, that real engagement begins at home, with our own employees, our own team members.

At YGM, we like to think of ourselves as being on the same team because a team works together. We succeed together, and we pick one another up when we fail together. Much like Commander Abrashoff suggested, all of the sailors have a sense of ownership in the process and thus, give their very best.

We recently hired Michele Trice as YGM’s first Director of Engagement. She will be working directly with clients to assist them in engaging their volunteers, members, and communities in new and innovative ways.

I have known Michele personally and professionally for more than 20 years. Some of you may know her from YGM as she has worked with us some for years. She has a background in communications, both in corporate and non-profit environments.

As each of us think about our own environments, whether chamber or business, this quote speaks to what we need to focus on first.

“Engaged employees are in the game for the sake of the game; they believe in the cause of the organization.” – Paul Marciano, PhD

Michele has believed in YGM for years, and we are all going to benefit from her talents. Take a moment today to spend some time thinking about those in your organization who are really engaged. Do they believe in the mission of your cause? Are they fully engaged? Do you recognize them for that engagement?

As a leader, do you encourage them to have a sense of ownership in your organization? Are you a team?

If not, how do you change that? It’s an old adage, but it’s true – teamwork makes the dream work.

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Give Motivated Volunteers a Chance

April 12 2018 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, Volunteers 0 comments Tags: total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

Do your Vice Chairs or Team Captains ever ask what type of people make the best volunteers?

As expected, we have tips of all sorts, but sometimes the best tip is to remind your Vice Chairs and Team Captains that anyone with a wide range of business contacts can succeed in a Total Resource Campaign. Never discount someone’s motives or professional drive.

One of my favorite volunteer stories comes from a top performer who surprised everyone with her success. She was not recruited by anyone to be on a team, in fact. She volunteered. She requested that her boss, the TRC Chair, assign her to a team.

As we were doing our wrap up sessions, we asked this volunteer why she wanted to be a part of the TRC. With no hesitation she said, “I was pissed.”

After the group stopped laughing, I asked her to explain.

“I was pissed because no one asked me to join a team. I am the executive assistant to the CEO of one of the largest companies in town, but no one saw me as capable,” she explained. “And I wanted the opportunity to prove them wrong.”

Prove them wrong is exactly what she did. Each week, she was one of the top three performers in the TRC.

She took the knowledge she had gained of the business community through her job and systematically paired businesses with sponsorships that would work well for them. She was highlighting how the sponsorships were going to benefit both the Chamber and the business and, in the process, she was strengthening her own personal business contacts.

At the first few Rally Sessions, you could hear people asking about her and how she was doing so well. By the third or fourth, everyone knew she was one of the ones to emulate.

She proved to her boss and to the others who passed her by initially that she was more than capable. She showed that Vice Chairs and Team Captains need to be relentless in their search of people who have a vast business contact base… that employees can make the TRC work for them… that they can be a success in the TRC with the right mindset.

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Who is the Best TRC Chair for your Campaign?

March 21 2018 admin Uncategorized, Volunteers, YGM 0 comments Tags: chair, total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

If you have ever conducted a Total Resource Campaign, you know that in many ways, they become synonymous with their chairs. When I begin to discuss a TRC with a Chamber and to strategize for it, thinking of who would be an ideal chair is one of the first things we bring into focus.

As with most things in a TRC, there is no cookie cutter answer to the question,

“Who would be a good Chair?”

You have to consider various factors. And you have to consider them every single year. A TRC is ever-changing, and if you want it to be ever-successful, you have to change with it. Let’s look at some of the factors you should consider when selecting the individual to lead your campaign and to serve as the public face of the endeavor.

This person should be high-profile in the community. You want people in your community talking about the TRC. Having a CEO or influential business leader whom people know and respect will stir conversations and get that chatter about the TRC going. It will also lend instant credibility to the Campaign simply because of the character of the chair.

This person should have enough contacts in the community to be able to easily select a team of vice chairs or team captains. Your chair will need to have a broad reach of contacts within the community so that he or she can select additional campaign leaders from a variety of business communities. The greater the reach the campaign has, the more successful it will be. Be sure to encourage new chairs each year. Going to the same people each year will yield the same results each year. Growth is always the goal.

Ideally, your chair will come from a business which will be able to field a volunteer team in the TRC. A potential chair who cannot bring a full team of volunteers suggests to me that this individual does not have enough personal business contacts of his or her own to successfully lead a TRC. Consider the sphere of influence.

Is this your first TRC or your third? If you are on your third or fourth annual campaign, you may notice a stagnation in your volunteers and in your success if you aren’t shaking things up. If all of your volunteers stay the same from year to year, and if you simply move a Vice Chair to Chair each year, you aren’t injecting the Campaign with new blood. Thus, no new businesses will be reached, and no growth will be achieved.

A Chamber I have worked with for years came to me as they were beginning their 4th year campaign. The staff leadership approached me with the idea of asking the CEO of a construction company, someone who had never been involved in the campaign.

I pointed out that this individual had been involved as he and his company had purchased multiple sponsorships in many of their prior TRCs and had been quite supportive of their endeavors. He also had the potential to open doors to both volunteers and sponsors in a variety of new businesses that this chamber had not tapped previously.

As I listed the array of potential businesses that might become sponsors, members, and volunteers because of the involvement of this one individual – who did meet the above criteria – the staff quickly became excited about their own idea.

Look beyond the pool of volunteers and executives you work with already. Don’t be afraid to shake things up. Without new voices, there cannot be new growth.

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Get Creative with your Team Motivation

December 20 2017 admin Blog, Chambers, TRC, Volunteers, YGM 0 comments Tags: total resource campaign, TRC, volunteers

We talk a lot about how important it is to motivate our volunteers, both during the Total Resource Campaign and following the campaign. But it can be challenging to find ways to motivate those volunteers. Finding creative ways can be even more challenging.

Even if it sounds cheesy – or worse, lazy – take the opportunity to use obvious things and holidays around you. People love cheesy, and it makes for great entertainment and motivation.

At a recent Rally Session at the Ozark Chamber, the keynote speaker was Harold Phillips of Ozark Bank. He presented the following poem to the group. (Many thanks to Mr. Phillips for allowing us to use his creation.)

An Adaptation of the Night Before Christmas

By Clement C. Moore

Twas the month before Christmas and all through the town
You could hear the teams stirring both uphill and down
The goals had been set and summed up with great care
The Total Resource Campaign finally was there

The teams had been chosen with captains as heads
With visions and strategies their teams they led
Some days they wore kerchiefs and sometimes a cap
They talked TRC and they’re closing the gap

For out on the street you can hear all the clatter
The Chamber is working for those things that matter
They found business sponsors for trade goods or cash
They all hit the streets and it spread like a flash

Their message was fresh as the new fallen snow
Did their work for the Chamber they’re still on the go
And what are they selling? You ask without fear
They’re selling the future for those who live here

They were cheered by their leader in high heels and britches
You all know her name yes she’s Andrea Sitzes
More rapid than eagles these coursers they came
If you’ll give me a second, I’ll tell you each name

There is an Angel and Griffin, Jadonna and Abbye
Tenye and Lisa, Amanda and Cathi
Heather, Joy, Jenna, Mike, Lisa, and Jane,
Melanie, Cindy, Michaela, and Shane,
Marrhya and Joshua, Stacy and John
Sometimes it seems lists of names just go on

To the top of the list to the top of the Wall!
You’re doing great work said Campaign Chair Jane Paul

And then in a twinkling I heard their successes
The way that they work – well it really impresses
So out to each business those coursers they flew
With sponsorships, spotlights and vendor booths too

Their eyes how they twinkled their voices how merry
The work that they’re doing is great! Oh yes very!
They’re wrapping the Resource Campaign in a week
And just let me say their performance is sleek!

If that jolly old elf who each year in December
Were standing here now he would say please remember
With a wink of his eye and a “Twist” of his head
He would tell you that you have not one thing to dread

For the teams sprang to action and took to their work
They are getting so close to the goal! Go berserk!
Then laying his finger aside of his nose
Watch the total he’d say and see how high it goes

Then he’d spring to his sleigh to his team give a whistle
And away they would fly like the down of a thistle
You would hear him exclaim as he drove out of sight
Total Resource Campaigns a success! Now Good Night!

Be creative with your volunteers. Motivate them. Appreciate them.

Merry Christmas from YGM.

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There’s A Sponsorship for Everyone

November 06 2016 admin Sponsor development, TRC 0 comments Tags: sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC

I said recently that sponsorships have a lot in common with Psychology 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy. Because that is true, it is also true that not all sponsorships are equal.

Provide Equal Opportunities

While all sponsorships are not of the same value, you do want all of your possible sponsors to be able to find a sponsorship that appeals to them. Provide tiers or levels in your sponsorship options. Some businesses seek the top level in anything they are a part of while other are just glad to participate at a smaller level.

Provide Event Specific Options

Make sure to consider event specific items, as well. Nationally, we are seeing a trend that the third-tier sponsors are willing to spend the same amount of money as other sponsors. However, they want individual aspects of the event that they can label. Do you have a photo booth sponsor, a potty sponsor, a valet sponsor?

Present Your Ideas

When making your pitch to the sponsor, make sure your plan includes a catalog of all your sponsor levels, pricing and benefits. To increase the probability of sale, including pictures from the last year’s event, marketing materials and audience reach are always a plus.

Make purchasing the sponsorships easy for your sponsors. Customize options for them. If you provide them with a packet of everything you do, you will still be waiting on them to return your call when you go prepare next year’s packet.

Sponsorship Tracking

In preparing your marketing plan, a vital piece of the plan must be sponsorship tracking. And that piece needs to be in place even before you start selling. If you don’t know what you have, you don’t know what you have left to sell.

Additional things to consider:

How are you going to implement what you promised to your sponsors?
Are they getting their benefits?

Always keep in mind to under-commit and over-deliver on benefits. Don’t let all of your secrets out of the bag in the sponsorship catalog. Everyone likes a little surprise, and sponsors are no different.

These are important aspects to ensure your sponsorship renewals will return in subsequent years.

Success is for the courageous. Chambers that currently are not implementing any organized sponsorship plan need to find the one that will work the best for all of their stakeholders – their staff, their members and their organization as a whole.

For the chambers that are conducting a sponsorship plan, take an inventory of it. Is it working for you? Is it time for an overhaul?

If you find that you need assistance, we would love to help. Contact me at ebey@nullygmtrc.com.

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It’s All About Those Teams

October 21 2016 admin Chambers, Sponsor development, TRC 0 comments Tags: sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC

I’ve been talking a lot lately about building a sponsorship campaign and the initial blocks in that process. One of the most important is an organized team. In all actuality, a Chamber really needs two organized teams.

The First Team

Your first team should be obvious – those who will sell the sponsorships. Think through your sales team.

Will your sales be done in-house by one staff member?
Are you going to include an entire department?
What about directing it to a Chamber committee – say the Ambassadors?
Are you going to look to the entire membership to recruit an army of volunteers?

Regardless of what your sales team is going to look like, they need to be organized from the beginning. You need to have the idea in mind of who will sell, so that the next steps will be executed more effectively and in a more timely manner.

The Second Team

The second team is your staff. You need to make certain that they are all on board with the process and understand the plan. They all will have a part in the campaign, regardless of whether or not they are on the sales team.

If you are mobilizing volunteers, each staff member can motivate different volunteers. If the plan is to be executed by one staff member, the staff as a whole needs to understand the streamlining process.

Sponsors

The next step is to secure those much-needed sponsors. Typically, chambers have the same 25-100 members (the number depends on the chamber size) that routinely are asked for sponsorship assistance time and time again.

Why do we not ask beyond our regular list?

Why do we overcharge our friends and give the rest away?

It’s all about looking into why sponsors sponsor. Just as our business members target their specific customers, chambers need to target their specific sponsors. If an event is targeted to reach the masses, consider a business that is looking to do the same.

Have a member who has been in business 5-7 years and finally reached a sense of establishment in the business community? Target them with a sponsorship that would provide prestige and exclusivity.

Remember Psychology 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy… it applies to Chamber sponsorships, too!

If you need some help with either developing your teams or developing your sponsor list, we would be happy to discuss a Total Resource Campaign with you. You can reach us at ebey@nullygmtrc.com.

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Taking the Uncertainty out of Sponsorship

October 15 2016 admin Sponsor development, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: chamber, sponsorship development, total resource campaign, TRC, YGM

If your chamber is thinking about a sponsorship plan, there isn’t one perfect plan, just like there isn’t one perfect chamber. Your leadership needs to evaluate various types of plans and determine what will work best for your chamber.

There are four types of sponsorship plans:

Per event
Annual bundled program
Sponsorships through tiered memberships
Total resource campaigns.

Once your chamber identifies what type of plan it has or would like to execute, it needs to determine the goals of the plan.

Are you looking strictly for financial revenue?
Do you want to initiate organizational pride?
Are you looking for an increase in awareness for your organization throughout the community?

Next, your chamber will need to determine what inventory will be included in the plan. Items we are seeing trending nationally include:

Workforce Development/Education programming and events
Women’s initiatives
Medical events & First Responder recognition programs

Educational seminars during the lunch hour (aka “Boxed Lunch & Learn” series with attendance cost of $10-25) are being replaced with substantial professional development programs – at least half a day – with at least $100 admission. Chamber leadership programs are being reinvented to include professional development components as business leaders are saying “city field trips” aren’t enough any more.

Selling the Inventory

Once your inventory is established, you have to make certain you can articulate your programs. If you can’t explain it in a very short narrative, you probably won’t be able to sell it because your sponsor won’t be able to sell it to their customer base either.

You also need to be sure you can answer what the program is really worth. Beyond the budget, is the topic relevant and unique, and is the audience popular to the sponsorship.

Think through the real value of each sponsorship, of how a business could market it, of how a business could benefit from it.

If you need help working through the details of sponsorships, contact YGM at ebey@nullygmtrc.com. We will be happy to discuss it with you.

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Looking to Increase Sponsorships

October 09 2016 admin Sponsor development, TRC, YGM 0 comments Tags: ACCE, sponsorship development, TRC, YGM

Be the Change Your Chamber Needs

This summer’s 2016 ACCE Conference in Savannah, Ga., was amazing, and I keep thinking about how sponsorship development was the hot topic. We were delighted that all the sessions on sponsorship were relocated into the overflow room due to such tremendous interest.

I co-presented “Sponsorship Strategy: Organizing for Success” with Loren Traylor of the Birmingham Business Alliance at the ACCE.

The great tennis player Arthur Ashe once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” His theory applies to most of life, but especially to sponsorship development.

Define Sponsorships

In creating a sponsorship plan, a chamber must first have sponsorship. Nationally, we are seeing a trend with many nonprofit organizations – from schools to churches to regional charities – using the term “sponsor” for a variety of meanings. This is affecting the corporate landscape and how chambers are able to secure sponsorship dollars.

When YGM trains volunteers all over the country to execute a Total Resource Campaign – just one form of an organized sponsorship plan – many volunteers will express a sense of exhaustion of having to volunteer to go secure another sponsorship.

They will say “we just had to get a sponsor for Sally’s soccer uniform last week” or “Johnny’s Boy Scout troop was just getting sponsors for camp last month.” However, following training and securing an understanding of Chamber sponsorships, they quickly articulate “these are not sponsorships.”

How TRC Sponsorships are Different

What a YGM sponsorship is all about is talking to business contacts about utilizing the chamber for marketing and advertising of their business. Asking business owners about these sponsorships are much different – and often much easier – asks.

An organized sponsorship plan will increase your financial resources, grassroots marketing, and volunteer involvement while providing the chambers with both program and staff development.

The fall is an excellent time to begin planning for your chamber’s future. If you would like to speak with us at YGM about how we can help, you may reach us at ebey@nullygmtrc.com.

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Building New Ties This Summer

June 20 2016 admin YGM 0 comments Tags: ACCE, American Chamber of Commerce Executives, conferences, Georgia Chamber of Commerce Executives, Institute, Mississippi Economic Development Council, TCCE, TRC

Last week, I saw lots of posts about the Midwest Institute program. As I was packing for the first conference I would attend this summer with YGM, I couldn’t help but think about what I love most about conferences and Institute programs.

When I was a Chamber executive myself – especially when I first began chamber work – I made a point to attend every educational opportunity possible. I wanted to learn as much as I could about the chamber industry so that I could bring the “next big thing” back to my Chamber.

What I soon realized was that I gained something at these events that was more important than the educational information. I gained relationships that benefitted me both personally and professionally.

Many of my Institute friends shared in the joy of the birth of my daughters. People I met at conferences have given me valuable ideas for both my own chambers and chambers I have assisted during my time at YGM.

Just last week, I texted a chamber friend to ask the name of a sponsorship I knew that friend’s chamber had done and that I wanted to suggest for a new client. We have worked together through the years to make one another better.

Now that I’m on the consultant side of the table, I am a vendor at conferences hoping to share new educational information with chamber executives. My favorite part of conferences is still meeting new people and building strong relationships. It’s also good to catch up with old friends.

If you find yourself at a conference this summer and see the YGM booth, please stop by. If I am speaking at a presentation you attend, take an extra moment to stop and introduce yourself when the presentation is finished. I would love to meet you and discover what we could learn from one another.

I would also love to share with you the benefits of a TRC , learn more about your chamber, and just get to know you personally. I’m here at the Texas Chamber of Commerce Executives Conference until Tuesday. I was a panelist in the session on “The ABCs of TRCs” and had a wonderful time meeting some great folks.

Here is my summer conference schedule:

* TCCE: Until tomorrow (June 21)

* Mississippi Economic Development Council: June 22-24

Connections2016 Chamber Track Presenter

* Georgia Chamber of Commerce Executives: July 20-22

* American Chamber of Commerce Executives: August 9-12

Panelist: Sponsorship Strategy: Organizing for Success

I look forward to seeing you at a conference this summer. Enjoy your time learning about how to make your chamber better. Remember that the best things you learn this summer will probably not be things at all. Those new relationships will probably be the best building blocks in your career that you could add all summer.

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