Your number one promise to businesses is being broken all the time. The promise? We're not going to waste your time or attention. 

We waste their time by starting meetings late or going over time. We waste their time by being unprepared for meetings or conversations or showing up uninformed or without an agenda. I have a rule for this: "No agenda, no attenda!"

We waste their attention by sending all emails to all members instead of segmenting them appropriately. We waste their attention by reminding them about every single event even though they have told us they don't want to come to anything -- by not coming to anything. And we waste their attention when we only talk about our stuff instead of the issues they care about. 

Here are three tips to make the most of your members time and attention.

1. Teach your volunteer chairs and paid staff to start on time and end early. In fact, share this video with them and I will tell them. Hey committee chairs, please start your...

Lots of chambers are talking about the fact that they are tired of talking about ribbon cuttings. They are great public relations and awareness for your growing businesses but the problem is it seems we have attracted members who join just for the ribbon cutting and then drop. 

Here are three ways chambers are addressing this.

1. Charge for ribbon cuttings, member and non-member rates.

2. No more ribbon cuttings. Call another chamber. You can be their problem. 

3. Treat Ribbon Cuttings as evidence that you're winning. 

In this third option, chambers are owning ribbon cuttings as content rather than an event or a service. It's proof that our community is getting better and stronger. Rather than lamenting yet another ribbon cutting request from a new member who will likely drop their membership next year, be honored that a business has invited you to celebrate with them. 

Here are a few suggestions: 

1. Spend less staff time on a ribbon cutting. For execs, this...

Who owns your domain name? You know, that URL thing in your browser window up there? Mine is KyleSexton.com and yours is likely BusinessName.com or YourChamberName.org or something like that. I've been alarmed to learn that you might not have control of your own domain name, which speaks to EITHER a great amount of trust in your website partner, or a great amount of apathy on your part. 

I've built a lot of websites for chambers and other businesses. In fact, when I was learning website development back in 2001, I volunteered to intern for one of our chamber member web companies so that I could better understand the commercial side of web development... all of this while I was still working full time for the Chamber. 

It concerns me when chambers feel that they are being held hostage by their website contractors and it happens more than you think. So I have three simple tips to get control of your own domain. 

1. go to godaddy.com/whois and type your...

Memberships are known for being a more cost effective way for consumers to acquire something that would be too expensive to create for themselves. Just look at all the equipment in your health club and it's easy to understand that a small monthly fee is a whole lot easier than a hundred thousand dollar home gym. 

The problem is that most chambers keep their prices low because they are afraid to raise them. Maybe they're afraid they don't offer enough value to justify a higher price. Maybe they are afraid of hearing from that one PITA member when they get the renewal invoice... PITA stands for Pain in the Ass, of course... or maybe they are afraid of losing members because of a price increase. 

The reality is that you've increased your value since your last price increase weather you realize it or not. The difference between chambers who regularly raise their rates and those who don't, is that chambers who regularly raise their rates are intentionally raising their value...

I've met lots of business owners who believe the chamber shouldn't be competing with members, and when this question is posed to any board member, they agree that chambers shouldn't compete with their members... but wait a minute? Who believes the chamber competes with them? 

The Problem is that there are really three kinds of businesses who are threatened by the Chamber as a competitor:

1. Community events. There are only 365 days in a year so there's going to be competing dates from time to time. I believe you should be working with other organizations in your region to make sure you're not putting all your event efforts into a conflicting date and time. Be good partners, and that goes for them as much is it does for you.

2. Leads groups. You know that leads group that only lets in one person for each type of business? They tell me that chambers compete with them because chamber members get together and network... well c'mon... membership is subscription plus community and...

Many chamber CEO's have their staff attend every board meeting. Some have their team sit at the table with the board and other teams sit at their own table in the back of the room to observe or respond when called upon. 

That's all well and good. But when staff and board step around their executive director or CEO to have private conversations trouble ensues. 

I've seen where a chamber staff person had reached out to a board member about their dissatisfaction with a decision made by their boss -- the chamber CEO. And if that wasn't bad enough, the board member scheduled a special meeting to hear them out and then became involved in the situation between employee and employer. So after the fact, when that board chair asked me for input, I told them not to be surprised when their CEO tenders their resignation. 

Any organization or business needs a clear structure or organizational chart so that everyone knows to whom they are accountable. The chamber staff should treat...

Chambers who have an on-boarding process for new members keep their members longer. And if you've been in the chamber business for a while, you know that the members who stay for three years are the least likely to drop in the future. 

I've attended some great member orientations and some terrible ones... Let's just say that if you are playing a video at an in-person member orientation program, you've got some room for improvement. 

The problem is you're going to run this program several times a year -- in fact I think you should be doing it every other month -- and it's hard to keep doing the same program over and over again without resorting to some sort of automation. But you owe it to your members to acknowledge that it's their first and only orientation to your chamber. And it should be a great show. 

I was attending a conference in southern California a few years back and I had a free afternoon. So I checked out the calendars of some chambers in the area and...

You want to grow our membership and revenue, but the problem is you're losing as many members as you're bringing in and it doesn't appear that you're gaining any ground.

In a membership organization, we know that members who stay for three years are the most likely to stay long-term. So that three-year mark is important to remember. But in the research for my book, Remembership, I found that most businesses are willing to give you one or two years to see if it's a good long-term fit. 

Here are three ways I find that chambers are hurting their own retention.

1. Transactional subscriptions. Join the chamber, get these things. Membership is subscription plus community and if they don't meet other people like them, they are likely to leave. Connect members with others who are like them so they know they have joined a community of their peers. 

2. Paying commissions only for new membership sales. In my two decades in membership, I've learned you GET what you INCENTIVIZE. So I...

Most days, you're reaching out to people by phone and email. The problem is that you're getting voicemails...  or your emails are going unanswered. So how do we convene leaders and influencers if we don't get a response. 

Here are some tips for improving your correspondence with member, leaders and influencers.

1. Be specific about the reason your correspondence is important. For example, "I'm calling you to see if you're interested in weighing in on the proposed city ordinance. 

2. Give only the information needed to respond. For example, when you send an invoice for membership, don't send anything else... If you put a survey or verification form in there, you're sure to slow the response time. 

3. Have a specific call to action and deadline. For example, "I'm meeting with the task force chair next Thursday so I will need your reply by Wednesday if you're interested in being heard on this issue." 

And take a look at what high performance expert Brendon...

Have you ever had a personality conflict with someone on your team? Maybe you've found yourself banging your head against the wall because of one little thing they do or don't do that drives you nuts? 

The problem is they don't see a conflict and they don't have the self-awareness to work through it... And maybe you don't either. 

Looking back on my chamber career, I can now see where I may have been frustrating some of my teammates because of my own lack of self awareness at the time. For example, when my CEO would ask me to lead a project, I had to work on it in my own time. I had no questions and I gave no updates and preferred to rely on no-one else to play a role. And before I started a big project I had to do a whole bunch of meaningless little projects before I could start the big one. Turns out, it's just how I'm wired. 

You can always tell when I'm about start something new because I clean out my email, I clean my house, I clean my garage and I start fixing...