Adorna O. Carroll, DSA

ABR/M, SRS, CRB, CNE, SRES, SFR, GRI, PMN, ePRO

DynamicDirections.com Adorna@AdornaCarroll.comAdornaSpeaks – Facebook @AdornaCarroll – Twitter AdornaCarroll - Linkedin

Generational Impact of Member

Communication & Involvement

The Association’s Challenge

• Declining membership involvement

• Demonstrating credibility, relevance and tangible value to the ‘invisible’ members

• Broker/Owner, Manager and Member ‘Apathy’

• Leadership that is not engaged in business or difficult to deal with in their business dealings

• Meetings that waste time or are not well run

• NO strategic, business plan or clear objectives that need to be accomplished

• Economic instability

Opportunities for Associations

• Gaining a true understanding of member demographics to deliver programs, products, services that are valued by members

• Developing a clear plan for recruitment

• Effective communication that interfaces with a member in the way they want to be engaged

• Reorganizing structure to incorporate less committees and more workgroups and virtual interaction possibilities

• Conveying value, goals and business plan

Engaging Members

You won’t engage members until you know

• Who your members are

• What they need and want

• How to communicate with them

• What their passions are

• How they do their business

• What their business specialties are

• What you are trying to accomplish through your strategic/business plan and what your group objectives are

Plaque dedicated to a leader at the Plano Association of REALTORS®

It is not the job of membership

to understand its leadership

… It is the job of leadership

to understand its membership

GENERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS

DRIVE PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

Changing Business DynamicsSeniors-Boomers Gen X & Y

• Volunteerism ingrained

• Tech Immigrants

• Tactile – High Touch

• Land lines, snail mail, newspaper, personal

• Professional controlled info

• MLS limited to sales area

• General business practitioners

• Manual transfer of paper, crossing the threshold, live closings

• Sub-agency reliance on co-broke fee

• Participate if asked

• Tech Natives

• Comfortable in virtual environment

• Email, text, social media, video

• Consumer has access to info

• MLS beyond sales area

• Business specialty focus

• Global transactions

• E-transaction, less desire to cross threshold, virtual closings

• Web and virtual formats key

• Contractual rep yields compensation thru proceeds

Board Dynamics Seniors/Boomers• BOD populated by primarily broker-owners

• Were older established business professionals

• Leadership was primarily male broker-owners until the 1980’s when women broker-owners began to attain the presidency

• Functioned as an industry club - service organization

• Most Association Executives were focused on clerical responsibilities and bookkeeping

• Most boards had their own proprietary MLS and financially relied on the income stream

• Gala Events and General Member meetings were well attended since it was the primary method of obtaining business updates and networking

• Snail Mail, Flyers and Fax used extensively

Board Dynamics – Gen X and Y

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123 Main Street; Anytown, Any State,

USA

NextGen Consumers of the Future

• No land-lines

• Cell phone is complete mini PC

• Interactive TV with on-demand

viewing of any programming

• Globally interactive e-community

• Universal e-banking/shopping

• Telecommuting reduces need to move

• Money thru inheritance provides global freedom

• Drive-thru service expectations of everything

Buying and Selling Process

• Global “MLS” of all property

• VReality tours

• License portability

• Contractual rep and buyer Registry

removes need for MLS

coop compensation

• eBay-like transactions with on-line bidding

• Full e-transaction with digital signatures, editable

PDFs;

• Live video-conferencing closings

Venues that will be incorporated into

learning now and later

• Live video-conferencing training

• Trainer and students together and/or separate

• Virtual school environment

• Game based learning

• Simulation Training

• Holographic imaging for

situational and experiential

learning

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MEMBERSHIP DEMOGRAPHICSARE ESSENTIAL TO MEMBER INVOLVEMENT

What Associations Need to Know

• Ratio between agents, managers and broker/owners (selling versus not selling)

• Years in the business

• Age demographics

• Communication preferences

• What technology they are currently using

• Educational preferences

• Talents and interests

• Ratios of agents in all business specialties

Who are your Broker-Owners?Catering to your Broker/Owner/Managers group is

imperative to knowing

• What they really want and need from you

• That you are not competing with them but rather there to supplement and enhance their business and services

• That you understand their business issues

• That board decisions are made by people that are engaged in the business

Cultivating a relationship is imperative to securing the involvement of their agents

Who is your member?

Until you understand the generational demographics of your members your won’t be successful in

• Communicating with them

• Understanding their concerns

• Engaging them into the process

• Lending their talents to proactively solving

the association’s problems

• Serving in leadership positions

RE-INVENTING THE WAY THE

ASSOCIATION FUNCTIONS

Members Will Engage If• Leaders are true examples of successful business

people demonstrating ethical business practices in co-broking

• The board operates like a real business, has generational and business specialties represented on BOD, workgroups, etc

• The board is responsive to business issues and provides members programs, products and services that provide a return on their dues investment

• They are asked to participate

Engagement Requires• Annual leadership training for all officers, director

liaisons, chairs/vice-chairs

• Streamlined ability to attain leadership positions

• A strategic plan, committee purposes and objectives with an organized format to get things done

• Shatter myths ‘This is the way it has always been done’

• Leadership that is committed; workgroups, task forces and committees that are empowered to determine how things will get done

• Understanding of the association models

• Format for shared services opportunities

Steps from Plan to Action 1

• Strategic Goals Created; $$$ & human resources applied; goes to BOD

2

• BOD reviews plan, prioritizes goals; ratifies plan; delegates objectives to committees; sets timeline; outlines budget if applies

3 • Committee receives objectives; Determines HOW to attain them

4• Committee forwards actions with rationale thru DL and/or PE

5• Actions filtered thru budget/legal for recommendations if needed

6• LT discusses each action to determine if it makes this agenda

7• LT makes recommendation on each agenda item

8

• BOD debates/acts on each agenda item considering recommendations from budget/legal and LT

9 • Action items provided to members with rationale

Structure

Director Liaison

Govt Affairs

Leg/Reg/Pol

RPAC

RPIC

Trustees

Director Liaison

Prof Devel

Pre-Licensing

Orientation

General Membership

Programs

New Agent/Baseline

Post Licensing CE, etc

Designation

Director Liaison Governance

ByLaws

Facility/Operations

Strategic Planning

Capital Improveme

nts

Director Liaison Member &

Public Relations

Pro-Stds

Grievance

Mediation

Website Public & Intranet

Media Relations

Image Campaign

Director Liaison Community

Relations

Community Outreach

Community Events

Golf Tournament

Chili Cookoff

etc

2007 copyright (c) Adorna Carroll All Rights Reserved

Pres PE CEO Treasurer PP

CONSUMER NEEDS

DRIVE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

Targeting your Markets

There is NO ‘One Size Fits All’

• Different generations need different marketing messages and venues to attract them

• Manual and electronic methods required to span the target audiences and demonstrate the WIIFM

• Students want ‘EZ fixes and magic bullets’

• Use a catalogue shopping experience & cross marketing incentives

– Multiple course price bundling; Buy today in class and get discounts on future courses; Bring a buddy discounts & bulk purchase discounts,etc

Broker Owners

• Need serious help with risk reducing policies and systems

• Are so entrenched in producing to cover costs of running a firm, they don’t have time to train agents and need updated training themselves

• Need business courses and financial operations courses

• Should have a broker/manager training session to experience the material before general member meetings and courses and then send all the agents to the board to be trained

Target Markets - Top Producers

They ‘don’t know what they don’t know’

• Top producers resist change and rely on habits/systems that work for them

• Issues based education blended with skills to make money do attract their attention

• Usually wait to last minute to register if

– There is no financial incentive to sign up early

– There is no penalty for last minute

– The marketing didn’t demonstrate the WIIFM

– They don’t know what will need attention on that day and want to keep their options open

Target Markets - Medium Producers

• Medium producers want to learn systems and gain tools to go to the next level

• They enjoy issues based and skill training since it provides a firmer foundation against the top dogs

• Must convey that designations and advanced training will deliver a solid ROI

• Will pay early with incentives and discounts

• Won’t consider taking designation courses more than once until you tell them why

Baseline Training & New Agents• Broker may not have time and/or comprehensive ability

to prepare new recruits to do basic business

• Looking to the association to be their business partner on a fee for service basis

• Prepared to invest in education to quickly translate skills into income

• Need high level trainers to create a culture of the association as the source for professional development

• Strategic Planning, Leadership Training & Retreats

• Designation Course Training

– ABR – Accredited Buyer Representative Designation

– SRS – Seller Representative Specialist Designation

– CRETS – Certified Real Estate Team Specialist

– Power Negotiator’s Playbook

• GRI & Continuing Education

• Convention Programs

• Course Development

• Adorna@AdornaCarroll.com

• DynamicDirections.comFB- AdornaSpeaks

Twitter - @AdornaCarroll

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