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Guestership: Club Membership Growth made simple – Everything starts with a Guest! If you are in charge of membership growth in your Organization, we will present you a strategic plan with a sequence of action points proven to work at delivering membership

Membership comes with its own boundaries. Let’s see where they are and why they are important.

According to the GMS (Guest Management System) I designed, the focus of the VP Membership is somewhere on an imaginary path, preceded by the work of the VP Public Relations (to get interested people to attend a first meeting and become guests) and the important work of the VP Education, once the guests become members of Toastmasters.

This is very important, because it clears everything and make your task very much streamlined. Refer all third parties queries to the VP Public Relation, and make sure you have an alignment in regards of the audience the VP PR is targeting. Once a person shows up for the first at a club meeting, that person is magically turned into a GUEST. Now it’s your time to shine and to support the GUEST to discover if Toastmasters its a good fit for his/her unique situation. Once that GUEST becomes a Member, your duty is over. Introduce him/her to the Vice President. Repeat.

 In a nutshell, a GUEST is a potential member who saw “something” without being sure of what it was, yet the GUEST made the decision of attending one meeting: What are going to do about it? What is the value you can give to the GUEST?>Honor the Guest with an outstanding experience (at the 1st Meeting) >Show appreciation  by producing a Stellar Follow Up (after the 1st Meeting) The Guest Management System follows the idea that one single interaction (like a meeting) is most often not enough for a person to make up her/his mind about Toastmasters. By using my own business experience, I advise you to make sure you have at least 7 touch-point with the Guest, such as meetings, phone calls, emails, instant messages, handwritten letters, videocalls. Obviously the first impression is very important, hence the value of the 1st meeting is never stressed enough. Less obvious, but just as important, the fact that a great first impression followed by weeks of silence will make that first impression fade very fast…In the Next two posts we will understand how to plan for an Outstanding First Meeting and a Stellar follow up. 

The guest attended and loved the meeting. Now the time is ticking, you need to follow-up!

How to Follow up like a pro: The Golden Rule
The Golden Rule of follow up is very simple: whatever you promise to do, do it. If you told the guest she will receive in am email the next day, send that email. If you promised to send her an application for membership by the end of the week, then do it by the end of the week. Regardless of what you do, you should have a formal Follow up plan.

 Follow up Plan design in 7-step

This plan is valid for all types of meetings, be online or in-person. The sequence of steps, except the #1, is design for using the email to communicate. You can use alternative methods that better suite you and your unique situation. If you opt for the emails, you can write them one by one, create templates, automate with software like Mailchimp or anything in between. At anytime the guest actively engages by replying to any of the communication, take that communication as a start of a different communication exchange. If that communication exchange dries off at any point return to the 7-step system.  

Step#1: is the first meeting the guest just attended; 

Step#2: You MUST follow up the day after the meeting with a thank you email; This is about appreciating the guest for dedicating her time to the meeting and offer some points about what happened during the meeting. End with a question: what did she like?

Step#3: Send a second email before the end of the week or 3 days after the meeting. This could be about reflecting on her goals and how Toastmasters could help her achieve them now. 

Step#4: Send a third email 1 week to 10days after the meeting Once again, you could offer some perspective with reference/review of the Club from another member or a guest that became a member, or simply offer some reasons why it’s a good option to join. 

Step#5: Send a fourth email the day of the following meeting or 15 days after the meeting Inform the guest that a new meeting is on Today! She is welcome to join again. 

Step#6: Send a fifth email with a request for feedback, 20 to 25 days after the meeting Whatever is the reason for the guest not to get in touch, asking for feedback shows the person that your intention are objective and you appreciate what they think and you are following up with them properly, like a pro!  Step#7: Send a Thank you Note, about 35 to 45 days after the meeting “It wasn’t meant to be”, but it was a great experience, thank you once again…The tone shall be light, positive, objective. Everyone has a reason to do or not to do something. We should never put ourselves on a stand and try to judge the reason behind a decision. Yet we invested time and energy in the process and every process need a closure otherwise they will not be properly completed.

  About Pricing

This is the most important questions of all. The Guest is curious and wants to know how much a membership cost. That is absolutely legit, I would ask the same question, you would too. Yet the longer you can delay the answer the better it is. Think about it, if I tell you the price of a product or service you barely know a thing about, how can you decide if that price is fair, too low, too high? It’s not a secret how much it cost to become a Member of an organization, yet there is that element of curiosity that once is satisfied will turn down the volume of our interest in the subject. We live very hectic and busy life, once our brain is satisfied he got the answer of his biggest question he will do everything to make us forget about it all. It’s a self defense mechanism that unfortunately could work against our best interest. Consider carefully what you say and when you say it.

   Do not send any membership application form (unless the guest specifically ask for)

Following the question about the Price, the other “value” you can share with the guest is the membership application form. This could be considered as a trivial thing, yet it is very important. You are asking the guest to sign a commitment to the Club or other Organization, do not ask for something of such a high value in a light way. Unless the guest is seriously considering joining and you can see there is a real interest from her part do not send the membership application form just to do so.