TOOLSHED
Recruitment or Retention - Where
Should You Focus?
There are two statistics that can be a
good indication of where your organisation needs to focus:
Growth rate - the percentage
increase in total members over the year. Eg: if you went
from 500 to 600 members over a year you have had a 20%
growth rate.
Retention rate - the number of
members you had at the start of the year who had renewed
by the end of the year. Eg: If you had 500 members at the
start of the year and (of those) 450 renewed then your
retention rate is 90%.
So how can you interpret thoses figures?
While generalisation across different types of not for
profits is difficult (there will always be exceptions) a
rule of thumb is:
High Growth & High Retention - An
ideal situation which generally signifies an well run
association. An even focus on both and regular monitoring
is advisable.
Low Growth & High Retention -
Generally a sign of an association with good member
relationship management and renewal processes. Integrating
more lead generation, prospect relationship management and
sales activities into your marketing mix would assist in
increasing your growth rate.
High Growth & Low Retention - This
is not a good situation. It is a sign of an association
with good recruitment practices but poor serviceability.
An association in this position should halt or slow
recruitment until the retention issues have been sorted
out. Otherwise the resources expended on recruitment are
wasted.
Low Growth & Low Retention - A sign
there is some serious work to do. In this instance you
should first focus on retention. It is far easier to
retain existing members than to recruit new ones. Then
address your recruitment processes.
For free retention and growth rate
calculator email
belinda@associationmarketing.com
Belinda
Busoli is a partner is the
Association Marketing Network, a member-based
organisation that provides consultancy services and
training for member-based organisations throughout
Australia.
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