Engagement. Interaction. Relationship Building. These are the buzz words that dominate sales and marketing conversations around the globe. Today, more than ever, the success of your organization hinges on the depth and breadth of your relationship with each and every member. So what do you do when you have members who aren’t engaging with you? How do you interact with those you can’t seem to reach? How do you break down the walls, get a conversation going and build that relationship?
CELEBRATING AND ENGAGING THE INTROVERT
While attending the ASAE Annual Meeting this year, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to hear the much celebrated former lawyer, consultant, author and self-proclaimed introvert, Susan Cain, speak. In her talk, “Quiet, How to Harness the Strengths of Introverts to Change How We Work Lead, and Innovate”, she extolls the many times undervalued strengths of the introvert and explores how our society structures the way we work and live creates a bias against introverts causing us to miss out on the value they have to offer.
COMMUNICATE ON THEIR LEVEL
It’s long been proven that different people learn in different ways. Some are highly visual and appreciate graphics, videos and charts. Others are aural learners and love conversations, speeches and round table discussions. Similarly, we all have our preferences in how we communicate. Some prefer face-to-face interactions, others prefer a quick call or a text, while many like the ‘paper trail’ of an email thread. I’m positive that your membership is made up of a heavy dose of each of these individuals. I’m also sure that there are many, highly social and engaged members that you know extremely well – who attend every conference, provide regular feedback and readily speak their mind. But what about the ‘quiet ones?’ What about the names you see in your member database that you just can’t put a face to? How do you engage them? How do you tap the valuable knowledge and insights they surely have?
Introvert or extrovert, people, by nature, are social beings. We all WANT to communicate, we just all have different preferences when it comes to the mode of communication. This is why it’s vital to communicate on multiple levels. Deliver your message through various channels – in person, online, in print to engage the different personalities and preferences of your membership base. Engage the introvert through quieter, low-key environments such as social networks, emails, and texts and you may find yourself engaging in conversations with your less ‘visible’ members.
GIVE TO GET
Of course, simply delivering a message is a one way road and has limited value. The key to true engagement is striking up that conversation, building a relationship where value flows in both directions. As I listened to Ms. Cain speak, it occurred to me how ideally suited online benchmarking was to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the elusive introvert. Introverts tend to place great value on information and will give to get. They will participate in a benchmarking study so they may gain access to the data. By using an online benchmarking platform, you are increase the likelihood of participation by your introverted members by using a medium with which they’re comfortable and allows them control over when and where they participate. By delivering collected data in that can be manipulated and viewed in a variety of ways, you also allow them to learn and engage in the manner in which they’re most comfortable.
Web-based benchmarking offers a way to ‘converse’ with your more introverted members while delivering valuable peer-to-peer comparison data they would likely not get otherwise. As we look at the many channels available to engage members and deliver value, online benchmarking shows great promise as a means of tapping into the treasure trove of knowledge held by ‘The Quiet Ones.’
