90p Admin

I would like to suggest that we offer a free ""join now and be a member through the end of this membership year"" type deal for any potential new regular members at Summit.

This what we've done the last 2 years. I second.

Guess I need to hurry up and bill the person who wanted to join yesterday.. Actually, I think what we did is if you join now and pay the annual membership, the period is through 10/31/15.. And if we didn't, I think that would make better sense. If they join, they get 15 months.

I think Jeff is correct. Didn't we give them a year + membership? I'm open to either.

We should offer a free trial through the end of the membership year (and we are going to normalize everyone on the same year). Then they can make the decision. Asking someone to pony up $500 in advance is not very risk averse. Let's shoulder the risk. If we're comfortable with our group we really have no extra cost and it makes it risk - free for a new member to join. What's the downside?

Are we pushing to move the membership year to end on the calendar? If not, then I leave it in the hands of others to decide. Specifically the others who set up new members - how much work is it to set up all the lookie-loos and what % do we think will convert to members? If we think the conversion rate will be high, then it seems like it's worth a free trial. If the conversion rate is lower, then it needs to be evaluated against the time to set them up (and track them down once the free trial is over).

I'll defer to Robert on what the ratio of lookers to takers has been. I don't remember it being too bad though we had an issue or two with people not realizing there would be a fee to participate. As I recall that was around the initial sign up period when we were adding lots of new members.

(null)

It is null because we haven't offered a free trial. Last year if they joined, they received 15 months for the price of 12. Why are we wanting this more Facebook or SageTalk like? What is the value for the members? IF you want free, stick to SageTalk. If you are tired of wasting your time and effort, then pony up your money and get quality answers in less than five minutes. I am not seeing the value of offering a free trial.

That is what we've done in the past. I misread Wayne's original post.

It is null becuase Socialcast dumped the post.

I don't really have a clear idea of what the tire kickers would be. What's happened in the past is the lookyloo's hang out, get an invoice, and then want answers to a gazillion questions and ask for justifications to why they should pay to be in the group. Even when it's been stated up front that there would be a cost in the past. I'd guesstimate that 1 lookyloo is as much work as 5 folks who pay. It's a guess.

@JeffSchwenk what are we doing with the renewal dates? I think we should go with whichever of the two (Fellows/Associates) is later and make them the same.

If we did that, then why not offer something like ""Join for the rest of the year for the ridiculously low price of "" x? Maybe not free but what about $25 or $50?

That's a great idea and sorry I brought up an issue that could help the group grow.

Why would the group not grow with a low, low introductory offer?

Yeah ... I'm not following something here.

If we want to drive membership, we need to try different offers and see what works. If we want to stick with what we did last year (sign up now and it's good through 10/31/15) or if we want to try something new (free trial through end of year), it's all good. Trying different approaches is the epitome of good sales management. Our prospect pool (MAS 90 partners) is shrinking every year so if we want to drive the group forward, we should do it now ...

The idea is growing and trying something different. In my opinion, free causes a disproportionate amount of work and headaches with tire kickers. My version of Wayne's concept is we charge $50 if you join now and we renew you at the renewal rate instead of paying the joiner rate. It's a total for $450 instead of $500 and they get the same benefit. No real cost to the group and the prospective members get to try it out and at the end of the period either pay or don't.

What would be the proper response to a qualified non-member who asks ""so how do i join the group now?

Sign up on the website. If you sign up now you get the rest of this year for free with next year paid membership

Best deal around no question!!

How else were you thinking of having them sign up?

@RobertWood - Renewal dates are still 9/30 & 10/31. Two dates splits the billings into halves spreading the workload evenly over two months.

I'd have thought it would be less work to run recurring billing once instead of twice.

Nope! About the same amount of work spread over two months.