Several weeks ago, I mentioned that we had invited a few guest bloggers to write about best practices for Chambers of Commerce.

So I am very excited to announce that our first guest blogger is Kelly Fanelli, the Membership Director at the Chamber of Commerce of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Kelly has held the Director of Membership position for nearly ten years, and I have had the privilege of knowing her almost as long. She has also been a member of her Chamber. Being on both sides of the equation gives her great insight into the needs of members, both the ones they know about and some they are not even aware of.

From a sales perspective, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award and inducted into the Million Dollar Circle at the 2014 ACCE Convention. She has walked the walk and she knows the challenges you face.

Kelly has written articles for several publications, including ACCE’s Chamber Executive. She has presented at several membership conferences and written and hosted webinars on sales and membership programming.

Kelly is one of the most knowledgeable people in the world regarding chamber of commerce membership retention and growth.

So without further ado, I present to you Kelly Fanelli. 

Supercharge Your Chamber Membership

Need some new ideas to grow your membership?  Want to rise above your competition and excel, serving your members with innovative programing and training they’re not getting anywhere else? 

That’s my goal here.  To create a blog series that will arm you with practical, easy-to-apply knowledge for supercharging your chamber membership. Rather than talking about theory, I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned throughout my 10-year odyssey as a membership director.

So, what will we be talking about here?

• Best practices for renewing membership sales and recruiting new members.
• Using testimonials for recruitment and retention.
• Finding prospects in unexpected places.
• Mirroring your prospects in your communication style.
• Shortening the sales cycle. How to close the deal and when to walk away.
• Balancing recruitment and renewals.  We all wear two hats, but how do you find the balance?
• Getting referrals!
• My personal tips and tricks for chamber membership. I call them Kelly Fanelli 101s.  (Hey, if you have a name like this, you’ve got to have some fun with it, right?)

I’m really excited about this blog series, and I can’t wait to share more of the ideas I have perfected over the years.

My hope is that you will take these ideas, mold them to fit the needs of your individual Chamber, and use them as a springboard to come up with visions neither of us could've conceived of alone.

I hope you’ll follow along!

What are your biggest challenges?

I’m going to be looking for some input from you.  What are your struggles?  What are the roadblocks to your success?  Your questions and comments will trigger ideas from me that wouldn’t come any other way! 

Please share your questions in the comments section below. If you would rather ask me directly, you can reach me at kfanelli@palmbeaches.org.

Here are some other articles you might enjoy reading:

Using Testimonials For Chamber Recruitment and Retention

New Blog Series: Supercharge Your Chamber Membership

15 Chamber Blog Post Ideas