Discover the art of smart data-driven management and how to harness data to help your association stay organized and set on a membership growth trajectory with Wes Trochlil and host Farhad Khan
In this episode we are joined by Wes Trochlil, author and top data management consultant. We talk about how smart data management strategy will help your have better reports, communication, marketing and engagement. Clean data and strategic data collection will helps an association stay organized and on a growth trajectory.
To learn more about Wes, you can visit his website.
We'll include here the questions we asked Wes in the podcast with time stamps so you can easily refer back to the parts that most interest you:
01:26 Can you start by telling us about yourself and what you do?
02:08 Why is it so important for an association to have a strategy for their data management before they put anything in place? Why is strategy so important?
03:10 What are common mistakes that you often see associations make with their data management?
04:22 Do you prefer that people build out their member database in stages and not try to do everything at once, and plan for an initial role out with the most important thing with a plan for what will come after?
08:10 You mentioned that the CRM or member database should aline with the association's objectives. We need to know the mission. What are some of the things we can do to make sure the CRM plan or database align with the association's goals?
09:29 Do you see that the data that is collected and tracking with the member data management system should inform our marketing and sales efforts and beyond?
10:58 Do you have any thoughts on how we should approach the audience segmentation?
15:57 If an association doesn't have the data they want, what do they do then?
18:00 Now during pandemic times, a lot of organizations are trying to up their digital game, they are transforming their overall systems and go online more and more. If I am looking to reimplement by data management system or CRM, where should I begin?
20:20 Can you tell us a bit more from the types of reports you would want to see from their data management system?
22:55 Tell me a bit more about how you do engagement tracking?
30:30 You mentioned that at one level we have to start by looking at what the technology will give us, how much of an engagement report and how much we can do ourselves. If we have the freedom to choose a CRM tool or member management tool right now, what are some of the things we should consider?
45:26 We are towards the end of the episode; do you have any last words for associations?
49:00 When you give the example of a board member's information not being accurate on the website or in the system, it may be there is no way for the board member to update the information independently or no one thought to update it, how would you solve that problem because we see this all the time.
51:38 Audience question: What is the number one expectation you find these days that has to be managed?
53:04 Sometimes we see that just because an association has been doing something for a long time, doesn't mean it's the right way. Sometime they have to fix their process rather than the tool?
54:17 Can you share a personal habit that has contributed to your success?
55:15 Can you share a digital tool or strategy that makes you successful in your work?
58:09 Where can people reach you if they want to get in touch with you?