How to Use Data at Your Chamber with Britt Delo

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability and to correct obvious transcription errors while preserving the meaning of the original conversation.

Episode 55 — How to Use Data at Your Chamber with Britt Delo
Clean Speaker-Labeled Transcript
Guest: Britt Delo
Automated QA: Passed

00:00.83 Brandon Burton
This is the Chamber Chat Podcast, the show dedicated to chamber professionals to spark ideas and to get actionable tips and strategies to better serve your members and community.
00:14.89 Britt Delo
And now, your host, his favorite football team is the San Francisco Forty Niners. He's my dad, Brandon Burton.
00:23.106 Brandon Burton
Welcome to Chamber Chat Podcast. This is episode 55, and glad that you guys are all here with us today. Today, our guest on the show is Britt Delo, who is the director of membership at the Michigan West Coast Chamber of Commerce, of course, in Michigan. And one of the West Coast Chamber's core values is it's all about you. As the director of membership, Britt DLo utilizes this core value to the fullest extent. This involves recruiting and onboarding new members, engaging with existing members, and developing partnerships to grow sponsorship revenue. Britt was an ambassador for several years prior to joining the team. Britt's background is in business development, customer service, and retail management. She was the captain of the Hope College women's swim team and was also recognized as scholar athlete and academic. All American all four years. She brings that same energetic and competitive spirit to the West Coast chamber. Today on the show, as as I have Britt with us, we're going to be talking specifically about how to use data at your chamber. I know that's one of those topics that everybody at the in various chambers knows that we should be using data, but are not quite sure how, or necessarily all the ins and outs of why and and how to implement that. So that'll be our focus of discussion today, which we'll jump into as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Every chamber is looking for new ways to increase their non-dues revenue. Has your chamber found a good affinity program? I have a great affinity program to offer your chamber that will continue to increase in revenue year after year. I want to introduce you to Swipe It for all of your credit card processing needs. Swipe It has a unique affinity program that 1.2
02:26.274 Brandon Burton
Helps your chamber members be more profitable, and three, provides recurring nondues revenue to your chamber. To learn more, please visit chamberchappodcast.com slash CC for credit card. Again, Chamberchappodcast dot com slash C C and get swiping with swipe it. All right, Britt, we are back and I wanted to thank you for joining us today. And if you would please just take a moment to say hello to the audience and share something interesting about yourself so we can all get to know you better.
03:04.172 Britt Delo
Yeah. Hi. thanks so much for having me, Brandon. I'm really excited to be on the show today and excited to chat with all of you and share a little bit about what we have going on here in Michigan. so kind of a a fun fact about myself. so you're getting my voice today, but many years ago, so back when I was in elementary school, I was actually the co-host of a little local TV show that was through our local hospital, Holland Hospital, called the Be Well Show. and we gave healthy tips and we did aerobics and it was just my fun little five minutes of fame years back.
03:41.262 Brandon Burton
That's awesome. So that means you must have a face for TV where I've got a voice for radio.
03:49.758 Britt Delo
I don't know about that.
03:52.306 Brandon Burton
That that's neat though. Neat little background. So if you would
03:56.472 Britt Delo
Don't find any of those on Google if you look for it.
04:01.976 Brandon Burton
Be before the times of YouTube, right? Yes. Yes. well take it tell us a little bit about the the Michigan West Coast Chamber, the size, location, budget, just so we can all relate to a little bit more to this perspective that you're bringing as we get into the topic today.
04:05.122 Britt Delo
Totally. Yeah, thank God.
04:21.848 Britt Delo
Yeah, absolutely. so we're in Michigan over on the west side of the state, right along the lake shore, which is fantastic.
04:29.228 Brandon Burton
Name your name is very descriptive of the location too. So it's
04:32.686 Britt Delo
Exactly. And it kind of adds that California vibe, which is fun. and part of the reason that it's the West Coast Chamber is because about seven years ago the Holland and Zealand chambers merged together. so there were two separate chambers, and so when that happened, we rebranded and renamed ourselves the West Coast Chamber because we now cover two communities. So that's the the reason for the name there. we have about 1200, a little over 1200 members. there are eight of us on staff. And our community, we've got about thirty-three thousand in Holland and about six thousand in the Zealand area. So we're close to about that 40,000 range per population.
05:18.432 Brandon Burton
Okay. Very good. and I think that's kind of in the sweet spot of a lot of the chambers that are listening is kind of right about the same size of a a chamber you are. Some a little larger, some a little smaller, but I think what you have to say and share with them today will be very applicable. So as I've mentioned in in the introduction, that our topic for discussion today is going to be about how to use data at your chamber. So I know Chambers are full of programs and initiatives and things that that they do to promote business and general goodness throughout the community. And for a long time it was the chambers sitting down thinking, what does the community need? How can we better serve our members? Some chambers still do that today. They are doing it based on what they think. So how do you get over what the chamber thinks their membership needs and the community could benefit from? to what they really need.
06:19.974 Britt Delo
Yeah, well, at our chamber here, it's through a lot of data. and at first it can feel a little overwhelming and even a little bit scary, like where do I even begin with this? But we really just we started looking, I mean, kind of department and each department started tracking things and tracking results so that we could start making better decisions with that data. so if we take a look at membership, for example, it all sort of started with really defining it sounds simple, but defining a target market and really looking closely at that. So we started looking at what our ideal chamber member looks like. You know, take a sample of your very best chamber members and and what that looks like, a snapshot. And so we started looking at this in terms of A, B, and C members and prospects. and this isn't to be mean, it's not that you've got C members that are terrible. It's just really looking at, you know, defining the targets. with a few things in mind. So for us, an A member has a physical presence in our area. They have potential for employment growth. They've been in business for two or more years. they have sponsorship potential. And then they also have dues above the minimum level. so they're a little bit higher on that dues level scale. And this doesn't mean that we won't work with organizations that don't fit that mold, but those are the ones that we're going to be targeting as our A member process.
07:52.768 Brandon Burton
Okay, that makes sense. so then how do you as far as when you're identifying these A, B, and C, I I I want you to go through the Bs and C's also, but yeah, you're making those identifying qualities, I guess, so you can see how to to gather the data from those categories. Is that is that where you're going with it?
08:15.896 Britt Delo
Yeah, exactly. So you know, we start tracking this information right in our system so that as I'm looking at pipeline development and kind of where members are along in that process, I can really spend a lot more of my time focusing on follow ups with A and even B members and prospects versus spending a lot of time trying to track down those the C's because in the end we find that the Bs and Cs tend to be those members that end up churning. quite a bit. and again, not to say that we're happy that we'll give them the same exact experience and work with them just the same if they do join the chamber. But as far as prospecting goes, spending more time on those A members that will most likely be here for the long term. So what it really kind of boils down to is it's it's allocating my time in a way that's going to have the the greatest benefit. It's more efficient and it has a longer, longer term benefit and give this revenue streams that are much more efficient and you know really that we can count on.
09:22.262 Brandon Burton
And it's looking more at the kind of the eighty twenty rule, trying to get eighty percent of your results from twenty percent of your efforts. So
09:29.452 Britt Delo
Yes. Exactly. Yep. Stream and and when it's in the system too and everybody in our organization knows about that, they know how to i interact and relate with those prospective members as well. You know, maybe there's a free event you add in because you've got an A prospect that you're trying to work on and and so other people are aware then of that and it just streamlines the whole process internally as well.
09:51.938 Brandon Burton
Yeah. So you'd mentioned the the A type of members or prospects is those that have a physical presence, been in business for over two years and kind of that higher level dues or maybe revenue that possibilities. what are the the B and C levels that that you look at?
10:12.834 Britt Delo
Yeah, so the B's are categorized as maybe they have a sales rep based in our area in our target location. and maybe they've been in business for less than two years, so they're still kind of stabilizing as an organization. And then C's are categorized as those who are located outside of the target market and they have unlikely employment growth. and so this might look different for different organizations. These don't have to be you know, hard and fast rules for everybody, but it's kind of taking a look at what what characterizes a really, really great member in your community so that you can categorize them and and spend your time wisely.
10:56.622 Brandon Burton
So you'd mentioned all this is being logged in your system. So for current members, you can that makes it easy to prioritize who's the A member A level, B and C level members. And as you look at prospects, how are you able to look at look to data to categorize them into one of those categories?
11:19.18 Britt Delo
Yeah, so some of it is kind of simple and upfront where it's a location. And so you can categorize them and sometimes it's looking at it and and taking your your best guess based on what you know about an organization. And until you have the chance to go in and meet with somebody, sometimes you don't have all of the details, but you can get a a pretty good feel for where a prospect will lie within that range based on, you know, info you can find online or conversations you've had with other people if it's a potential referral. So you give it your best guess. I mean, work with what you've got and then update and refine it as you go.
11:56.342 Brandon Burton
Okay. That makes a lot of sense. So that's prioritizing your prospects is going to get you the best bang for your buck as far as the time that you invest in to developing these members and giving them the best experience at your chamber to be able to identify what your target market is, kind of fit them in those those buckets, those A, B, or C buckets. And then from that you're able to prioritize how you allocate your time and resources to developing that member experience. Am I gathering that right?
12:30.924 Britt Delo
Yep, exactly.
12:32.19 Brandon Burton
All right. Very good. So let's let's talk a little bit about maybe the lead sources. Where where do you turn to to collect data? And I know that's maybe a loaded question because there's a lot of options out there, but what are what are some of your best lead sources that you can share with us?
12:52.854 Britt Delo
Yeah, so we started tracking this a little over a year ago and we track it in a number of well, we track it right in our system so that we can create reports, customized reports where we can view this information in a couple of different areas. So one place we're tracking this is on a pipeline that I've developed. So we work in Chambermaster and we're able to create custom fields within Chambermaster so that we can maintain the information right in our system, but develop a report. To show us what we want to see. However, if you don't use Chambermaster, it's totally fine. You can track all of this on the spreadsheet or in the system that you're working in. But every week we review a pipeline and this share this shows the prospective member's name, the stage that they're in within the sales cycle, and the source. So where they're coming from, whether it was an event, it was an outbound phone call, it was a referral or an ambassador lead. So we're tracking all of that information and looking at that. weekly as we're looking at our prospective pipeline. And on that pipeline we also track you know first contact and that rating that we're talking about, the A, B, or C. So we can view that from week to week. But then I've also developed a separate spreadsheet where we're tracking event attendance and when prospects are showing up at events so that we know which specific events have the best possibility for turning a prospect into a member. And so after looking at that over the last year, we can narrow it down to the two specific events where we see the greatest conversion rate. So we know to drive prospects to those two specific events if we want to see them turn into members. So those are kind of, I'd say our pipeline and this event tracking page is where we really see the best results on tracking where our our the best source for our prospective members would be.
14:49.934 Brandon Burton
I like that you're able to have it all in the one system. So you're not looking, you know, in six different places trying to look at dashboards and trying to see and make sense of the data, but you're able to all pull it into one system and kind of have that snapshot of the the weekly pipeline of how things are coming in and really helps to organize things. You had mentioned you could do it in a spreadsheet or something, but I could see kind of the headache that would come with that. I mean, that would be a full time job, just keeping that spreadsheet up to date.
15:17.454 Britt Delo
Keeping all of them going. Yeah. It it can be a little tricky. And I do recommend though that before you start modifying your system to show some of these custom fields, that you do start with a spreadsheet just so that you don't start throwing stuff in the system and it's like, well, shoot, I wish I would have had this. So sometimes laying it out in a spreadsheet just for the first, you know, couple of weeks even just to say, okay, I I'm liking this information. This is working, and then get it into your system and uploaded so that you can easily run that report week after week.
15:46.958 Brandon Burton
That's a good tip. With every chamber being so different. I mean, there's there's always gonna be some similarity, some level of similarity, but figure out what what those key indicators are gonna be for your chamber and start with that spreadsheet. See, see what those things are that you need to be tracking before you go and and change your whole system. Great tip.
16:05.218 Britt Delo
Yep. Yeah.
16:07.982 Brandon Burton
you're tracking all this in your system, you're keeping track of of these lead sources, seeing how these prospective members are engaging even before they become members. You're seeing where the value is for members by that how they're engaging, all tracking this through your system. So that brings up the great opportunity of being able to really kind of customize that member experience, am I right? As to Yeah. How they experience a chamber. how do you go about kind of customizing that member experience and and putting them in front of the right opportunities that the chamber has to offer?
16:50.892 Britt Delo
Yeah, so it's through that, you know, categorizing and then tracking where the best conversion rates are, then we can start to really deliver targeted communications to those prospects to really get them to take that next step. So I partner with our marketing team to take a look at getting targeted prospect emails out. And what we can do then is because we have them categorized this way, we can, and because we've been tracking information about where the best events that those prospects should go, like where they should show up in order to turn them into members. We partner to send those prospect emails out to our targeted list and invite them then to those couple of events that we find are really, really great events for prospects to attend. So that we're we're delivering a really remarkable experience for them because they feel like this was just know, really handed to them and that they've walked along like, this is a perfect event for me and and then we can do some personal communication in addition to that, with the prospects that it fall that A and B category. So we can do a little extra for them and give them some personal invites in addition to those targeted emails. And it's been working really, really well.
18:08.362 Brandon Burton
I like that. So part of my background that kind of prompted me to to start this podcast is I come from the publishing side. So as a publisher for Chambers of Commerce. And as we would contract with chambers to do their their maps and directories and so forth, we'd we're out in the community. We're talking to the members and I would say gathering data, right? As we're getting feedback from members. And whenever we kick off a a project like that, you know, the chambers always they'll send out an email to their membership saying we're working on the new chamber directory or whatever it is and this is your opportunity to purchase ad space or to get involved or, you know, whatever that message is. Well, as I'm out in the community talking to these members and I ask them, Did you get the the email the chambers sent out about the new chamber directory? And occasionally somebody will say yes. But most of them, the response is, I get so many emails from the chamber, I just I don't even open them. You know, I so hopefully you're not hearing that as much since you're doing these targeted communications. So if you know somebody's interested in in building their workforce develop their workforce talent or somebody's interested in a marketing seminar or whatever they're there at the chamber for and being able to target that communication instead of just overwhelming them with so much. email is a great way to communicate as long as it doesn't get abused, right? So
19:41.486 Britt Delo
Exactly. That's very important.
19:43.438 Brandon Burton
Once we send out, you know, three emails a day to every member and every prospective member that you have emails for, then once the emails come out that really do matter for that business, for that that member, it often will miss because they're they're so overwhelmed with everything else being, you know, bombarded by the chamber. So I think there's a lot of value in targeting that communication and really giving them a the experience that they're looking for and hoping for with the chamber.
20:13.026 Britt Delo
Yeah, Brandon, that's so true. And we continue to refine I mean, it's a it's an ongoing challenge to be able to make sure you're delivering the the appropriate number of emails to the right people. I have to say we we really only have one email a week that goes out to all of membership and everything else we really try to target, whether it's a prospect group or a group that's really looking for educational opportunities or our women's group and that just goes to women in that group. So it We really try to target and and break it down so that not everybody is getting every single email because yeah, you'd be you'd be flooded and people are already flooded with other emails that are coming to their inbox. So it's a very good point.
20:54.51 Brandon Burton
Well and some of those groups are very easy to distinguish, like you said, the women's group or the young professionals group or something, you know, the data's there and it's easy to to sort through and and get those emails out. Are do you guys use any other forms of communication besides email? I'm just out of curiosity.
21:12.584 Britt Delo
it's primarily email. but then, you know, we're also communicate through our blog. We use social media. So we're doing a lot with Facebook, LinkedIn, and some on Instagram. So that's kind of another key thing that we use data for with our social media platforms. in the beginning, our marketing team was just kind of doing everything across a bunch of platforms, and one of them that we were on was Twitter. And we found out that our through, you know, tracking where where members were hanging out and where prospective members were finding us, we found that Twitter wasn't as valuable of a space for us. And it might be for other chambers out there, but we really tracked the data to make sure that we were spending our time on the platforms that would be most effective and ended up, you know, cutting out Twitter and really just honing in on Facebook. LinkedIn and Instagram. So that's another, you know, area that you can use data to track and hopefully save yourself a little time if you're on platforms that aren't as meaningful to your members.
22:17.292 Brandon Burton
That's right. And that could be a whole nother discussion there about social media. But as far as talking about targeted targeted communications, I know there's a lot of targeting that can go on through social media. So I thought it's at least worth a mention in this discussion. but as you how do you how do you go about tracking your results that you have from this whole you know collecting the data, identifying your target markets, prioritizing your prospects? In the end, how do you know? that what you're doing is effective.
22:49.346 Britt Delo
Yeah, so for us it all lives on a scorecard. And we have a couple of different levels within our organization. So we have a corporate scorecard that we review as an entire team at our staff meeting every single Monday morning. and those are kind of the high level key indicators so we can make sure that you know our organization is running smoothly. we we follow a system called EOS, the entrepreneurial operating system. And that really defines the work that we do and everything has to live on about a one page scorecard. And the intent with that is, you know, if if one of us is out on a deserted island, we could take a look at that scorecard and we would be able to know if our organization was performing well or not. So these are really the high level key indicators. but then we also track departmental scorecards and this brings it down to you know, it it hones in a little bit. These are it's a little bit more detailed, it gives you really a focus. So for me on that membership side about the key things that are happening in the membership department. when I say department I mean myself and my one other employee, but it you know, it it gives us an idea of the work that we're doing and if we're driving the appropriate results with the activity that we've been engaging in the week prior. So those are kind of the two levels. I mean, you've got all this stuff, all this data you're tracking. you know, we are pulling information from our our system and tracking on spreadsheets, but we compile it all in this one space so we can get a snapshot.
24:24.66 Brandon Burton
All right. So what are since you are in the marketing department, like you mentioned, what are some of those key indicators that you're looking at as far as marketing goes to to track those results?
24:37.768 Britt Delo
so for membership department. So it we're looking at membership numbers and we also collaborate with marketing on their numbers as well. So we're looking at things like how many discovery meetings we've had the week prior. Discovery meetings meaning a a prospective meeting to learn about somebody and and help turn them into a member. We're looking at our total membership count for the week. We're looking at our total revenue broken down by both year to day and for the month prior. we're looking at how many prospects were at events the the month prior. So that's something that we're we're tracking on on our own and then bringing it up to that scorecard level to review with the team. So it's a lot of different things that we're we're looking at. And you know, sometimes this is really a a living document, our scorecard is because we track things for a while and then realize, you know what? I I don't know if that matters. And maybe it did matter, but now it the issue is fixed and and we can move on from that number. So this scorecard, it changes. I mean you have to track something long enough to really get an idea of the progress and where you're at. But this is really a a living breathing document that changes as our organization changes. So that's that's something to keep in mind too as you look at a scorecard. It doesn't have to be perfectly right the first time. It's once you start tracking that information, you can see where the trends are and start to make adjustments based on that information.
26:12.31 Brandon Burton
That's right. So I I asked that question just to maybe spur some ideas. So those that are listening can can hear some of that data that you're collecting, some of those results that you're tracking. And it may not be exactly something you said, but it spurs a thought for them of something else that they should collect data on and and track results for. And and I love how you said that it it may be, you know, six months down the road, a year down the road, you find that that particular data set that you're you've been collecting doesn't really it's not really applicable. for the the goals that you have in mind. So keep adjusting that. But it you can't make those adjustments unless you have that data. So start just start collecting at the beginning and then see where those correlations are, see what what things matter, and then see where you really need to kind of nail down the those important key indicators to get the results that you're looking for at your chamber. So Britt, as we start wrapping things up here, I wanted to ask you, you've shared a lot of great information for the this chamber professionals listening today, but I wanted to ask you if you could take maybe one action item based you know from our discussion today that a chamber professional can do to kind of take their chamber up to the next level, what would that piece of advice be?
27:29.894 Britt Delo
Yeah, Brandon, and you kind of even just summarize it a little bit. I think the key takeaway would be just start tracking something. it can seem so overwhelming. I am not a numbers person really at all. I'm a relationship builder. That's what I do. but I'm now kind of geeking out over these numbers because I can see the improvements you can make and how you can build and grow when you have the information. So don't let the numbers scare you away or kind of the vast. see of all the possibilities of what you could track. just start with with one thing, whether it's identifying your target market and and starting there, whether it's tracking prospects at events, just start with something and see where that takes you. I think that's the the best way to to begin is just to start.
28:17.006 Brandon Burton
That's right. Just start. And a lot of our discussion today has been based around membership since that's kind of your wheelhouse that you're in. But take this to your programs level. You know, what what things does your chamber need as far as programs go? Listen to your members, you know, put out those surveys, collect that data, and really provide experience for your members and and programs that they need, not just what you want as a a chamber. or what you think that would be good for the community, find out what those needs are, use your data, ask those questions, collect it, and then see what the needs are. So Britt, as we I I ask this question to everyone I have on the show, and I I love getting the answers, but as we look to the future of chambers of commerce, how do you view their purpose going forward?
29:06.158 Britt Delo
Yeah, so going forward, I see the purpose of chambers it really growing and expanding because I think now more than ever there's a need for businesses to come together and to have a space to do that. you know, whether it's online or, you know, in person, the chamber is really kind of three things. I see the chamber as a catalyst for growth, as a convener of leaders and influencers. And the chamber is a we're champions for thriving business community. So that's what I see kind of the key things that the chamber of the future and and of now, what we're creating now, really is.
29:49.346 Brandon Burton
Be in a three C chamber and get away from being in the three P chamber. That's right. Yep.
29:55.286 Britt Delo
Yep. And that's something we've really been focusing on. within, you know, the last six months we've even started using this language with our members so that they can really see it and feel it. And we've gotten really positive feedback from our members saying that they can, you know, just by putting that out there and verbalizing it and helping our members and our community understand that that's what we're we're working towards for our community, they're really buying into it and jumping on board as well. So it it's it's really working.
30:24.172 Brandon Burton
Love that. Using that language with your members because you're right. I mean, chamber to chamber, everybody knows the three C's now, but your members may still have a different perspective of what the chamber should do. So if you communicate that this is what our goal is and get them on board to see how that benefits them and your community, that's that's key. So thank you for sharing that. I didn't even see that coming. So great stuff. So Britt, if anyone listening has any questions about what you shared today or about how you guys are doing things there at the at the Michigan West Coast Chamber, how might they get in contact with you, reach out to you and and kind of follow up with any of this discussion?
31:04.724 Britt Delo
Yeah, so our website is West Coastchamber.org and all of our contact info and everything is on our website. if you'd like to email me, my email is Brit B-R-I-T at West Coastchamber.org.
31:25.582 Brandon Burton
All right. And I will get all of that on the show notes page for this episode also, which can be found at Chamberchatpodcast.com slash episode fifty-five. But Britt, I just wanted to thank you so much for spending some time with us today here on Chamber Chat Podcast and for what you had to provide to the listeners out there. And it just thank you so much.
31:47.81 Britt Delo
Yeah, Brandon, thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun. I hope you all have a great day out there.
31:54.902 Brandon Burton
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