New Member Orientation Doesn’t Work

Do you remember the first session your REALTOR® Association made you attend?

Mine lasted 3 hours and afterward I was left wondering where I could go to find more information and resources on how I can:

1. Sell more homes
2. Find out the next classes
3. Follow a track of successful agents

The 3 hours definitely isn’t enough and the communication for new agents is more important for their future success than the communication for agents who have been in the business for 3 or more years.

I’m proposing a whole new solution that will keep agent interested, motivated, and active in the REALTOR® Association from the beginning.

Everyone All Aboard!

Transition Member Orientation to Onboarding

Restructure your new member orientation into onboarding, an ongoing communication campaign that encourages participation, education, and consistent evaluation of member services.  Spread the inventory of your member benefits, existing resources, and value proposition over a year using a well-defined system of checklists and communication points of contact in a variety of formats.  New members will become engaged and integrated into association activities as a result of your participation in this program.

REALTOR Association Executives will be able to implement a communication campaign strategy that gets new members informed and involved using the latest technology.

Here are the steps:

1. Define the message
2. Selecting the right team and technology
3. Implementation

Defining the Message

• Crystallize the member value proposition from the strategic goals and segment into digestible pieces for members to receive using a variety of media sources.
• Examine existing mission statements, strategic goals and resources that appear in new member orientation programs.
• Segment the messages into consumable bytes of pictures, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and existing online resources.

Create multiple forms of content to be shared using low to no cost delivery systems.

Selecting the Team and Technology

Choose the right communication tools, supporting mentors, and social networks to create an active REALTOR® community online and offline.

• Differentiate between effective/ineffective email marketing software campaigns.
• Select the individuals to participate and delegate who is responsible for participating in onboarding activities.
• Demonstrate effective communication strategies to interact with new members face-to-face and using online communities.

Implementation

Implement an annual calendar of activities of actionable items for new members, supporting association staff members, and volunteer leaders.

• Create benchmarks and goal champions to ensure results of effective onboarding strategy.
• Collect feedback during multiple points of contact to ensure quality control of onboarding activities.
• Calculate the return on investment of onboarding.

You may still have the 3 hour New Member Orientation class as usual but it will also follow a series of events that make sure the new member becomes integrated into the REALTOR® community.

If you are interested in test-piloting this program for your REALTOR® Association please contact me to be considered.  Only a few will be chosen based on first come first serve basis, availability of staff members, and technology resources.