Part 1 of this two-part post dealt with gaining member intelligence by tracking drop reasons.  Part 2 will deal with Additional Potential Lost Revenue.

You’re at the monthly board meeting and you just handed out the dropped report listing all the past month’s dropped members and what they were paying in dues.  Sure, you’ve just lost those members’ dues for next year, but what other revenue could you be missing?  

Did those members sponsor any events?  Did their employees attend any events?  Did the member make any other financial contributions to your organization besides dues?   If so, it’s likely that you won’t see that revenue again next year.

How do you know what other revenue you may be losing from these dropped members?  Make sure your dropped report also lists all the other revenue each member contributed to your organization.  Hopefully your membership management software also functions as your accounts receivable software and you’ll be able to easily extract this member intelligence.

Items to include on a dropped report besides basic company name, profile ID, contact info, etc., would include:

· Drop reason (mentioned above)

· Dues amount they were paying

· Sponsorship revenue from the past year

· Events they paid for their employees to attend

· Advertising placed in your publications or on your website

· Merchandise purchased from your organization

· A total of all potential lost revenue

You may find that a member who was paying a relatively small amount of dues was also generating significant non-dues revenue for you organization.  Losing them as a member may “hurt” more than you thought.

Seeing the “bigger” picture on how these dropped members affect your financials can lead you to adjust your member retention efforts and your new member sales tactics as well.   You will probably be more likely to check in more frequently with members who generate additional revenue for your organization in an effort to keep their satisfaction level high and hopefully keep them OFF the dropped report.