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Royal Horticultural Society
Membership blooms
What we did
We developed a Membership Matters sales development and employee engagement programme which has helped RHS reverse a decline in membership recruitment.
Why we did it
Membership, which accounts for 68% of the RHS's financial contribution, was plateauing out, with many staff and volunteers feeling unsure and requiring a boost in confidence about selling.
The scenario
Led by new Marketing Director, Dan Wolfe, RHS set itself the target of reversing the plateauing membership trend and developing positive growth in membership.
Aside from increasing the total membership number, the charity also wanted to ensure that membership increases were being generated consistently across all of its four gardens. It also wanted to be able to quantify a change in mindset and associated skill set amongst its public-facing employees that meant that any uplift achieved would be sustainable.
The approach
Having undertaken a Training Needs Analysis with management, staff and volunteers, Wescott Williams uncovered that there was no common best practice for sales and there was limited cross-site communication on the subject. However, people were enthusiastic and keen to achieve more and work together more closely.
So, Wescott Williams engaged RHS staff in building their own cross-site best practice sales process to ensure buy in - the ‘3 R's Mantra':
R Rapport A personable, knowledgeable individual welcomes you to
the site and mentions the benefits of membership, but
does not try and close the sale
R Reflect Customers allowed to reflect as they experience all
the garden has to offer
R Recruit Membership signed on exit
Tying in with this, Wescott Williams has provided sales skills training and manuals, leadership coaching to ensure total support for and understanding of the programme across the organisation and has developed an ongoing employee engagement programme to ensure positive behaviours are rewarded, recognised and developed.
The results
A formal review revealed;
- On site membership sales are 44% up on last year and 12.5% up on budget. Conversion rates (a key measure of skill levels) are up 16% on last year and 4.4% up on budget.
- Feedback from all involved has been extremely positive and engagement in the programme very high.
- There is a volume of evidence (incident based) that the best practice principles have been employed at a variety of levels and that where this has happened there has been a positive impact on performance.
- Coaching meetings are taking place and are reported to be having an impact on skills development, idea sharing and overall performance
On the back of the training, we have worked with the RHS team to develop an ongoing programme of multi-site sales meetings and new channels for dissemination of sales data on a regular basis (via online and printed news updates and monthly briefing sessions following the same format at every site).
RHS is now building a recognition scheme designed to maintain enthusiasm and performance by rewarding great work.