Member Recruiting: A Focus on Marketing

1
Member Recruiting A Focus on Marketing
2
Purpose

• Help improve IUCRC member recruitment by
  highlighting marketing best practices
• Summary of a recent survey of center marketing
  practices
• Highlight some specific best practices
• Stimulate discussion about what works and what
  doesnt work when trying to recruit member
  companies

3
Who will join and who will decline?

• An analysis of factors predicting a firms
  decision to join a university-based industrial
  consortia

Denis O.Gray, Ph.D Drew Rivers,
M.S. Psychology in the Public Interest Program NC
State University
4
Motivation

• Why Important
• Recruitment of new members is one of the most, if
  not the most, important challenges a center
  directors confronts
• Affects technology transfer
• Joiners
• Sustain these centers
• Get to influence the research agenda
• Get technology transfer and other benefits (e.g.
  recruitment)
• Decliners
• Do not
• Factors affecting participation/non-participation
  in CRCs is an important scholarly issue
• Very small literature

5
Study Plan

• Center marketing practices
• Web-based survey of IUCRC Directors
• Complete
• Factors within the firm affect decision to
  join/not join
• Qualitative interviews
• Underway
• Quantify the importance of various factors to
  membership decision
• Questionnaire
• Next Year

6
Center Marketing Study- Overview

• Motivation
• It is the part of the membership process that
  Center Directors have the most control over
• No literature!
• Purposes
• Identify which advertising, marketing and
  recruiting strategies directors use
• Perceived effectiveness (best practices)
• Explore empirical relationship of practices to
  success leads new members
• Perceived facilitators and barriers to membership
• Web-based survey of IUCRC directors site
  directors
• Response rate 55 (n47), 41 different centers
• Analyses Descriptive, predictive

7
BackgroundEffort and Results
8
Center Marketing Overview

• New member marketing is modest ad hoc activity
• Annual budget (without staff time) 7,000 Std
  Dev 10k
• 18 hours/month or 4.5/week on recruitment
• 9 report a formal, written marketing plan
• 34 set formal recruitment goals
• Use of marketing plans and recruitment goals
  correlates negatively with membership counts

9
Multi-site center recruiting

• If your site is part of a multi-site center,
  please answer item 9
• 9) Which of the following best describes how your
  multi-site center handles recruiting? (n32)
• 50 Each site handles recruiting independently
  of other sites
• 25 Each site establishes their own leads, but
  other sites help 'sell' the center
• 25 Sites work closely together throughout the
  recruitment process

10
Recruiting Success Rates

• Lead generation
• On average, centers generate about 11 new leads
  over a 12 month period
• New member commitments
• On average, for every 10 firms actively pursued
  by centers for membership
• 3 will join
• 2 will decline
• 5 will be undecided

11
Descriptive FindingsMarketing Activities and
Perceived Effectiveness
12
From leads to prospect
Many methods used to identify prospects Relationsh
ip networking viewed as most effective

• 1) Consider how your center/site identifies
  potential industry members. How effective have
  you found the following activities in generating
  leads for new members?

Percent reporting use
Effectiveness
13
Recruiting responsibilities
Directors bear most of the recruitment burden
Consultants also contribute

• 7) To what degree are the following individuals
  or groups actively involved in the recruitment of
  industry members?

Percent reporting involvement
Degree of involvement
14
Recruiting responsibilities
Dedicated marketing visits appear to be superior

• 6) For those organizations interested in learning
  more about your center/site, how effective have
  you found the following approaches at securing
  new members?

Percent reporting use
Level of effectiveness
15
Predictive Findings What Factors Correlate with
Memberships
16
Predictive Findings

• Leads
• Total center funding
• Larger recruiting budget
• Director administration time past industry
  experience
• Memberships
• Presenting at trade shows and scientific
  meetings
• Networking through other stakeholders (IAB,
  faculty PIs)
• Director with industry experience
• Industry experience director relationships
• More leads
• Higher percentage of rejections
• Higher networking for leads through other center
  staff
• Get other stakeholders involved in recruiting
  (IAB)

17
What else works? Director comments on effective
practices

• To generate leads
• Organizing workshops and conferences
• Respond to industry need for consulting
• Marketing materials
• Website
• Re-prints of publications
• PowerPoint presentations, videos
• Changes to membership structure
• Tiered structure, associate membership
• Guaranteed research project to new sponsor

18
Perceived Acceptance and Rejection
19
Acceptance and Rejection Factors

• Factors that directors believe account for
  joining

• Factors that directors believe account for NOT
  joining

20
Marketing Model

• Relationship development model

Rao, S. Perry, C. (2002). Thinking about
relationship marketing Where are we now? The
Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, 17
(7), pp 598 614.
21
Summary

• General marketing model application

Initiate establish relationships
Develop relationships
Secure new members
TT
Key Factors

• Relationship networking
• Conference tradeshow presentations
• Involving other site stakeholders
• Recruitment strategy

• Involving other site stakeholders (consultant)
• Face time
• Visiting the organization
• Hosting visits to the center

• Demonstrating technical relevance
• Future technology transfer
• Justifying benefits relative to costs
• Neutralizing IP concerns
• Facilitating within firm decision making

• Director Ind. experience
• Recruiting budget

22
Conclusions

• A modified relationship development marketing
  model appears to do a good job of representing
  how directors market memberships
• Technical issues dominate when membership is
  really decided
• Understand consultative sales
• Our early peek into how decisions are made within
  a firm is very intriguing
• Need to move focus from doing the right thing to
  doing things right

23
Acknowledgements

• Support for this project provided by the NSF
  IUCRC and the NSF STC programs