Member Success is one of the most valuable concepts among associations and member-based organizations and it is constantly evolving. The more that Members have contact with the ideas and concepts underlying Member Success, the more learning occurs and the more those things evolve.
This real-time feedback loop of process development –> member contact –> learning –> iteration is powerful at the opportune level and feeds into the concept to cause a constant reimagining of what Member Success is at the conceptual level.
In this article we’ll share a list of the latest definitions of many of the core concepts and terms of Member Success, starting with higher-level ideas and moving down toward more actionable concepts.
Member Success Defined: The Concepts
- Member Success
- Member Success Management
- Desired Outcome (DO) (updated for 2023)
- Goal
- Conditions (addition for 2023)
- Appropriate Experience (AX) (updated for 2023)
- Coverage Model (addition for 2023)
- Relationship
- Engagement
- Context
- Account Ownership
- Progress Milestones (updated for 2023)
- Orchestration
- Joint Accountability
- Success Gap
Member Success
Our Members achieve their Desired Outcome through their Relationship with us, leading them to stay longer, buy more, and advocate for us.
Think of this as your Operating Philosophy. It’s not a belief system. It’s a business function. But this definition is what you can build your organization’s culture around. To take this to an operational level, you’ll want to take a look at Member Success Management – They are two different things, and its important you understand that one is not the other, and vice versa.
Member Success Management
Operating within the context of the Relationship with our members, Member Success Management is the People, Processes, Workflows, Data, and Systems used to move the Member toward their ever-evolving Desired Outcome.
In contrast to the Operating Philosophy that is Member Success, this is the Operating Model. Most of the time people are talking about Member Success Management when they say Member Success, but remember: – They are two different things.
Desired Outcome – Updated
Desired outcome is the reason the Member has joined your organization. They have a specific thing they are trying to accomplish, or a problem they are trying to resolve by using one – or several – of the tools and resources your association provides to them, and that is precisely why they have become a member.
It is expressed on paper as this: Desired Outcome (DO) = Goal + Appropriate Experience (AX)
Goal
Objective + Conditions + Time Frame
Much like Relationship, which we’ll define shortly, most people equate Goal with Objective, and omit the time element, which is critical. Without a timeframe, a goal is just a wish.
Remember, members always have goals they’re trying to reach or accomplish – evolving, new, and stacked – so don’t lose sight of what really matters to them. It’s up to you to uncover those goals and help them achieve them. This requires a big shift in thinking, but it is transformative when you get there.
Conditions
Conditions are specific qualities of the Goal that are essential to the feeling of success. If these are not met, even though the Goal was achieved, the member will still feel unsuccessful.
Example: You’re a CRM vendor and your customer tells you they want to increase sales by $250k by the end of the 4th quarter. That’s a specific Goal (Objective + Time Frame). However, you ask them what would cause them to still feel unsuccessful even if they reached that Goal, and you learn that they need those customers to have an average ARR of $12k. If they reached that goal with fewer $50k customers or a ton of $500 customers they wouldn’t feel successful. Dig into why that matters to them so you can provide better guidance.
Appropriate Experience (AX)
Primarily the specific elements in reaching the goal that a member requires to “feel” successful.
The full AX includes everything the member would need to experience in reaching their success, but keep in mind that much of this is actually outside the arena of what Member Success Management can control.
One thing to keep in mind with AX is the “Appropriate” part. There is no such thing as a “high-touch” or “low-touch” member. There are members in your organization, as well as prospects, for whom a certain experience – likely one that involves elements you’d see in both of those old-school “touch” level designations – is Appropriate.
Coverage Model
How your Resources are Organized, Operationalized, and Mobilized to deliver your Customer’s Desired Outcome.
These resources include: Your team, Their playbooks, Tasks, Automation, Communication, etc.
Relationship
Engagement + Context
Do we need to define what a Relationship is? Yes. Just like Goal above, it seems obvious, but it’s not.
All relationships exist on a spectrum between Engagement-only and Context-only; Member relationships generally fall somewhere in the middle.
Engagement-only Relationship Example: You and the bus driver. You see them every day, you say hello, but other than the bus, you have no real context to your relationship.
Context-only Relationship Example: You and a distant relative you never see. Your interactions are minimal and infrequent, but your family context makes this relationship significant to you.
Engagement
Engagement is… just that. Interactions with your members. To ensure Engagement is effective and appropriate, consider:
- Is it ‘context-driven’?
- See the definition of Context below
- What appears to be the same Engagement with one member or Cohort of members might actually be quite different with another based on Context
- What is the Direction of the Engagement?
- Inbound – Reactive
- A Member contacts you because they need something. MSMs (Member Success Managers) often spend too much time here; work to move beyond this. Think of this as treading water.
- Outbound – Reactive
- The MSM (or a different person or system) sees something – positive or negative – with the Member, and initiates communication. MSMs should be spending much more time here than in Inbound-Reactive mode
- Think of this as pushing the Member toward success
- Outbound – Proactive
- World-class MSMs in high-performing organizations are able to actually get out in front of the Member, allowing for longer-term, strategic planning both with the Member but also at the account-level (Expansion Planning).
- Think of this as pulling the Member to the success you’ve clearly laid out for them
- Inbound – Reactive
- Engagement Types (a few examples; not exhaustive)
- 1:1 Meeting
- Asynchronous 1:1 or 1:Many on Video
- Broadcast or Recorded 1:Many on Video
- Chat
Context
All of the data that you can use to determine whether a Member is on the path toward success.
Examples include:
- Progress – Milestones
- Activity – Joint Accountability
- Usage – Product-centricity
- Changes – Team, Company, etc.
- Goals – Changes to current, pivot to new
- Membership – Renewal, Up/Downgrade (if applicable in your Membership structure at you organization), etc.
Account Ownership
Maintaining Context
Progress Milestones – Updated
An action or event marking a significant change or stage in the Member’s journey toward their ever-evolving Desired Outcome
Progress Milestones come in four types:
- Functional – Actions taken in the product
- Operational – Actions supported / enabled by the product
- Opportune – Event supported by the Operational progress
- Strategic – Their Goal
Orchestration
Properly managing expectations with Members that certain things are going to happen in the future and ensuring that when they do, they’re not just expected, but anticipated.
This is arguably the single most important thing on this list. Orchestration is critical to rapid, exponential expansion.
Joint Accountability
The shared obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for each party’s actions leading to an outcome, including the consequences of inaction or insufficient action
There are four parts to Joint Accountability:
- What Members need to do on their own outside of your resource offerings
- Exists in every scenario but is almost always a total blind spot for MSMs (often considered “out of scope”)
- What Members need to do on their own inside of your resource offerings
- Most of what the customer does exists here
- What you’ll do with them inside your resource offerings
- Don’t spend too much time here. If you want your MSMs to be looked at as strategically valuable peers and not “glorified support reps” push as much work back to the member as possible and use meetings for training, check work and planning next steps to move the Member toward their Desired Outcome.
- World-class MS orgs position their MSMs better by shifting the value metric from “meetings” to progress
- What we’ll do for them inside the product behind the scenes
- Generally reserved for Professional Services, but might be included in Onboarding/Implementation
We mentioned earlier that Orchestration is the single most important thing on this list, but Joint Accountability is right below it.
Success Gap
Success Gap is that void that exists between your Member functionally completing the tasks necessary in your product to be “successful” – from your point of view – as the provider, and the Member actually achieving their Desired Outcome.
Now that you know what Member Success is, the elements that make it up, and you have a general idea of what it will take your organization and your Member Success Team to be successful at it, you can dive in to the Processes and Training to be successful at Member Success Management.
Reach out to us soon, and let’s talk about training for your organization. We’d love to help you achieve Member Success.
Memberships Matter! 