You know that feeling when you open registration to members for an entirely new offering you’re launching, and you have butterflies in your stomach for days wondering if it’s going to work? Will people register? Are they actually interested? Will hitting refresh over and over again to see the registration numbers somehow change the outcome?
We want to share with you an inspiring story from Kristin Wells, CMP, Senior Director of Events & Business Development at Massachusetts Society of CPAs (MassCPAs), who took that guessing game right out of the mix by letting her members’ needs guide her through every step.
How did Kristin launch the first event in a Demo Day series that:
- solved a tangible member need;
- engaged eight entirely new industry partners for the first time;
- and built a new sustainable revenue stream for MassCPAs?
MassCPAs’ story answers so many of the questions we typically hear from associations who are considering a Demo Days initiative, but don’t know where to begin. For this reason, we’re breaking this up into a 3-part series. Part One focuses on the process of identifying member needs, putting a plan in place, and securing the sponsorship to make a Demo Days initiative a reality.
Let’s explore how you can easily replicate this success:
Step 1: Identify Member Needs (Through Surveying)
“The whole idea originated because every couple of years we do a member needs assessment, and it gives us a good picture of what our CPA firms need the most help with – and what we’re doing well and what we’re not doing well.”
The results from this annual survey showed that members needed the most help understanding which technology solutions are available to help them. In the CPA profession, there is a massive workforce crisis, and firms increasingly need to rely on technology to increase efficiency and make up for staffing shortages.
This provided the lightbulb moment when Kristin realized that Demo Days could solve this need! She and her senior leadership team brainstormed the 10 largest technology product categories applicable for their membership. These would inspire the categories for themed demo day events.
Kristin then conducted a focused survey to ask which specific technology categories members needed help with the most. She kept the survey questions specific and offered multiple choice answers to get more targeted responses. Kristin mentioned,
“We sent out a survey asking which category they feel like they need the most help with immediately because our plan was always to do these Demo Days quarterly, but we wanted to make sure the first one really was a success.“
Here are the questions included in Kristin’s survey:
- Please select the three topics/categories you would be most interested in learning more about: [Multiple choice question]
- Please share any specific products or areas within these categories that you would be interested in exploring during Demo Days. [Open-ended Question]
Kristin was pleasantly surprised by the response rate, saying, “We had 80 CPA firms respond to that survey, which blew my mind. I was hoping for 30, so that was very encouraging too, that they liked the concept.“
The first question helped Kristin narrow in on the most popular (most needed) category, so that MassCPAs could maximize interest and attendance at the first Demo Days event. The second question created a first list of prospective vendors to reach out to.
Step 2: Secure buy-in from leadership
Having captured the interest of her members, Kristin now needed to secure the support of her leadership team to make Demo Days a reality, especially since there was no budget initially set aside for it. After attending a Demo Day event hosted by ASAE, and later a session on digital initiatives at ASAE’s Annual Meeting, Kristin was convinced that using the Zoom platform wouldn’t provide the experience she envisioned, for her members or vendors.
Despite the challenge of having zero budget initially, Kristin pitched the idea of launching a quarterly Demo Days series to the CEO of MassCPAs, emphasizing the importance of creating a high-quality experience right from the start. Kristin wanted to make sure her members and vendors would find the experience valuable and enjoyable, while her team would be supported at every step of the process by an experienced solution provider.
“We had zero dollars in the budget for this program because our fiscal year started May 1st, and the timing of the survey and everything— we weren’t anticipating doing something like Demo Days this year. For me to get that approved, it was huge.
We knew we would most likely break even at least on the first event. Of course with the other three events in the series we want to make money, but for this first year our thoughts were, if we can break even – that’s great.“
Ultimately, Kristin gained the crucial buy-in she needed from MassCPAs leadership team by clearly laying out:
- the value this initiative would bring to both members and vendors,
- that the initiative could first cover its own costs and then quickly create new revenue channels.
By planning for a quarterly series of Demo Days, MassCPAs is able to break even on the cost of partnering with Matchbox to deliver this initiative on the first event, while the remaining three events will generate additional revenue throughout the end of the association’s fiscal year and into the next.
Not only that, the Demo Days initiative has the potential to impact revenue growth in other areas of sponsorship for MassCPAs, by attracting new vendors to engage with the association (but more on this later in the story!)
Step 3: Secure the first vendors
After looking at the survey results, Kristin was left with a hard decision. The #1 response from members identified practice management systems as their top choice. However, MassCPAs had only two vendors in this category that they were already engaged with. Kristin explained,
“We decided to go with this category because it’s what our members said they needed most. Even though we didn’t have many existing relationships in this area, we knew we had to meet that need.“
This meant that Kristin was stepping outside her comfort zone to bravely reach out to entirely new vendors. Kristin shared, “My first round of outreach to new vendors was crickets. So, I was getting really freaked out”. She added,
“The first time I contacted vendors, I went into the context of the member needs assessment and why we were doing this – but I realized the vendors didn’t really care about that. I adjusted my pitch to focus more on how we were helping them to reach qualified potential buyers and how we were promoting the event. Making it more about their needs made a huge difference.“
One strategy Kristin used to connect with new vendors: looking at products recommended by members in the survey responses, Kristin reached out to these members and asked for an introduction to their account manager or salesperson, which helped establish a warmer connection. This approach led to vendors being much more likely to say yes, as they could clearly see the genuine interest from members.
Step 4: Open registration early, to build momentum
Kristin decided to open up registration early, even though she only had a few vendors confirmed. MassCPAs’ members knew that Demo Days were coming because of the surveys, and they had chosen the first category by popular demand. By starting to promote the event early, Kristin could build momentum and use that buzz to attract additional vendors.
Kristin started promoting the demo day event a couple of months in advance. Kristin mentioned,
“I wanted to get at least something out there, even if it wasn’t fully ready, because I felt like the more noise we made about our members’ needs, the more pressure it put on vendors to sign up.“
The promotional marketing campaign kicked-off with a “Save the Date” and gradually built excitement by sharing more details as the date got closer. Kristin used newsletters, social media, and direct outreach to make sure everyone heard about it: “We started with a very broad email campaign and then layered in more specific messages as we got closer—using targeted emails to the segments of membership we thought would be most interested, as well as social posts and direct messages.“
These marketing tactics were successful, with the first 80 attendees registered up to two months before the first Demo Days event date! This gave Kristin the data she needed to outline the value to new vendors that had never engaged with MassCPAs before – a minimum of 80 CPA firms ready to buy their solutions.
Step 5: Circle back to vendor outreach (and a brilliant social media hack!)
Kristin used the buzz she’d created with members and the data on registration numbers to lock-in the rest of the vendors, employing some very clever outreach tactics!
MassCPAs posted about the practice management event on social media to promote the Demo Days event. Cleverly, in the comments Kristin tagged other vendors in the practice management category to get their attention, enticing them to reach out to her if they wanted to take part in the Demo Day event.
Kristin admits she was nervous to tag the companies, as it was outside her comfort zone to be so direct on social media. She explained, “Before making the post, I even asked our COO if it would be okay to tag the companies. I wanted to make sure it wouldn’t come off as too aggressive, but she encouraged me to go for it. It ended up working really well because three of the companies I tagged reached out directly to me [and signed up to demo].“
Stepping outside her comfort zone paid off and Kristin’s outreach to vendors was extremely successful, attracting six new vendors in the practice management category. These vendors signed up to participate in MassCPAs first Demo Days event, beginning a relationship with the association that may develop into sponsorship of other programs in the future.
What happens next?
Kristin’s event is taking place mid-December. She now has eight vendors secured and healthy registration numbers that are increasing every day (okay… maybe she’s doing a little bit of the registration refresh to check her progress! 😊)
We will share Part 2 of this blog series after the event, where we’ll discuss:
- Details on the other pre-event activities Mass CPAs used to generate interest among members and non-members in their Demo Days
- How Kristin made sure the event was an excellent experience for both attendees and vendors.
- How MassCPAs added their own innovation to the Demo Day model, by adding an “honest feedback session with clients” as a lunch break session.
To make sure you receive the next installment, sign up to our newsletter! Keep up to date with Kristin’s story and Mass CPAs success – and learn more about Demo Days initiatives for your organization!
