You’ve been moving, you’ve been taking action and now you think you have arrived. How will you know you have arrived at a successful destination? Step 7 involves reassessing and re-measuring your past performance. It’s been nine to twelve months since you started your journey and now is the time to reassess. Did you do what you set out to do or did you get stuck along the way?

Let’s face it. There are a lot of moving parts in our industry right now. Change is occurring at a very fast pace. It’s easy to think you have been on a particular course only to find out that some big detour got you off track and stopped you from moving forward. Only when we re-measure your current situation do we know for sure that we arrived at the location we aimed for a year ago.

Or maybe, with all the change, another detour or direction became necessary. While our GPS knows to direct us to a certain location, it doesn’t know when our destination has a new address unless we program it. Given the big shifts taking place in the industry, success can look different now than what you thought a year ago. This step is about reassessing the situation and finding out from your members, your leadership, shareholders and staff how you are doing. Are you still meeting the needs of your customers? What new products or services could you be providing? Have you been keeping up with the changes in our fast paced industry?

Do you think we are circling back to the beginning? Well you are right! The road to success never ends. It’s a journey and it’s evolving continuously. While a roadmap is essential to getting to success, the target destination is changing all the time. As you know, GPS roadmaps require updates every so often as there are new roads and developments.

The next step on your journey to success involves staying in the know and updating or revising your vision. You can reach your destination but you must keep reassessing to achieve the new level of success for yourself and your organization.

Now that you have your roadmap to success, which was custom made for you to get from your current location to your successful destination, your next step is to take action. The best directions in the world will not get you anywhere unless you step on the gas pedal. Take action, be proactive and get moving. You have done the work to know where you are starting and where you want to end up. Now is the time to do something to get moving forward.

So many organizations plan and strategize only to check the activity off their to-do list. So they end up with a nice report that sits on the shelf. The best plans in the world do nothing by themselves. You need to take action. Your “roadmap” will have determined your champions for each item and the steps that need to be taken. The champions are passionate about the BIG OUTCOMES and they are accountable and responsible. As a Board of Directors, your job is to get updates on those actions at your monthly meetings. Is everyone doing what he or she is supposed to be doing? How are you tracking your journey to success?

Sometimes, as you are moving in a particular direction, you will find a roadblock or a detour causes you to move slightly off course. Don’t let this stop you from moving ahead. Even a move in the wrong direction is better that not moving at all, as the GPS can always recalculate and get you back on track to your destination. Just keep moving forward.

Your future will be here whether you do anything or not. Another year will go by whether you take action or not. The industry will continue to evolve whether you evolve with it or not. Why wouldn’t you want to have a part in creating your own future? Taking action helps you bring your organization to a future you helped create. Don’t be a victim of the circumstances around you by being reactive to the big shifts taking place right now. Proactively follow the steps we have outlined in your roadmap and start experiencing your success.

The future is yours to shape if you choose to take action and keep moving forward.

Does your current decision-making structure and governance ensure your future success?

How can you arrive at your destination if you don’t have reliable transportation to support your journey and roadmap? Does your organization need a tune-up? This fifth step to your “Roadmap to Success” deals with improving your governance and structure to allow your leadership to do what they need to do when they need to do it.

Technology is advancing at a very fast pace. You and your leadership need to be nimble to make the right decisions faster. With a GPS, if you miss a turn or need to detour, the system will recalculate your route. With your roadmap, you and your leadership can recalculate when an adjustment is needed due to shifts in the industry. Some would say there are many big shifts taking place right now. You need to be able to make adjustments at the right time or you could find yourself lost and behind the times.

In this crucial step, you will leverage all of the valuable information that’s been collected in the previous four steps. Your leadership and staff will be educated on how you measure up to your competition, what your directors’ priorities are, what your members need and want, and what to do about declining revenue and rising costs. This step involves meeting with an industry expert as a team to learn how to use this vital information to create your own roadmap to success. During this meeting you will discuss the following:

- Priorities for the coming year based on your current position compared to industry benchmarks
- Best practices in the industry being used to survive and thrive during the big shift
- Specific opportunities to be of greater service to the members
- Possibilities of working together with other organizations to increase buying power
- Learn how leadership and staff can make better, faster decisions and permanently tune-up your governance
- Ideas for attaining the right people on your board to attain fair representation of your membership
- How to be more transparent with your membership to increase your relevancy with them

By discussing and brainstorming these areas, you begin your journey. Leadership can make better and faster decisions when they have all the information at their fingertips. They won’t be guessing which direction to go because clear and accurate information points them in exactly the right direction, allowing them to make right decisions. This step requires the commitment of leadership and key staff to move forward. The answers and ideas they foster in this step represent the turn-by-turn directions in developing the “Roadmap to Success”.

Are you ready to learn more?

From the previous steps, you know how you measure up with your competition and what your members value and need most from you right now. In this fourth step, we will make a stop, to refuel so to speak. Now is the right time to tell your members how you measure up with others in the industry; what you are offering them and what you are DOING for them. Many say, “Our members don’t read!” Let’s think about what it is that you have been telling them (to which they aren’t paying attention). Does the information you share with them connect with making it easier for them to do their job, do more business and make more money? What would happen if you told them:

- What you do for them in comparison to others in your market versus industry benchmarks
- That MLS is a very cost-effective business service in measurable and relevant terms
- That you are continuously exploring new / improved services, possible because you work together with others
- What actions you have taken to reduce expenses and increase non-dues revenue to keep their fees down
- What you have learned from their (survey) feedback and what you are doing about it – follow-up is key

If you don’t tell them about your competitive advantages, how are they going to find out? When they know, you will begin to see the following results:

• Happy members who appreciate your services and gladly pay dues because they know your value
• Less tension between leadership, members and staff so you can do more for your members
• Improved employee morale – happy customers cause less stress
• Fewer member complaints and time spent dealing with problems
• Improved customer satisfaction; retention and growth are possible.

By completing this and the previous steps of the MLS Roadmap to Success, you have sound information to communicate with your members. You provide a more meaningful, positive message about your value proposition and competitive advantages. They will listen (and read). To your members, you are their “GPS voice”. They want to know where you are, where you are headed and what is in it for them. You will have check points along the way and it’s important to continually measure and report on your progress. This is all part of your own unique roadmap to success.

We’ve been talking about the first two steps of the MLS Roadmap to Success the last couple of weeks and this third step is critical to thriving right now.  If your goal is to do more for your members with less, balance your budget and avoid future cuts, you must take the most direct route. Similar to the GPS, there are alternative routes you can take to get to your destination and some are faster than others. With this third step, you will be setting up your GPS preferences for the most direct route to your success.

Most associations and MLSs have been experiencing declines in membership and revenues and the forecast does not look much different for 2011. Every week we hear stories from large and small executives and board members.  Balancing the budget is keeping many executives up at night.  But there are things you can do to make your MLS more financially stable.  This step requires looking at all options available and the industry’s best ideas on reducing costs and generating non-dues revenue while also providing even greater service to your members. Consider how you would answer the following questions:

-       Are you getting the best prices from your vendors? How about service levels?

-       Do you offer your members all of the best available tools and technology?  Are you truly “open for business”?

-       Have you explored all possibilities for working together with others to increase your power?

-       What are the best ideas for increased non-dues revenue?  How much business development are you doing now?

Having limited resources can be very stressful.  Implementing some new ideas can result in doing more with less and reducing the tension in the board room. Are you considering all available options, or is your GPS currently taking you and your organization on the back roads?

What do you think?

You need to find out what your paying customers (members, subscribers, etc.) value and appreciate and what they need and want from you right now. This is a key step before setting the direction for your roadmap. By combining available benchmark data with fresh and relevant feedback from your members, leadership and key brokers, you can begin to map your route to success. This step is like setting your GPS destination with the right address.  If you don’t enter the correct address exactly, your GPS won’t give you the right directions.

With this second step, you will know how your members rate your performance as an association or provider of MLS services, as well as your value, overall benefits, education and technical support and customer service. You will know how you compare with others and industry benchmarks and you will learn how to interpret and use this to your advantage, as one of your competitive advantages. By getting specific demographic information about your members, including their productivity (transaction sides), years in the business, company size, age, you will be able to decide the specific route to take on your roadmap. All this information is necessary to make the right choices going forward.  As a bonus of having this information, you will also know how to:

• Use your finite resources to deliver the biggest value to your members
• Interpret what members expect from you,  making faster and easier boardroom decisions (imagine that)
• Save time and money by making the right decisions the first time…decisions that help you, your organization and members all thrive
• Prepare with well-informed directors and staff and a proven approach to strategic decision-making, resulting in becoming more nimble
• Align the expectations of leadership, staff and members which reduces waste, stress, busy-work and results in improved satisfaction by all stakeholders

Make sure you are headed to the right location. You must know how you measure-up and what your paying customers and leadership expect before you begin on your journey so you don’t get lost on the way to your success.

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions for your MLS?  We  know the current condition of the real estate industry, but have you really looked at your business in terms of thriving in this next year?  If you would like to move beyond survival, we would like to recommend 7 steps – the Roadmap to MLS Success.  Over the next seven weeks, we will discuss each of the steps to move your MLS to a clear destination.  The New Year is a great time to really take inventory of your current position and make plans for the next twelve months.  Why not plan for success?

Step One is to Get Clear on How You Measure Up

The first step to thriving right now is to KNOW how you compare to your competition – neighboring MLSs – and how you and your members measure up to industry benchmarks. Like with a GPS in your car, this is your current location, or the starting point for your roadmap to success destination or outcome.

This first step is about assessing your existing products and services, the fees you charge and operating costs. Your unique value proposition is grounded in this information.

“You cannot improve what you cannot measure”

By taking a look at your MLS compared to others in your area and other benchmarks, you and your leadership will know exactly where you stack up in this increasingly competitive marketplace. This is the first step toward growing and retaining happy customers that value what you do for them.  The next six steps build off of this important starting point.

Do You Know How You Measure Up? Please feel free to comment below.  What would you like to know about how you measure up right now?

Next week we will talk about step 2 for your MLS Roadmap to Success.

Be sure to attend at least one of the scheduled RPR info sessions in San Diego to learn more. Regardless of your initial views on RPR, you owe it to yourself to listen and learn as much as you can about it to understand how it might impact your association or business going forward.

Whatever your perspective, RPR is likely to be a most discussed topic this week and month.

I look forward to helping you navigate RPR.

RPR sessions in San Diego

Friday, November 13

• 9:00-11:00 AEC Forum
• 8:30-10:30 Member Information Services Forum
• 1:00-3:00 MLS Association Executives Meeting

Saturday, November 14

• 9:00-11:00 MLS Forum
• 1:00-3:00 Large Firms Directors Meeting