Speaking Engagements

Even Consulting Firms Offer Membership

In my post Exploring Alternative Membership Models, I looked at how many organizations are building their relationship with their customer around a membership model. I just came across another example of using membership to build relationship with prospective customers or clients; this time with a consulting firm.

As you may know, McKinsey & Company is a very large management consulting firm advising leading companies on strategy, organization, technology, and operations. But you may not have know that you to can be a member.

Today, I received an email invitation to from McKinsey & Company to upgrade to a Premium Membership in The McKinsey Quarterly. For a year, I have been enjoying a free email membership with regular copies of the quarterly.

The email said that if I “upgrade by 24 March 2008 [I can] take advantage of our best rates: Two years of Premium online access plus print editions: US $225.00 (15% off standard rate)”

As a Premium member, I would receive:

· Access to the entire Quarterly archive
· A subscription to the collector's edition print journal
· Downloadable PDFs of all articles for offline use

By the way, one thing I particularly like about the McKinsey strategy is how they initially got me involved through a free email subscription. Now they have opt-in approval from me and they can very economically continue to dialogue with me about becoming a paid member. This is a method that more association should try.

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