Leaders

The Future of NAIFA New Membership Growth

Written by Dennis Cuccinelli | 2/1/21 9:13 PM

Over the past few months, the NAIFA 2025 Strategic Plan Committee has been hard at work. The Committee has identified three Priority Goals that form the basis of the Plan. These are:

  1. Membership Growth

  2. Brand Amplification

  3. Member Experience

The above requires a new approach to membership recruitment that supplements the current methods. The individual lead membership funnel remains active. NAIFA will continue with its enterprise efforts by adding additional bulk membership purchases. 

  

While the Agency Presentation was a useful recruitment tool, COVID-19 lessened its closing ratio. Not to let COVID-19 slow us down, a new tool has become available for the field leadership – The 100% NAIFA Agency Program. A field test of the program has added two 100% NAIFA agencies. One in New Jersey and the other in Texas. Discussions are taking place with other agencies.

The design of the 100% NAIFA Agency Program addresses the Priority Goals noted above. It will attract members in bulk while expending NAIFA’s and the industry’s DEI initiatives. The program amplifies the brand as more producers and their clients will recognize the NAIFA name. 100% agencies will receive sharable recognition opportunities. The 100% logo can be placed on websites, included with email signatures, and promoted on social media. When agency managers embrace NAIFA, the membership experience is enhanced.

The 100% NAIFA Agency Program is the trifecta of membership recruiting. Ideally, a firm with 15 or producers could become a 100% Agency and obtain the right to use the 100% NAIFA Agency logo.  

No matter the challenge – be it an advocacy threat or understanding the need to come together and revamp the national bylaws – the volunteers of NAIFA working alongside the NAIFA home office and the Board of Trustee can accomplish the task.   

The three groups' collaborative effort led NAIFA to increase membership growth by 5% during an economic downturn and global pandemic. Combining new and returning members, NAIFA had a 12% increase over 2019.

The victory lap is complete, and it’s time to repeat with an increase.   

NAIFA leaders can feed the recruiting funnel by recommending potential 100% agencies. Let’s start with your agency and move forward from there. Perhaps you know a NAIFA member associated with a firm that is a potential 100% NAIFA Agency. Better yet, do you know the manager of an agency even if the manager is not a member? Let’s make the introductions.     

Let’s get started. Email your leads to partners@naifa.org. Be the person on your Main Street USA block to bring on an 100% NAIFA Agency.