By Helen Hassard
Membership and Chapter Coordinator

Lately there has been a lot of interest in how companies become members of LO. The membership department here at LO has come up with a few typical situations that describe how most of you became members. If you have another great recruitment story, we’d love to hear from you.
 

Conscription

Some became members, and then went on to become a board member as a result of conscription. Either their friend kept bringing them to events, leaving them membership applications, or just plain old phoning them to demand they sign up. Either way, eventually the person’s resolve wore down, or they became a member. In this case, most of the people I talked with fondly recall that day many years ago when they were forced to join Landscape Ontario. We eventually managed to win them over, but they just needed that extra push.
 

Inheritance

There are times when a person takes on a business, either from their family or by purchasing it, where the previous owner had a membership, and the new owner more or less inherits a membership. Sometimes the new owners will need to learn the value of a membership, but quite often they respect the success of the previous owner and follow his or her advice. In addition, sometimes an employee at a member company will transition to a new company, only to plant the membership seed (pun intended) at the new business.
 

Generosity

Recently a wonderful mom named Debbie purchased a horticultural membership for her son. He hasn’t been in business long enough to qualify for a full membership, but she wanted to sign him up and register him for some courses and purchase certification books for him as his Christmas gift. This mom did her research, reading through the website and knew all about LO and what we do. When she phoned me, she already knew what she needed. Her only question was how can we do this and keep it a surprise. It was a pretty simple solution: we prepared all the information she needed, along with some great information pieces, and gave Debbie a package to give her son on Christmas morning. So, next year don’t get your loved ones another pair of socks or box of candy, get them something that will help their business prosper.
 

Conversion

Often companies will come to us to register for a seminar or certification, put a booth in one of our trade shows, or they will be looking at utilizing an endorsed supplier and quickly see that by purchasing a membership, they’re saving money with all the member discounts. Once we get them for that first year, those who take advantage of the benefits and engage with other members, quickly see the value of continuing on with Landscape Ontario.
 

Six degrees of separation

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances. In this example, we all know someone, who knows someone, who has found success and has achieved the goals that we want to achieve. This doesn’t change with age; we are constantly setting new business and personal goals, even if we are not aware of it. Human nature is to emulate those successful people. It doesn’t take long for people to learn through the chain of acquaintances that LO will benefit their business. Overall, everyone has a unique story of how they became a member, and we would love to hear your story.

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Call at 1-800-265-5656, ext. 354, or email helen@landscapeontario.com, or tweet me about it at @LOMembership. I would like to hear your thoughts and feedback.