Owners and managers often like to think of their members as equally important… after all they all pay the same, or similar, membership fees. I think that a big part of it is because we are taught from a very young age to treat people equally and to varying degrees we, at least try to, adhere to that as a guiding principle.
As a general principle all people are equal is a good an noble ideal… of course in practice it just doesn’t work that way.
Generals don’t fight on the front lines because they are more important to the war effort. The secret service agent gets to take a bullet for the president because the president is more important to the country. Women and children get to flee the sinking ship first because we consider the safety of women and children as more important.
My advice is if you can’t let go of the ideal that all people should be treated equally then consider the idea of first among equals.
Your members are all important but… some should come first in certain circumstances.
Imagine this… the Fire Marshal informs you that your club is 25% over its legal capacity and you must immediately close your doors until you cull your membership to the appropriate level.
Who do you let go? The last 25% of members who joined… the next 25% whose membership becomes due… the 25% with the lowest attendance rates… the 25% who have been coming for the shortest amount of time… the 25% with the shortest term membership commitments…
If you have to reduce your membership number by 25% you really want to make sure that the members that are left are your most profitable, the ones who truly get you, the ones who will want to pay more just so you don’t have to close down, the ones that contribute more than money (e.g. good will, status, positivity, expertise etc) to your business…
These are your first among equals…
…do you know who they are?
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