Use of Incremental CMC Dues

In your renewal invoice for 2006, you’ll find an increase in dues of $50, to $345. This is the first dues increase in almost 20 years (just to keep up with inflation, your dues would have to be more than $500). We are increasing dues to specifically target CMC marketing and benefits, and these incremental funds (Professional Member dues remain at $295) will be set aside for only those activities that benefit CMCs..

We’ve used voluntary contributions in the past to make some progress to get the CMC logo and message in front of our target audience, the “C-level” decision maker, the business school administrator, or those consultants who should be CMCs.  We have refined the message to a small group of constituents and are now ready to promote the brand to a wider community, including business, education, institutions, and government. 

Starting in fall of 2005, in response to the results of our recent survey of CMCs, we have rolled out an active campaign to increase the visibility of the CMC and, therefore, its market value. This strategy combines appropriate amounts and timing of publicity, advertising, interaction with referral and purchasing organizations, and provision of strategies and resources for members to best leverage their CMC designation.

We’re treating the issue as a “brand awareness” effort to provide the “value-added” that appears to have been lacking for most CMCs in the past. Although other marketing efforts within IMC USA will promote the organization and its members, this effort is totally targeted to promoting the CMC brand.  We have three initial strategies:

Publicity.  We are working with media and several new IMC USA partners to publicize the CMC. For example, we have an upcoming article in the magazine of the National Contract Management Association, the professional organization of purchasing officials. We will also issue press releases as appropriate to publicize the importance of certification and professional standards, within which we will highlight the CMC. We have a new website with expanded capabilities for promoting and educating potential buyers about the CMC brand, as well as syndication (scheduled for later this fall) of member content, further publicizing the value a CMC brings.

Advertising.  We don't have a large budget for advertising so we are starting a low level, cost-effective process to place advertisements about the CMC in strategic publications. A new ad, to be seen in the December 2005 issue of C2M (a four-color, full-page ad on the back cover), will be read by more than 15,000 professional service providers and businesses. View the ad or download it and print it to include it in your marketing materials. You can refer to this advertisement as a "third-party endorsement" of your qualifications as a CMC. We will also place ¼ page ads (similar theme) in each quarterly issues of C2M in 2006. We are looking into other venues and publications for these ads. Based on the response, we will refine the ad during 2006 to prepare for targeting other periodicals with greater distribution in 2007.

Preferential Treatment.  We have been talking with several large firms about the CMC, principally ones who seek to become Accredited Consulting Practices (large firms that want their consulting staff to join IMC and become certified using an internal training process accredited by IMC USA). Several of these companies are receptive to the idea of granting preferential status to CMCs (and/or IMC members) above non-CMCs or non-IMC members. Building on the exposure from the NCMA article, we plan, in 2006, to press further to get CMC recognized as a preferred designation for hiring in government procurement. Note that, according to Kennedy Information, the public sector and health care are the two largest and fastest growing sectors in management consulting.

We’ve been using a lot of volunteer effort to do this but some of these strategies (e.g., advertising, correspondence, printing) incur expenses. IMC USA volunteers have been paying for some of these expenses out of their own pockets, but it is only fair that we all share in the cost. Our ability to expand these efforts to a level that we can see a substantial return on investment  means we set aside the incremental CMC dues to implement these strategies. Unlike a few years ago, 2005 has been profitable for many consultants. Your contribution leverages that good fortune for even more success in 2006.

Supplementing these benefits are the CMC-oriented activities of the IMC USA Academy for Professional Development. The Academy curriculum includes higher level courses aimed at the needs of the CMC, courses that target skill development for senior consultants. CMC branding, Academy, affiliations with other associations and business organizations - all are aimed to help members Get Smart, Get Known, and Get Business.