Increasing the number of annual forums, attendees, and member engagement
Builders Merchants Federation
The Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) is the only organisation that represents and protects the interests of builders merchants, plumbing, heating, roofing, decorative and timber merchants and their suppliers. We are the authoritative voice for the building materials distribution sector, conveying the views and issues that face merchants and suppliers, to the widest possible audience.
National
www.bmf.org.uk
Success achieved
BMF increased the number of forums for their members from 17 (2017) to 23 in 2018 and had an increase in delegate attendees of 40% compared to the previous year.- Website
- https://www.bmf.org.uk
- Project dates
- January – October 2018
Project team
BMF forums are all managed in-house. A member of the BMF team is assigned to manage at least one forum. Full Forum list by BMF staff member is show below:
- Richard Ellithorne: Transport & Distribution, Health & Safety, Finance, HR, Timber, Brexit
- June Upton: Branch Manager
- Oz Bham: Supplier & Service, Technology
- Christine Wall: Marketing
- Mark Terry: Civils & Drainage
- Richard Jones: Roofing & Insulation, Bricks & Blocks
- Alex Clifford: Plumbing & Heating
- James Spillane: Decorative
Tools & Systems
Survey monkey – Online member surveys
Website - All forum events are listed on the events page on our website and attendance can be booked online. We usually restrict attendance to 2 people per organization. CRM - Our CRM is the ASI system IMIS which logs all bookings and produces delegate lists, reports etc
All forum events are emailed to members and promoted via publications developed by our marketing department.
Activities
Newsletter - We have also produced a Plumbing & Heating newsletter for the Plumbing & Heating Forum and in conjunction with our industry associate member the Timber Trade Federation (TTF) a Timber Forum News newsletter for the Timber Forum. Both of these are produced twice a year in time for each forum event in both digital and hard copy.
Maxemail - We use an email system called Maxemail to send email invites to members to come to forums events. We send out “save the date” and then a detailed agenda to promote each forum event. We set up contacts groups e.g. plumbing & heating contacts on Maxemail so that only interested parties get invited to relevant forum events. Forum events are also a good way of updating our membership CRM database as members staff do leave, get promoted and even join other members. New staff also join and attend, and we can get their details as well.
The BMF also has 5 regional managers who are field based and focus mainly on merchant membership. By having these one-to-one relationships with primary contacts within companies, they promote and encourage employees of the organisation to sign up to attend forums as they are great opportunity for networking and gaining industry insight free of charge.
Introduction
The Builders Merchants Federation Ltd (BMF) is the only trade association that represents and protects the interests of builders’ merchants and suppliers to the building material industry in the UK and Ireland. Total membership stands at 680 merchant and supplier companies in December 2018 who together have combined sales of £29.7bn and employ 115,000 people in the building materials industry. BMF’s 347 merchant members operate from 5,640 branches across the UK and Ireland.
BMF Membership has grown by 102% in last 5 years from 324 members in 2012 to 655 in 2018.
Our industry segmentation strategy to grow and develop our forums has played a key role in engaging with members and recruiting new members who wish to join the forum and gain access to the group. The BMF now runs fourteen Forums serving different interest groups. They play a major part in broadening the BMF’s relevance and appeal to different sectors of the industry and membership and highlight the value of the Federation to a wide range of professionals operating within our membership base.
BMF Forums provide a unique platform to discuss the latest and most relevant issues, while input from members at the various Forums gives them a powerful voice outside the industry. Allowing members to voice their views and concerns on matters provides an opportunity for the BMF to assist in its campaigning work to inform government and influence legislative policy on behalf of members.
BMF Forums also excel at sharing best practice, knowledge and information for our members.
We held 4 Sector specific forums at the beginning of 2018: Plumbing & Heating, Roofing & Insulation, Decorative and Timber and this year we have launched an additional 2 making a total of 6. A new Civils & Drainage Forum met for the first time in January at BMF Coventry followed by a new Bricks & Blocks Forum, which launched in May.
We have 8 functional specific Forums: Branch Manager, Finance, HR, Health & Safety, Transport, Marketing, Technology and Supplier & Service. The Technology Forum was launched in May 2018 at Microsoft London.
We are also planning to launch a Brexit Forum in January 2019 to advise members within the Building Materials Industry the likely outcomes and allow an open forum to voice their views.
Discovery
The BMF Member Survey in 2017 found 30% of respondents had attended at least one Forum. We get online (Survey monkey) feedback questionnaires completed after every forum meeting to see what members most and least enjoyed about the event and how we can continuously improve the format and content covered. All forums are also marketed in advance in the form of emails and promotional materials at other meetings.
Objectives
Not only do we want to engage with our prime contacts in our merchant and supplier members but also with their functional and departmental heads who begin to see the added value of their companies’ membership of the BMF. For example Gary Good from Ridgeons who became Chairman of the Decorative Forum was a brand new contact (Category manager) made at this member company.
Each forum aims to meet twice a year and are free for members to attend except the Branch Managers Forum which is a chargeable 2 day event. They are also chaired by BMF members. Members really do like to meet fellow like-minded members and to come together to discuss common issues and to forge relationships. By allowing forums to be chaired by BMF members it allows those who are new or entering the industry to gain insight and experienced access.
Targets: Each forum to meet twice a year and increase the number of attendees each year in total and by forum.
Timeline
BMF Forums were launched in 2015 and have grown in number by sector and job title and attendance numbers over the last 3 years. 2018 has seen a 40% growth in attendance numbers, 6 more forums events and 3 new forums being launched.
Activities
Forums have been running for a while within the BMF however, as the BMF developed its strategy of engaging its current members via segmentation, forums were reviewed to see how best to engage members especially Merchant members. To help with the segmentation strategy of the business we have expanded the number of forums offered to suit all types of members. The following shows the forums that were introduced in the last 3 years because of this exercise:
- 2016 - Health and Safety, Transport and Distribution and Roofing & Insulation
- 2017 – Civils and Drainage, Bricks and Blocks, Decorative
- 2018 – Technology
- 2019 – Brexit
Forums also provide a key networking opportunity for our members, Merchants can engage with our Supplier members and Merchants can also engage with other Merchant members to discuss key issues. For example, at the previous Branch Manager Forum held in October, a key topic of discussion was Fraud Prevention and Vigilance. This helped merchant members to share the various security threats they had faced and how to prevent them in the future.
To keep forums running efficiently the dates for the forums stay around the same time every year as members are aware certain forums will run both in the spring and autumn times. Forums and events in general are scheduled to avoid holiday periods to ensure maximum attendance. When forum dates are confirmed they are marketed sometimes up to 6 months in advance to allow members to plan beforehand. For popular forums such as the Marketing and Supplier & Service Forum members can register in advance before it is sold out.
At all forums delegate packs are created for each attendee, this provides the opportunity for the members to attain more value from their membership. For example, at the Finance forum we provide all Merchant members our annual Key Performance Indicators report, as for the HR forum we provided members with our annual Remuneration Survey report.
Innovation
Although forums are free to attend we always get no-shows in those members staff who book on and don’t turn up on the day without informing us in advance they can no longer make the event. We have introduced a charge of £20 per delegate who does this (we put our T&Cs on the website) and this additional revenue goes towards the cost of forum lunches and refreshments.
Marketing
Our marketing strategy is to increase the value we add to our members through greater segmentation of our membership base and the number of attendees at all BMF forums is one of the key measurement criteria reported to the BMF Board of Directors. By having sector and functional forums meeting twice a year covering industry hot topics and legislative updates, this plays a key role in engaging with members and recruiting new members who wish to join the forum and gain access to the group.
Challenges
Main challenges are having a proactive Forum Chairman to suggest topics and recommend speakers plus a good agenda and accessible locations to attract people to attend. Short notice and no notice cancellations and people attending without being booked on are the other challenges.
Achievements
An objective we achieved was engaging with key staff across our members organisations and in the sectors they operate whether it be by job/functional and by product sector. Additionally, increasing the awareness of the forums among our members and advising it is a great way to get involved.
An objective we are yet to achieve is running each of our Fourteen forums twice a year. As all forums are chaired by members some are more proactive than others plus people can leave and it takes time to find a replacement. We also work with other industry associate members to put on forum events and finding mutually convenient dates, speakers and topics and locations can be difficult.
Targets & Statistics
In 2017 total of 763 delegates attended 17 BMF forum events. Average attendance was 45 delegates.
In 2018 total of 1,072 delegates attended 23 BMF forum events. Average attendance is 47 delegates.
Our Plumbing and Heating Forum has assisted in a growth in membership as these major merchant and supplier brands joined the BMF in August 2017 citing wanting to join the forum and gain access to merchants:
- Plumbing and Heating Division of Travis Perkins, which includes City Plumbing Supplies and PTS along with six other brands
- Grundfos Pumps Ltd
Ideal Standard which comprises three market leading brands – Armitage Shanks, Ideal Standard and Sottin.
Financials
The BMF has a budget of £5,000 in March 2018 to April 2019 (BMF Financial year) to facilitate forum events and costs will be on budget. The majority of forums are held at BMF Coventry which has excellent meeting room facilities. Supplier members will also host forum meetings at their premises free of charge at our regional centres of excellence such as Wavin in Doncaster (Plumbing & Heating) and JCB in Rocester (Marketing).
The Plumbing and Heating newsletter costs £718 per issue and comes out of the marketing budget. On the other hand, the Timber Forum News is produced externally by the TTF at their cost.
What would we do differently?
As Forums are free to all members, previously there would be cancellations on the day which would reduce the number of attendees at the forum. As the BMF would have already organized catering for the attendee this would lead to a unnecessary cost.
In response to this, the BMF have implemented a £20 cancellation charge if members cancel on the day. This has helped to reduce the number of members that cancel on the day and also provide a small revenue stream which is fed back into the forum budget. We should have done this from the onset.
Advice
To keep members at the centre of the forum topics. The forums are designed to enhance membership engagement and provide valuable information they can take back to their businesses. The best way to do so is to contact members directly and request topics that may be of interest. We also do a mini survey of a hot topic being presented at the forum and survey results are given at the Forum. We did this on Making Tax Digital at the October 2018 Finance Forum and on Diversity in the Workplace at the December 2018 HR Forum.
The BMF also issue feedback questionnaires to analyse what attendees found useful and anything that can be improved in time for the next forum. By keeping contact with our members, we can tailor content to them helping with our segmentation strategy. The HR Forum changed its timings and format as a result of feedback received.
Feedback & Testimonials
“We are delighted to be joining the BMF and will fully support their members with our unrivalled comprehensive heating and plumbing product ranges. We are looking forward to building upon the already strong relationships enjoyed with our merchant customers.”
Dave Lacey, Grundfos Pumps’ Director of Sales
“The activity level of the BMF is really impressive and energetic. We are looking forward to taking part in the Plumbing & Heating Forum as well as other groups. In our 200th year we have lots of great stories to tell.”
Jim Moore, Ideal Standard MD
“The BMF plays an important role in bringing the industry together and representing its interests. We recognise the value in that and look forward to becoming involved, in particular by contributing to the BMF’s specialist P&H Forum.”
Paul Tallentire, Divisional CEO, Plumbing and Heating Division, Travis Perkins
Wider impact
The average number of contacts per member is now 8.5. This shows that not only do we want to engage with our prime contacts in our merchant and supplier members but also with their functional and departmental heads who begin to see the added value of their companies’ membership of the BMF.
