BRX Pro Tip: 4 Ways to Leverage Local Chambers of Commerce
Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, we have been so blessed with some marvelous relationships with local Chambers of Commerce throughout the Business RadioX network. What’s your take on the best way to cultivate and leverage local Chambers of Commerce?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:21] Yeah. I think it’s important to understand what’s the win for the Chamber of Commerce and what’s the win for you, and how to kind of best marry those two things so that each of you are getting what you need. As you mentioned, our studio operators in all the markets that we work in across the country have good relationships with their local Chamber of Commerce. We’re there to tell their stories. Part of their mission is to tell the stories of business. So, it is a logical and a very good relationship in all cases in our network.
Lee Kantor: [00:00:54] But you have to understand, if you’re dealing with the Chamber of Commerce, what is a reasonable expectation? One is networking. Obviously, meeting other business people at the core of both the mission of the Chamber of Commerce, and usually most local business people want to meet more business people, so networking is a logical way to leverage your local Chamber of Commerce, attend meeting member events, share referrals, do things like that.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:27] Secondly, another kind of mission of the Chamber of Commerce and something that you may not have put much time into it, maybe not important to you, but for some businesses it’s very important, it’s advocacy, providing input on issues that are important to your business to kind of the local government. The Chamber of Commerce usually is the group that’s doing that and speaking on behalf of the business folks in that market. So, it’s important if you have an issue that’s important to you, the Chamber is the place to kind of start those conversations.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:59] Third is professional development. Again, it’s not something that you might be thinking of, but when it comes to professional development, the Chamber typically have some sort of training that they are at least partnering with other local business people that offer that type of training. And that’s a great opportunity for you to take advantage of some of the training that the Chamber offers.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:20] And lastly, exposure. You can sponsor advertisers in Chamber directories, and that’s a great way to get the word out to a very targeted group of business people. That’s obviously a place where we help and work with our Chambers, where we’re either producing shows on the behalf of the Chamber or work in partnership with the Chamber to help kind of spotlight their members.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:43] Business RadioX works with Chambers in a variety of ways, usually in and around exposure or networking, where we help put people in contact with other members. So, figure out ways that you can leverage your Chamber of Commerce in your business, but those are four ways that we do.
