Blog: Wes’s thoughts, articles, and insights

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My most recent posts

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI?

By Wes Trochlil | October 14, 2026

Why bother with a consultant when I have AI? As AI becomes increasingly powerful, the value of using an AMS selection consultant (and many other types of consultants!) starts to come into question. After all, with very well-constructed prompts and responses, an association could develop a very solid needs analysis and RFP that could be used to […]

Guardrails can be helpful!

By Wes Trochlil | October 7, 2026

Guardrails can be helpful! When selecting a new AMS, I find my clients are often very tempted by custom software or “platform” systems (e.g., built on Salesforce or MS Dynamics) because these systems are infinitely configurable. After all, if I can make the system do anything I want, that’s a good thing, right? Well, maybe. In […]

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?”

By Wes Trochlil | September 30, 2026

“If you knew this information, what might you do differently?” I had a conversation with a client recently about developing KPIs, reports, and queries from their forthcoming data warehouse. My client said: “We have a ton of requests for KPIs and reports. How do we determine which to focus on first?” My response: “When someone requests a dashboard […]

Showing is not teaching

By Wes Trochlil | September 23, 2026

Showing is not teaching In my experience, when new staff members are taught how to use their AMS (or LMS, CMS, FMS, etc.) they aren’t really taught how to use the system, they are shown how to use it. So what’s the difference? In a nutshell, showing only covers the “how” and “what.” But teaching […]

Data management is improvisation

By Wes Trochlil | September 16, 2026

Data management is improvisation I was listening to a podcast recently featuring TV writer Rob Long. During the podcast he said (I’m paraphrasing) that, in order to be successful, one needs to learn to improvise, because nothing in life ever goes as planned. One of my favorite sayings is, “If you want to make God […]

Older Posts

Sometimes we just have to manage the exceptions

October 21, 2010

A client of mine was telling me about a problem they have with fraudulent credit card charges, which require a […]

People, Process, & Technology

October 19, 2010

I’m not sure who first coined this phrase, but you hear it a lot in the CRM world (and in […]

ERA Seeking Marketing Manager

October 18, 2010

One of my past clients, The Electronic Retailing Association (ERA) is currently looking to fill an open position for a Marketing […]

New Article Posted – What AMS Vendors Think – 2010

October 14, 2010

I’ve posted a new article on my website. Over the past several years I’ve conducted a non-scientific survey of association […]

Using your data to increase sales

October 14, 2010

A good friend of mine, Vinay Kumar, once owned a printing company that he grew from under $200,000 in annual […]

Have you ever actually MET your members?

October 13, 2010

I was recently reading about a speech that Emily Yellin, author of Your Call is (Not That) Important to Us, […]

More Requests Means Staff is USING the Database

October 12, 2010

There is an old aphorism in sales that objections are a sign of interest. In other words, whether a sales […]

Fewer Leads, Higher Sales

October 9, 2010

In a recent issue of CRM magazine, an article outlined how Beazer Homes was able to use their database (salesforce.com) […]

Success, not perfection, with your database

October 7, 2010

A colleague of mine asked me, at what point do you say: “Our database is good enough? We don’t need […]

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