T.W. Bailey Achieves 2,000-Spike Level
T.W. Bailey Sr. with Bailey Family Builders has accomplished a feat that no one else in the Association’s 75-year history has done—he has surpassed the 2,000 Spike level of new member recruitment. He was recognized for his achievement at a recent Board of Directors meeting and received a standing ovation as President Matt Robinson presented him with his Spike pin.
T.W. is the 14th highest ranked Spike in the nation and first in Texas. He has won the Dallas BA’s Shorty Howard Trophy—given annually for the year’s most prolific membership recruiter—an incredible 11 times.
The skills T.W. learned as an onsite sales professional with volume builders early in his career translate to success in membership recruitment. His secret? Persistence. “A good salesperson learns that you don’t take the first or the second or even the third rejection,” he explains. “And, like anything else in your business, you must follow up to be successful. Offer to come pick up the application and personally take it to the office. Human contact is the key, either by phone or in person; it’s too easy to ignore an email.”
He stresses that “new members are most easily sourced by simply asking who you already know in the industry.” He goes a step farther, carrying a notebook with him wherever he goes, jotting down contact information for any potential member prospects as he encounters them: on the side of a van, an ad in a magazine, a name printed on documents he uses.
His message to prospects is that the Dallas BA offers untold resources to help their businesses grow and be profitable. “Everyone in the homebuilding industry needs to belong to their local association,” says T.W.