How Being Member-First Protects Retention - And Why Retention Must Come Before Sales

In the previous essay, I explored member experience as the cumulative effect of everyday interactions - what emerges when an organisation is genuinely aligned around the people it serves. If true, the next question must be: what is that alignment designed to protect? 

In a membership model, the answer is not sales but retention. Membership is not secured at the point of purchase, but sustained through an ongoing decision to remain. To be member-first, therefore, is to build a business that earns the right to keep its members over time.

Why sales become the default priority

Many membership businesses organise themselves around sales as the primary indicator of success. This is rarely the result of careless leadership; sales is simply more visible. Topline revenue and growth are most immediately expressed through new joiners. Acquisition produces immediate, measurable results which satisfy boards and stakeholders: rising numbers, stronger cashflow, and a narrative of momentum. Retention, by contrast, compounds gradually. Its impact is felt over extended periods, rather than within a single reporting cycle. As a result, it can appear less urgent even though it is more foundational.

Sales shortfalls are also easier to identify than churn. Unmet acquisition targets trigger immediate alarm whereas churn is incremental. The signs of member disengagement, such as reduced participation, lower responsiveness, and diminished confidence, are more subtle. Leaders therefore concentrate attention on acquisition as the priority, because it feels more tangible and controllable.

There is a persistent misconception that sales is active work requiring coordinated effort across marketing, outreach, and closing conversations, while retention is comparatively passive - something that just happens if the membership product is ‘good enough’. In reality, retention demands far greater structural discipline. Sales concentrates energy into a small number of high-intensity touchpoints, whereas retention requires sustained coherence across the entire member journey. It is less visible but more exacting operationally and strategically.

This dynamic frequently results in disproportionate allocation of budget and manpower to acquisition, while the systems and teams responsible for member experience remain comparatively under-resourced.

When growth masks fragility

Higher sales do not automatically translate into sustained growth - new joiners mean little if they depart within a single membership cycle. A sales-led approach creates a blind spot in memberships; one in which growth is mistaken for health, as acquisition metrics mask the quiet loss occurring underneath. Revenue and member numbers appear to rise in the short-term, but stability is never reached. A surge in acquisition can provide short-term reassurance to leaders and boards, creating a sense of momentum that temporarily obscures deeper structural weaknesses in retention and member experience.

When attention is fixed on acquisition, the lived experience of members also becomes secondary: expectations are over-promised, operational friction throughout the member journey  is tolerated, and early signals of disengagement are missed. For joining members, the experience can feel disorienting: warmly welcomed and celebrated at the point of sale only to find there is no solid structure beneath them beyond the end of the sales process. 

A sales-led orientation can also distort the quality of acquisition. When conversion is prioritised, organisations may admit members whose expectations, needs or stage of development are misaligned with the offering. This increases the likelihood of early churn and mid-term departure, which in turn weakens community cohesion and brand trust. Over time, poor retention begins to undermine acquisition itself, as dissatisfied former members influence future prospects. The runway increased sales appears to buy is therefore shorter than assumed.

Retention reveals what sales can conceal. In a membership model, the metric that truly reflects health is not the number of new joiners in a given period, but the long-term value created, and sustained, through each member’s continued participation over time. Proof of concept lies not in how many people are curious enough to join, but in how many choose to stay long-term.

Retention as the structural expression of a member-first model

When a membership assumes each member is perpetually evaluating whether to remain, its strategic position shifts from persuading people to join to ensuring they never regret doing so.

This distinction is structural rather than semantic. A sales-led culture can tolerate overstatement, friction post-sale, reactive service and fragmented onboarding, because short-term growth metrics remain satisfied. A retention-led culture cannot. Members disengage emotionally before financially, consequently confidence erodes before revenue declines. To be member-first is to design against that erosion.

It requires recognising that every interaction - onboarding, communication, delivery, billing clarity, community dynamics - contributes to the member’s ongoing assessment of value. Renewal is not an administrative formality but the clearest expression of alignment between sales promises and member experience.

If retention is the primary indicator of health in a membership model, attention, leadership focus and organisational resources must be proportionate to its strategic importance. Structural improvements to the member experience - clarity of positioning, integrity of onboarding, consistency of delivery - should take precedence over incremental improvements to sales performance. Without strong foundations, increased acquisition merely accelerates churn.

This is not an argument to diminish sales; acquisition is essential to any membership, both commercially and to introduce new members, new perspectives and renewed energy into the ecosystem. However, acquisition without sustained alignment results in volatility rather than growth.

In a mature membership model, sales and retention operate in tandem. Acquisition initiates growth; member experience sustains it. When structured correctly, they reinforce one another - strong retention strengthens reputation, reputation strengthens acquisition, and growth becomes cumulative rather than cyclical.

This is precisely why a member-first approach must be retention-led. Not because sales is unimportant, but because retention determines whether a membership endures. In a membership model, being retention-led is the only structurally member-first stance.

If retention is the true measure of health in a membership model, what in your strategy is designed to protect it?

The next essay outlines a model for designing retention intentionally. If you wish to receive this directly to your inbox and explore the Member-First Method in depth, I invite you to subscribe.