Set Your Priorities Straight for 2026
PAR's Greatest of All Twenty Twenty-Five association revenue producers gave out transformative, practical advice during the 5th Annual PAR GOAT Awards on Jan. 21. In case you missed it, we rounded up the top priorities that associations should set for 2026 to boost short- and long-term growth, according to GOATs Dan Cole, Krystle Kopacz, Carrie McIntyre, and Brittany Shoul.
Think Globally and Relationally
Dan Cole, AVIXA, senior director, exposition sales, says, “Global thinking needs to be the top priority for association business development leaders in 2026 — and I don't just mean if you're serving international markets. It’s about adopting a global mindset regardless of where your members or clients are located. The world is becoming smaller minute by minute, not day by day or year by year. Our solutions and our clients are no longer confined to one geography or one product. Even if you're serving a purely domestic market, your clients are dealing with customers, suppliers, and competitors globally. If we're not thinking globally, we're selling ourselves short and missing opportunities that are right in front of us.
“But I don’t think global thinking alone is enough. We need to prioritize relationships over transactions. Anyone can make a sale. Anyone can sign a contract. What truly differentiates us now is trust, vision, understanding, and empathy. It's about deeply understanding our clients' world — regardless of the size of the deal. The transactional approach simply doesn't cut it. It never really did. It’s just that it’s more apparent than ever. The market is demanding something deeper.
“When you’re genuinely focused on a client, their objectives, their pain points, their world, and their feedback naturally become part of your strategy. Listening isn't a separate thing— it's the thing that informs not how you build and maintain those relationships but everything from how we integrate our offerings to how we break down internal silos that get in the way of serving clients effectively as well. That in itself is hard to put a price tag on. Association business development leaders who don't adapt to this reality will be left behind. With AI driving efficiencies and markets evolving rapidly, we have to think bigger. We're all part of one big community now — whether we're ready for it or not.”
Go on a Listening Tour
Krystle Kopacz, Revmade, CEO, says, “Association business development leaders should prioritize listening to clients. My No. 1 recommendation: Go on a roadshow and meet with 25 clients about their needs. Don't pitch a thing, just listen.
“Openly listening and committing to meeting clients' needs seems simple and foundational, but few organizations do it regularly. In my experience it's the most transformative activity a business can do to boost short- and long-term growth.”
Create a ‘What-If?’ Culture
Brittany Shoul, MCI USA, senior vice president, revenue strategy and operations, says, “In 2026 the biggest priority for association business development leaders should be creating a culture where asking ‘What if?’ is second nature. Curiosity is what sparks new ideas and opens doors to growth. Doing more of the same — even if we do it really well — won’t get us where we need to go.
“‘What-if’ questions help us see possibilities we might miss otherwise. What if member and sponsor experiences were designed together instead of in silos? That could turn transactions into real partnerships. What if our product roadmap was driven by industry trends and outcomes instead of the same old calendar? That’s how we stay relevant and keep revenue growing.
“The key is to make this mindset practical. Use pilots to test ideas; set clear guidelines for what gets built, refreshed, or sunset; and move quickly from concept to market. Bold thinking isn’t about doing everything all at once — it’s about doing what matters most with creativity and clarity.”
Take a Revenue Operations Perspective
Carrie McIntyre, Navigate, principal, says, “If I were helping association biz dev leaders draft their 2026 to-do list, I’d put understanding and implementing a revenue operations perspective within their organizations right at the top. RevOps is still a relatively new concept, even in the for-profit world, but there’s compelling evidence that the approach positively impacts organizations of all sizes.
“At its core RevOps is about breaking down silos between the different teams that impact revenue generation: marketing, sales, fulfillment, and leadership. Studies show that when there’s alignment, sales and customer satisfaction improve, renewals increase, and team efficiency improves.
“Without RevOps it’s more difficult to build and maintain an optimized customer journey that reduces friction points for buyers. It also means you’re more likely to have gaps between what was promised in sales conversations and what's delivered after the sale, which will kill your retention rates and chance at building compounding revenue growth.
With a RevOps viewpoint in place, ideal customer profiles are defined, messaging is targeted, sales conversations are more honest and consultative, delivery inefficiencies and product issues get fixed faster, testimonials increase, and renewals become a no-brainer.
“Regardless of association size, RevOps concepts can be implemented in different ways: regular cross-team revenue meetings, a shared dashboard/scorecard everyone looks at, clear and consistent handoff processes and other SOPs across the organization, team revenue targets, etc.
“Just like individual contributors should be asking, ‘Will everyone have a good story to tell?’ when talking with prospects, business development leaders should be asking, ‘Are we organized to create good stories consistently — or are we leaving it to chance?’”