Ideas to help you ‘Raise Money (Execute On The Sales Process)’
Present, Then Follow-Up
Posted by: Tom Suddes November 21, 2006
I had a chance last week to be with the COLORADO COLLEGE SALES TEAM. They’re on fire and doing a great job.
One of the issues/challenges that came up was around the FOLLOW-UP LETTER … and then the FOLLOW-UP PHONE CALL or VISIT.
What follows is a relatively SIMPLE way to look at this 3 STEP PROCESS.
I hope it helps.
P.S. It won’t help at all if you’re not actually making the VISIT/ PRESENTATION in the first place! JUST ASK!
COMMENSURATE COMMITMENTS
THE BIG 3
IN THE COMMITMENT PROCESS …
EACH OF THESE HAS EQUAL WEIGHT (IMPORTANCE)!!!
|
PRESENT
THE OPPORTUNITY |
FOLLOW-UP
(Letter) |
FOLLOW-UP
(Phone/Visit) |
Pretty self-explanatory. Get the ‘DOLLARS IN THE BUCKET’ (an AREA OF INTEREST and an AMOUNT). Use the PRESENTATION FLOW around:
|
This is the place to SUMMARIZE … CONFIRM THE OPPORTUNITY PRESENTED … and CONFIRM PHONE/VISIT FOLLOW-UP DATE.
This is a wonderful place to cover:
The key here is to be both AUTHENTIC and PERSONAL (custom). |
Going through all the work and challenges of getting the visit and making the visit … and NOT doing this PHONE/VISIT FOLLOW-UP is not only WRONG, it is DISRESPECTFUL and a DISSERVICE to the person you’ve visited!
The (obvious) GOALS:
|
The beauty of this model is that by FOLLOWING-UP … IN WRITING … with a DATE for the phone/visit FOLLOW-UP makes it really hard NOT to do the follow-up!!
P.S. Take it from someone who has made over 6,000 presentations: The LONGER you WAIT before you send the FOLLOW-UP LETTER … the weaker the response (yours and theirs)!!! ‘Git ‘er done!’
Get More Aggressive
Posted by: Tom Suddes July 9, 2006
Here’s a big lesson/coaching tip from recent experiences: GET MORE AGGRESSIVE!
- ALWAYS ASSUME THE BEST …
- Timing is perfect.
- They just inherited a large fortune.
- Their business is booming.
*They love your CAUSE and CASE!!!
- DON’T MAKE THE DECISION FOR YOUR PROSPECTIVE INVESTOR … especially before you even get there!!!
- “They’re burnt out.”
- “They’ve got 3 kids in college.”
- “They’re still paying on a pledge.”
- “I’m not sure they can do $10,000 or $100,000, etc.”
*It’s not important whether YOU are sure. It’s not your money. Give them a chance to say ‘YES’!
- Get (a few of) them to fall off their chair … in shock at the magnitude of YOUR PRESENTATION.If you have not caused someone lately to be SHOCKED at the SIZE of your OPPORTUNITY … you’re not THINKING BIG ENOUGH.
(from the) Bucket To The Bank
Posted by: Tom Suddes April 16, 2006
While working with the SALES TEAM at Colorado College last week, one of their bright, young superstars, Robb Pike, came up with a great ‘CATCHPHRASE’ for moving from
‘IN PLAY’ to actually getting the AREA OF INTEREST and DOLLAR AMOUNT ON THE TABLE.
He called it ‘DOLLARS IN THE BUCKET’.
[Getting the AREA OF INTEREST is the BUCKET; the DOLLARS reflect a realistic investment amount.]
Then, it was pretty easy for us to move from:
‘DOLLARS IN THE BUCKET’ … to … ‘DOLLARS IN THE BANK’
Here’s my SIMPLE 1, 2, 3 for moving prospects at the top of your MASTER PROSPECT LIST to a COMMITMENT … AT THIS GIVEN MOMENT!
- ‘IN PLAY’
- Take ACTION!
- PRE-DISPOSE!!
- Get VISIT Scheduled!
- Do DISCOVERY (maybe even on the VISIT)
- ‘PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY’
- Get $$$ in the BUCKET!
- Get a ‘NUMBER on the TABLE’ … in a SPECIFIC AREA of INTEREST
- No ‘FUZZINESS’ about WHY you are with them!!!
- Create SENSE OF URGENCY
- ‘COMMITTED’
- Get the COMMITMENT!
- $$$ in the BANK!
- Put it in WRITING! (You to them; them to you.)
As always, JUST ASK!!!
You can download some other visuals to help you with this concept this download includes:
 |
|
Planned Giving Training in Three Bullet Points
Posted by: Nick Fellers December 24, 2005
I want to sound off on planned giving. Nobody is doing enough of it. It always seems like it’s some ‘elusive field’. Like we are ‘waiting to get trained in that area’ or whatever. I want to make this as simple as possible.
Planned giving is just a sale (or another form of a major gift) to a person that wants to help your organization. It is a just a means or a vehicle. Your job is to present the prospect with a wonderful opportunity to change lives, save lives or impact lives.
There are hundreds (probably thousands) of ways to do a planned gift. YOU do not need to know how to do them. Leave that to an insurance agent, a lawyer, a financial planner, etc.
Here is the training … ready?
There are three forms of a planned gift:
- Assignment of a life insurance policy.
- Bequest (will).
- Other
If the prospect wants to assign life insurance he/she can call his or her agent. A simple bequest can be a codicil to a will (just google it). Other includes all those ‘other’ complicated financial arrangements (including gift annuities) that we can pass off to an expert.
Most smaller planned gifts will either involve life insurance or a very simple bequest.
I DON’T believe I’m over simplifying. Your goal is to maximize every relationship at any given time. If you’re meeting with a prospect about a project need today you can also talk about providing TOMORROW in the form of a legacy or planned gift.
My point is that this should be simple and we should be asking nearly everyone for a planned gift commitment. Too often, I believe, individuals and organizations ‘wait’ until they have the necessary training or ‘organizational capacity’. If you get training you will get a thick binder that will sit on the shelf with tons of terms and if you wait you will leave tons of opportunities on the table.
Keep it simple …
The Most Important Question
Posted by: Nick Fellers December 14, 2005
This is a quick one to share - let you ponder and add your thoughts.
When meeting with a new prospect or a group or even someone very familiar with your organization, what is the Single Most Important Question you should ask to start things off?
How about this one:
Or, if the person has long been associated/involved with your organization:
Or, more broadly:
Listening to the answer will do wonders for your ability to have a productive visit. The answer to this singular, one important question could:
- Save a lot of time (you don’t want to repeat things he/she already knows)
- Get out misunderstandings (if the prospect has the wrong idea about your org, you can address these points)
Presumably you know where you would like to be at the end of the visit (the goals).
Wouldn’t you like to know where you are at the beginning of the visit?
Two quick stories to share with you to make my point (one good, one bad) and then you get more thoughts/ideas online:
First, the bad (DID NOT ask the Most Important Question):
The prospect was a successful female entrepreneur. In the first meeting it was just she and I (male - single).
We had a great dialogue, hit it off, made our connections and I asked a lot of questions … Just not the single most important question.
I was sharing a number of astounding statistics about domestic violence - one of which is that one out of four women are victims of domestic violence.
She stopped me there …
“Nick, I know all this … I’m the one of those four.”
GULP. Who was I to be ‘informing’ her about the problem?
She was willing to share this information. I should’ve asked the most important question: What do you know about Domestic Violence?
For another organization (DID ask the Most Important Question):
After we got to know each other on the visit I asked most important question:
Q. “Can you just share with us what you know about XYZ org?”
A. “Just about everything - I think. I was one of the three founders fifteen years ago.”
We had no idea this woman founded the organization. The staff had no idea. The board had no idea. Needless to say, it completely changed the nature of visit and we moved immediately to an exciting dialogue about HOW we were going to make the vision for the current project a reality.
Next time you’re on a visit don’t forget to ask The Most Important Question.
-
Just Added
Tom Suddes Video sharing the For Impact Point of View
