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The Credit Class and The Asset Class

September 30, 2008 | Nick Fellers

As American’s we are suckers for debt. Credit cards, houses, student loans. We’ve known the financial meltdown was coming for a while – just didn’t know when, the rate at which it would hit or how particular dominoes would fall.

One thing that’s clear – the landscape for debt will change. We’re going through an adjustment now. I think it’s good. I just hope that what we’re seeing now is the band-aid being pulled from the skin quickly and not very slowly – with prolonged pain.

There are those that will be hardest by this adjustment: "the credit class" and those that will experience changes more than pain: “the asset class”.

Note: Similar to the Rich Dad / Poor Dad principle around assets vs liabilities.

When you think about the credit class and the asset class it’s actually pretty easy to imagine who would fall into each. Younger generations are distanced from the great depression, have only known ‘free credit’ and use the credit to facilitate a lifestyle – great house, great car, great education. Older generations have the house, remember the depression (or stories about it from parents), are more cautious and conservative, have been successful, etc.

The asset class is not always old and the credit class is not always young. The point here is two-fold. (1)Think about WHO falls into the asset class and (2) Not EVERYONE falls into the credit class. Now is a great time to be visiting with the asset class. This could be those that are moving from Success to Significance. The asset class will be impacted by the financial crisis – but not paralyzed. In fact, having been with many, many individuals, business owners and families from the asset class they see this as a time of opportunity – to buy cheap assets! They aren’t consumed by paralyzing fear. They haven’t ended their giving (quite the opposite) and NOBODY is out visiting with them (right now).

Said differently: Yes, don’t be surprised to see some of the annual fund/events money dry up. The $20/month is more than likely coming from the credit class – not the asset class. Now is the time to go and visit with the asset class.
Now is the time to CHANGE.

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Focus on Ideal Prospects

September 26, 2008 | Tom Suddes

These times (actually all times) require absolute FOCUS on our IDEAL PROSPECTS.

Today’s IDEAL PROSPECT is not heavily invested in Fannie Mae, Lehman Bros. or Washington Mutual Savings & Loan!

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Find And Visit With Your Best Prospects

August 12, 2008 | Tom Suddes

Here is an example of the kind of ideas we’re discussing during this week’s teleseminar series: Campaign Week 2008.

THE SIMPLE IDEA:

1. Create an IDEAL PROFILE of the ‘perfect’ qualified prospect/perspective investor for your Cause, Case, Organization, Vision, and Campaign…
2. MATCH your stakeholders, constituency, suspects/prospect pool to the IDEAL PROFILE to determine the 3 best fits (matches)…
3. GO VISIT with these 3 prospects immediately, tomorrow, within 3 hours after you’ve created the MATCH.

THE VALUE:

• It doesn’t make any difference where you are in a Campaign. Planning. Just starting. In the middle. Stagnant. At the end.

  CREATING and MATCHING and VISITING with your 3 most IDEAL PROSPECTS will have an IMPACT beyond anything you can imagine.

• This is about the best 3 matches/fits. It’s not visiting with 3,000 or 300 or even 30 prospects.

• You can AUTHENTICALLY look these current or potential ‘CHAMPIONS’ in the eye and say any or all of the following:

  • “When we created an IDEAL PROFILE of people that we felt would be a PERFECT FIT vis a vis our Purpose, our Priorities and our Plan… you were at the top of the list.”
    

  • “In all of our work and preparation for this effort (Funding Initiative), it became so obvious, at least to us, that you were one of a ‘HANDFUL OF PEOPLE’ who could literally TRANSFORM this organization.”
    

  • “If we can’t PRESENT THIS OPPORTUNITY and get someone like you ENGAGED… [who is perfectly ALIGNED with our Mission , Vision, Purpose, Priorities and Plan] then I don’t know who else we should be meeting with.”
    

ACTION: If you trust us enough to believe that this can literally transform your entire organization, then you should, again:

1. Create your IDEAL PROFILE .

   If you need help, there’s much more on the “How-To ” in our Online Learning Center), you can download the three pages about the IDEAL PROFILE for free.

2. MATCH this Profile to come up with 3 perfect ‘FITS’.

   Quick Tip: Sharing the Ideal Profile with your Board and key volunteer leaders and asking them “Who fits?” is 1,319,000 more productive than asking your Board for a ‘LIST OF NAMES’. As Nick always says, “How’s that working for you?”

3. Schedule the VISIT immediately. PRESENT THE OPPORTUNITY . Be AUTHENTIC.

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Master Prospect List - QPI Rating System

July 10, 2006 | Nick Fellers

Download the excel file.

Internet Explorer users, right-click and ‘Save Target As’ to download to your desktop.

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Get More Aggressive

July 9, 2006 | Tom Suddes

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.

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