Selfish Giving

Selling Cause Marketing in a Down Economy

There's no doubt selling sponsorships and cause marketing is a lot harder this year than last.  The cause marketing side is especially challenging as many retailers--the backbone industry for many cause marketing programs, whether it be point-of-sale or percentage-of-sale--just aren't doing well and are looking to cut anything that's not directly driving sales. 

Here's what we're saying and doing to keep the partners we have and to recruit new ones.

Cause marketing drives sales.  A lot of people view cause marketing as just "branding" or "identity management".  "Yeah, it helps your image but where does it really get you?," they say.  Fortunately, we've collected a lot of great evidence that shows that cause marketing can help companies make and save money.  One of my favorite is from a retailer that made $350,000 from a coupon they had on our Halloween Town mobile.  Those are the kind of results businesses want to hear about and will help get cause marketing viewed differently.

Cause marketing is free advertising.  Our point-of-sale programs come at no cost to the retailer.  Nothing.  Zilch. Nevertheless, they are great ways to build loyalty and favorability with employees and customers, highlight in-store promotions and offers and, of course, raise money for a great cause.  When one of our partners wanted to promote a new service to consumers but didn't want to spend a lot of money advertising it, we printed the offer right on the mobile so employees could point it out and shoppers wouldn't miss it.  The retailer closed more business, we raised more money and shoppers got a great deal--all for a buck.  Win-win-win.

Enlist cause marketing champions.  As a nonprofit, you can only open so many doors by yourself.  It helps to enlist the aid of others.  Allies can include media outlets, sports teams, anyone who might have a connection or relationship with key businesses.  Your pitch to them is that their advertisers are sick of ad reps showing up with expensive advertising programs.  Instead, offer them something for free.  Explain that if they have multiple store fronts and lots of foot traffic they can do a point-of-sale program that will raise money for a great cause and underwrite a free advertising program with their favorite radio or TV station, newspaper or sports arena.  You don't want money from the marketing budget; you want access to the store's customers.  The latter is where the real opportunity lies.  There's ten times more money to be made there than from the company checkbook.  Just ask Bono and the folks at Product (RED).

Focus on other forms of corporate support.  W. C. Fields said, "If at first you don't succeed, try, and try again.  Then give up."  Sometimes the moment isn't right for cause marketing and you should look to other forms of corporate funding.  Fortunately, I work for a large institution with lots of business partners so we've doubled our efforts in reaching out to other "friends" of the organization.  Thanks in part to them our largest fundraiser of the year will set a new record next Saturday night.  Of course, this type of corporate fundraising is not as challenging and interesting as cause marketing.  But the dollars we'll raise will be as good as any other until our sails fill again and we can set our sights on more lofty goals.  As the Roman proverb commands, "When there is no wind, row."

Cause Marketing: The Trailer

Something we didn't do the first two years of Halloween Town was record the event so we could share the footage with prospective partners.  Seeing is believing with Halloween Town, and if we couldn't get them to come to the event having a video for them to watch would be the second best thing.  But for whatever reason we never did it.  Until we made it a priority at last year's event.

Our new sales video captures all the great sets we built for the event, the brandland experience we created for our partners, how the event benefited the hospital and all the Halloween fun our 13,000 guests had!  Our event marketing firm, wedu, did a great job shooting and editing the piece.

Having a sales video like this is all about not giving a prospect a reason to say no.  Without video, you're left to your words, which don't always sway prospects by themselves.  Some people--probably most people these days--are visual thinkers that insist on seeing before believing. (Either that or they're all from Missouri. Good question for Mike Swenson over at Citizen Brand.)

This isn't the first time I've used video to make a point.  When I worked at public television back in 2000 I realized that we were letting potential underwriters get away every time we talked about a PBS program they hadn't seen.  We solved this by buying a small television and toting along clips of every show we produced.  "Never seen Frontline?  Check out this clip."  Video made PBS a lot more tangible and kept the conversation going when in the past it had stopped cold.

So how will we use the Halloween Town clip?  We'll share it with sponsors.  But we won't just blindly send it out to prospects.  Like a foreign film, it needs interpretation and elaboration, which can only be done by the trained sales person that will accompany it wherever it goes.

Watch our new Halloween Town sales video here.

10 Ways to Win a Corporate Partner (con't)

Katya has a great post on ten ways to win a corporate partner.  To hers I'll add my own insights and comments for cause marketers.

1. Find your match.  As Katya points out, "you want to partner around mutual benefits."  Focus your energies on companies with whom you have natural synergy.  Mission, goals, audience, and, let's not forget, just plain personal chemistry.  If it's not a good fit you'll know it from the get-go.  Emerson was right: "Only in our simple, easy and spontaneous actions are we strong."
2. Find out the business and philanthropic agendas.  And press the former more than the latter.  Not every business is interested in charity, but all businesses are interested in making money.  Show how philanthropy can drive sales and you've built a platform from which to present your mission.
3. Find an entre.  Connections can make a huge difference.  But what do you do if you don't have one?  Start by offering them something of value that comes at no cost to them.  Now that's a conversation-starter.
4. Try to get to the business people rather than the community service people.  Where do you think there's more money in a company, in the marketing department or in the community relations department?  Act accordingly.  Sadly, I've never met with a community relations person who really "got" cause marketing.  But business people grasp the value almost immediately.
5. Start your sentences in the right way.  I love this one.  Fundraisers make the mistake of always talking about the things THEY need, instead of focusing on the needs, interests and goals of their listener.  In short, they're a one way street!  Use audience-centric language that shows you're as focused on your partner's success as your own.
6. Sell the benefits to them along with the social impact.  Business people hear the latter all the time, but rarely hear about the benefits to them.  Get and keep their attention by being better than 99% of the fundraisers that have ever sat across from them.
7. Go into partnerships - like relationships - with open eyes. There are ups and downs in any partnership.  Just remember on what your relationship is built: trust, respect and, most importantly, mutual interest.
8. Put work into it.  Become an extension of your corporate partner's marketing team.  For the mid-size companies I generally work with (that are already pretty lean on marketing) I become their consultant on cause-related endeavors, even for the ones that don't involve my organization.  Being useful and unbiased only makes me more  valuable to my partner--and keeps me close to potential opportunities.
9. Communicate constantly.  Just keep it relevant.  Regardless of what I'm sending my partners I always ask: is this something they will find useful, if not valuable.  Again, see things through their eyes and position yourself as a resource that's helping them cut through the clutter and grow their business.
10. Know when to call it quits.  If you do the nine things Katya and I suggest you'll always be the heart breaker.  They'll be the ones crying, not you.       

Reeling in More Business

With Halloween Town over, the cause marketing team has been busy meeting with sponsors to get their feedback and to recommit them for next year.  We've also been spending a lot of time reaching out to new sponsors, many of them retailers. 

Why retailers?  Because they have the foot traffic to support the mobile programs that are our bread and butter fundraiser.  In exchange for asking their customers to support the hospital (our best Halloween Town partner raised over $100k), retailers receive a major sponsorship to one of our events.  Win-win, no?

But retailers are more than just good partners for cause marketing programs.  Practitioners like you and me can also learn from them.  I was reminded of this by the November issue of Boston Magazine, which had a sales article on how local retail pros reel in buyers.  Their tips may be just the bait you need to land that next big partner.

From Patricia, a fur specialist for Saks: “It’s not hard to sell any product that you understand, love and believe in....Clients come to me because I have an understanding of practicality and fashion.”

As a cause marketer you need that same kind of passion for what you do.  But enthusiasm isn't enough.  You also need to understand your prospect’s business and how you can realistically help them.  If you can do this, you’ll share something with Patricia: clients that come to YOU.

From Donna, general manager of a jewelry store:  “It’s much harder to sell diamonds now.  People come in with notes, pads, pages of information.  They study….but there’s still something that they won’t see—the punch, the something special.”

Likewise, prospects are much more discriminating about which organizations they work with.  Like diamonds, they pour over them and rarely pick the first one they see.  But what can distinguish you is that “something special.”  What is it that you can do that’s unique and different and valuable from what anyone else can do?  Find out what makes you a diamond in the ruff and shine.

Jim, salesman at a BMW dealership:  "BMW customers are extremely bright, and most are very well educated.  If I can appreciate that and not patronize them, then we're usually very much in step.  [For example] Doctors are very technical, they know what they want, but it takes a lot of patience and a lot of time."

Like Jim, I size-up my prospects.  Shortly after speaking with them, I'll decide if they are a thinker, a feeler, or a deferrer.  Thinkers are evidence based and want to see all the stats and figures (like Jim's doctors).  Feelers respond to emotional appeals.  And deferrers yield to the opinions of others (e.g. If so and so is doing it, then it must be right for them).  Gather your information, size-up your prospect and pitch accordingly.

From Seth, manager of a ski shop:  “Most of the stuff we sell here I don’t really consider to be a necessity.  It’s more entertainment or recreation….We’re not really pressuring sales people….It’s just about building a relationship and getting to know people.”

Yes, it's true: cause marketing, like snowboards, isn't a necessity.  But it does make beautiful window dressing.  Starbucks would still be a good business if it didn’t practice cause marketing, but it probably wouldn’t be as good a business.  That's what cause marketing does.  It enhances, it magnifies.  The lesson here is to be less focused on being pushy and more concerned with building a rapport with prospects.  Be nice.  Say "free" a lot.  Smile.  Mr. Prospect is holding all the cards.  And he knows it.

 

Analyze, Organize, Energize

Over the next couple of weeks I have three presentations to deliver.  The first is to a public relations class at Boston University, from which I hope to recruit two interns for the fall.  The second is to the hospital's marketing committee.  The last is to a group of managers at Staples to kick-off their involvement with Halloween Town.

Three presentations to three very different audiences.  But what won't be different is how I prepare for all of them. 

Analyze

• I can't emphasize it enough: knowing your audience is the key to a successful speech.
• I start by gathering some basic info about my audience: gender, age, level of education, etc.  The stories and examples I'd use for say an all women audience would be different from the ones I'd use for a mixed audience.
• I dig deeper and explore their interest, knowledge and attitude toward me and my topic.  A college student studying public relations will have a different view and knowledge of cause marketing than a manager from Staples.
• I find out how many people will be there, where and when I'll be speaking (please, anything except just before lunch!), will I need a microphone, etc..
• Armed with these details, I'm ready to make some speaking decisions for my presentation.

Organize

• Just like every good research paper you wrote in college, every speech needs a beginning, a middle and an ending.
• The purpose of the beginning is twofold: to get your listeners' attention and to let them know why you're there.  (e.g. "By the end of my speech I want you to...").
• If the intro is about making your point, the middle of your speech is for proving it.  If my goal is to recruit two new interns, what do I need to say in the body of my speech to show that the hospital will be a great place for them to work?
• After proving your point, use the ending to drive it home.  Your goal is threefold: action, action, action.
• Adhere to the 50-50 rule.  Spend 50 percent of your speech on new material and the other half repeating what you've already said.  People forget quickly, you know.
• One more thing: re-read my post from last week on persuasion.  You did read it, didn't you?

Energize

• When I'm ready to work on my delivery, I focus on the speaking outline and practicing my speech.
• Don't write out your speech word for word.  Instead, write down key words and phrases that will jog your memory and keep your speaking style engaging, spontaneous and conversational.  Think Jay Leno, not George Bush.
• Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest speaker of them all?  A mirror and a tape recorder are a speaker's best friends.  They give candid feedback, they're discreet and will never bum money from you (the lampshade is a whole different story).
• Everyone has their own way of dealing with stage fright.  Mine is to position myself at the front of the audience before I have to speak, preferably when someone else is speaking or introducing me, so I can scan the crowd for terrorists, potential hecklers and old girlfriends.

One final tip.  Keep your speech short, powerful, and, yes, entertaining.  Mark Twain said that "few sinners are saved after the first 20 minutes of a sermon."  A century later, it's even less.  Make every word count.  If you're not making them think, you should be making them laugh.  If you're doing neither, it's time to sit down.

Picture-Perfect Persuasion

Lately I've come across a bunch of articles and posts on persuasion, or what Lyman Beecher called "Logic on Fire". 

The summer double-issue of Harvard Business Review was all about sales.  Darren over at Problogger just did a whole series on persuasion, and Copyblogger even dusted-off Aristotle's Rhetoric for our edification!

Cause marketing is no different from other professions: persuasion is important.  I often tell people that I work in persuasion like a painter works in oils.  Here are my tips for a picture-perfect pitch.

It's not about you.  Sometimes we're so focused on ourselves we forget that it's our listeners that actually decide just how persuasive we are.  Calling yourself "persuasive" doesn't make it so.  It's only true if your listeners tell you so.  Always remembering who's in charge will keep you focused on the needs, interests and expectations of your listeners.

Persuasion occurs through identification.  The more you can align your message with the needs, beliefs, attitudes and expectations of your listeners, the more likely it is they'll agree with you.  People buy from people with whom they can relate.

Persuasion is incremental.  It takes time.  People don't generally change their minds quickly or easily, so you need to be realistic about what you can accomplish with each interaction.  Set the building blocks of persuasion in place that will get you where you want to go, but build in lots of extra time too. 

Play your strongest card.  I tend to plug listeners into one of three groups: thinkers, feelers or deferrers.  No one belongs to just one group; people are always a combination of all three.  But one is usually dominant.  Thinkers are logical and like reasoned, thoughtful arguments.  Feelers respond to emotional appeals.  Deferrers respect the opinions of others.  Figure out the dominant trait of your listener and choose the appeals that fit best.

But don't overdue it.  Fundraisers tend to approach everyone as a "feeler" and overplay the emotion card.  Read this post to learn about the pitfalls of overusing emotion and balancing it with ethos and logos (yep, Aristotle again).

"People need more to be reminded than informed".  A favorite quote of mine from Dr. Samuel Johnson.  The right pitch is the right pitch forever.  You nailed it and you know it.  The prospect knows it too, but for whatever reason, he's not ready to buy.  The "informing" part of your job is done.  But the challenge of sticking with him and staying top of mind until you close the sale has just begun!

Help Wanted

We've been approved to add two new employees to the Cause & Event Marketing team.  See the attached job descripton.  If you have a background in sales, marketing or fundraising, and live in Greater Boston, I'd like to hear from you.  Download cause_event_marketing_officer.doc

Help Making the Numbers

As cause marketers we call ourselves development officers, fundraisers and marketers.  But none of these names describe what we do as well as "salesperson" does. 

I began my nonprofit career 12 years ago with the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  At a regional training seminar my first year, I met a sales trainer that would shape my approach to selling in the years to come. 

Even then Jack Falvey had been "carrying a bag" for a generation and was teaching some of the best sales people how to sell better.

It's hard to say what exactly made Jack so memorable.  I had some sales training before I met him and a lot more afterwards.  All largely forgotten.  But Jack's advice stuck.  I think I knew--even then with my limited sales experience--that Jack really knew how to sell.  That he was indeed a Socrates of sales.  So I listened and learned.

Some of the pearls of wisdom I've repeated hundreds--if not thousands--of times since that day include:

• SW3=N.  Translation: Some will, some won't, so what, next!  A salesperson need only concern herself with two types of prospects: the one who says yes and the one she hasn't met.
• Know, see, sell.  Know your product, know your customer, see a lot of people, ask all to buy.  Is there really a better summary than this of how to be a successful salesperson?
• Nothing happens in this world until somebody sells something.  Few start life wanting to be a salesperson.  But don't knock it.  Sales is an important, challenging, rewarding profession that keeps the world moving.  Think about it.

After that brief training session with Jack, I took his advice but didn't run across him again until I saw an article he wrote last year and checked out his web site, Makingthenumbers.com.  Since then, I hear from Jack almost every day.  Monday through Friday he emails me a sales tip that keeps me focused on good habits and intelligent selling. 

My three favorite tips are stapled to my office wall.

• People need more to be reminded than informed.  Persuasion is incremental.  We sometimes wait for what seems an eternity for the cosmic tumblers to click into place.  In the meantime, don't let Mr. Prospect forget who you are and the problem you can solve.
• Want more sales?  Make more calls. So much of sales is a numbers game.  How many deals have you really closed with prospects you've never met or spoken?  Replace worry with work and get busy.
• What do you do best?  How can you do more of it?  I'm good at presenting and building relationships but not at making 50 calls a day to drum up new business.  Fortunately, my colleagues are. They work the phones and then we work together on next steps. 

The sales tips are free, but Jack also offers a subscription-only discussion of each tip that will drive home the learning.  You can check out examples of both here.

Jack would be the first to say that selling is hard work, but it isn't brain surgery.  It's more perspiration than inspiration.  But it's easy to forget the basics and make selling a lot harder than it is.  That's why it's helpful to have Jack leaning over your shoulder each morning to remind you that sales is part hard work, part listening, part common sense.  Like the Socrates of old, this sage of sales has much to teach, if we will only listen. 

Technorati tags: cause marketing, cause sales, jack falvey, makingthenumbers.com, sales training, selling

Keep Your Sales Pitch Short...Or Else

Mark Twain said that "Few sinners are saved after the first twenty minutes of a sermon."  According to this poll, you'd be lucky today if that sinner gave you five.  And watch out if you go six.

Half in the AP-Ipsos poll said they refuse to return to businesses that made them wait too long. Nearly one in five owned up to speaking rudely to someone in the last few months when they weren't served efficiently.

The fact that Americans are impatient didn't surprise me.  What did was how universal it is.  Old people are less patient than young.  Men more than women.  Suburbanites get antsy before city dwellers.  Rich, poor, didn't matter.

So if we're all a lot less patient than we thought, how do you craft a sales pitch that ensures your prospect doesn't lose patience with you?

• Tier your pitch.  Before the meeting, break your pitch into five minute segments.  What will you talk about if you have five minutes, ten, fifteen, and so on.
• Front-load the good stuff.  I tell my daughter all the time: don't tease.  Be upfront with your prospect about what you think you can do for him and why he should keep listening.
• Focus on value.  The devil's in the details, right?  So forget them.  Your goal is to build attention and common ground.  Convince her that you can make and/or save her money and she'll be more receptive to hearing specifics and dealing with roadblocks.
• Hear the unspoken.  This is one reason why I like team selling.  When your colleague is speaking, your watching the prospect's nonverbal cues.  Is he engaged?  Bored?  Impatient?  Confused?  You then becomes the speaker and adjust the pitch accordingly.
• What's your FLW?  Famous last words.  Every pitch should have them.  What is it you want the prospect to remember more than anything else after you're gone?  Stand up, look her in the eye, shake her hand and tell her what she needs to know.

A father once apologized to his son for not having the time to write him a SHORT letter.  Being focused and concise is hard work.  But your prospect will be so impressed with the effort that you'll be the salesperson he remembers best after the rest have been long forgotten.

Technorati tags: famous last words, impatient people, mark twain, sales pitch

Getting in the Door

This week I came across two sales tools I plan to try.  The first one opens doors, the second may keep them from slamming shut.

According to this Journal article, Spoke Software's Group Connector lets teams add their respective contacts to a database that then can be quickly searched to find an entry contact at a prospective company.  I could see this having great value to my department as we frequently struggle to keep track of who knows whom.  But just think if you could convince even a fraction of your donors to submit five to ten contacts to such a database.  The doors it would open!

Regardless of what sales contact software you use, every sales team should have a shared database that is religiously updated with every meeting, communication and news tidbit that involves a client or prospect.  At BMC we use Outlook and Kintera Sphere to categorize our contacts and record notes.  The best way to collect intelligence is to train your team to use a keyboard like they would a notepad and type as they listen.  That way there's nothing lost and it eliminates the extra step of plugging in hand written notes.

So, using Spoke's Group Connector you zero-in on a great prospect, you have that all important first meeting and, back at the office the following day, you're ready to hit the send button on that thank you email.  But wait!  Did you attach your video clip?  You did if you work for Jane magazine.

The ad sales staff at the Conde Nast Publications title have started pitching its clients by video, attaching clips to proposals as cover letters meant to secure some extra attention.

The videos don't cheat -- there are no special effects, celebrity cameos or MTV-style quick cuts. But they do put the very fresh faces of Jane's staff on camera, offering marketers and buying agencies a little more entertainment than their work usually affords.

This is a great way to reinforce a pitch, and it plays to a sale person's naturally strong interpersonal skills.  And it's so new and cool who wouldn't watch it?  Sure, it's a stunt.  But stunts can cut through the clutter and put you on a prospect's radar screen.  Isn't that what we all want anyway?  The chance to get a prospect's attention long enough to make our pitch.  Then if the door hits us in the ass on the way out we can at least say we had our chance to walk through it.

Technorati tags: cause sales, jane magazine, spoke software

Birth of a Salesman

After reading a review of The Little Red Book of Selling and its new companion book, I had an epiphany of sorts that I was gypping budding cause marketers by not talking specifically about the art of selling.  So beginning today I've started a new category called "Cause Sales" to cover the subject.

First, a definition.  If nonprofit marketing is the things we do to get and keep donors, "Cause Sales" must be the things we say to get and keep them.  If  "Cause Sales" sounds like any other type of "sales", that's because it is.  Sales is the same whether you're pitching a cause or a Cadillac because people are swayed by:

• Appeals that build trust.  The power of credibility is so strong that people will sometimes forgo other appeals because of your trustworthiness.  They defer to you and respect your judgment.  Consider people who do things just because the President or the Pope (or the Selfish Giver) tells them to.  Not the President or the Pope (or me), but want to be trusted?  Try being trustworthy.  If you're confused by what this means you should pursue a career in white-collar crime.
• Appeals that makes sense.  You appeal to your listener's sense of reasonableness.  If I tell a prospective donor that 90 cents of every dollar BMC raises goes back to help the people we serve, I'm appealing to her head, not to her heart.  It makes sense for her to donate because she knows the money will go to those in need.  That's a logical argument. 
• Appeals that touch them.  Yeah, you pull at their heart strings.  Fundraisers are usually pretty good at this so I won't explain.  But you should balance emotion with appeals that build trust and make sense.  If you don't , you run the risk of desensitizing your audience to your pitch.  Everything in moderation.

A piece of advice I liked from the review was how good sales people create value for their clients. 

Top sales reps don't peddle; they solve problems and make customers laugh while offering them something they genuinely need. 

Unfortunately, this isn't what most business people think when they first meet with me.  They think cause marketing must be a fancy term for "beggar".  I deal with this by not playing the charity card.  Why talk about something they already know and may even turn them off?  Instead, I focus on how my programs can deliver a powerful competitive edge by giving customers a better reason to buy from them than just product or price.  I finish by saying that helping themselves will ultimately be good for BMC and the community.  For many, this is the icing on the cake.  And it's hard to walk away without taking a slice.

Technorati tags: boston medical center, cause sales, nonprofit sales, selling