Last month we looked at the reasons people contribute. We also made the point of how nonprofits increase their ability to raise money by meeting people where they are. While that’s a phrase widely used in social work, the tactic works whether you are a nonprofit, a business working to generate revenue, or even a medical practice caring for patients. When you partner with people where they are, the desired results will follow.

Clearly, most nonprofits approach their communications with messages focusing on their mission, as well as the services they provide. While that’s a worthwhile scenario, there’s more to it than that. Trust me, after decades in business, 15 running my own with numerous clients, and forming two 501c3 organizations, I know how nonprofits work and what they do.

A key lesson I learned, early in my business development career, is that stories sell. That’s the same as saying stories help your nonprofit raise the funds needed to create and maintain programs that benefit your various audiences. Certainly, a successful approach needs to incorporate your mission, your numbers, and the ways you make a positive impact on your target communities. At the same time, if that’s the exclusive focus of your communications, you’re missing the mark.

The Application4Your Nonprofit

Last month we encouraged you to avoid the cookie-cutter approach to fundraising. Please be reminded, the following strategy works for all kinds of businesses. To achieve the greatest success, customize your messaging to fit the situation and integrate storytelling in all aspects of fundraising and sales.

Those stories will sell and, in the case of your nonprofit, that means you’ll increase your capacity to carry out the work of your organization. A compelling story impacts the decision process in a variety of ways. The listener can better connect their passion with your cause, it builds empathy, and it softens the ground for the ultimate ask. Too many fundraisers simply present the facts, ask for the money, and even when checks are written, wonder why a lot of money is left on the table.
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Embrace that story and tailor it for use in your messaging, in your formal ask, grant requests, on your website, and obviously throughout your social media. So you aren’t in the development world? As I’ve stated above, this same technique fits with whatever you’re doing in your professional life, as well.  

Stories motivate action.  Tell them.  Get better at telling them.  Then tell them again.

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We have a traditional Giving Day in November and many other giving days taking place throughout the year in different communities. “It's more blessed to give than to receive” as the verse states. Every one of our clients gives of their time, treasures, and talents to a nonprofit, and I believe all of them support more than one. 

The process of a business making a donation is often different than for an individual. Businesses invest in the communities in which they operate for a variety of reasons. Over the past few decades, I’ve observed companies making contributions—both to the nonprofits I lead or serve (The Spot on Kirk, Help Save The Next Girl Foundation, Healing Strides of Virginia)—and to other worthy organizations.

During a recent presentation I made to the partners of the Community Foundation of the New River Valley, I shared four reasons businesses usually give:

                                                                                                                                            To feel good

                                                                                                                                          To get attention

                                                                                                                                                 To help

                                                                                                                                   To exercise their passion

Naturally, some gifts are given in honor, in memoriam, or in recognition of someone or something, but bundle all the other business donations and you’ll find they fit neatly in one or all of these buckets.

How2Shift Your Approach

One-size-fits-all—except when it doesn’t.
 
If you’re a nonprofit or serve on the board of one, take a moment to look at the above list and help your executive director or director of advancement understand the impact of this information. Most nonprofits have their prepared selling presentation (aka, “canned approach”) and it’s usually focused on the good they do and the needs they have. So, continue to share those stories that lay out your organization’s mission and the projects that need funding.
 
At the same time, be sure to align the mission and needs of your nonprofit with your donor’s interests and reasons for supporting you. Doing that will make everything come together for the nonprofit and for the donor. It’s a win for everyone.
 
Taking this extra step also strengthens the meaningful connections and relationships you have with your donors. Additionally, the donor gains insight on how their support can provide a greater return on their investment. Help your donors make an even bigger difference by making a difference for them too. Grow together!

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Sometimes it can be easy to tell when out-of-towners are doing the marketing and advertising. There’s nothing wrong with hiring an out-of-town firm—in fact, we help clients all over the Southeast and have worked with businesses as far away as Michigan, Kansas, and California.

However, when you are missing familiarity with a region, it’s important you ask a lot of questions. Gather even more information than you might normally. Quite frankly, you need to learn to speak their language. I spent a few decades in Ohio and Michigan, and if you’re going to sell a cold carbonated beverage there, you’d better call it a “pop” and not a “soda.” Say “pop” in Virginia and you may just get a strange look, like you’ve just said “youz guys” instead of “y’all.”

It’s important when conducting business to ensure you are choosing your words and examples carefully. Everyone in Northwest Ohio knows how to pronounce Maumee just like Michiganders can locate The Thumb. Around Greater Roanoke, there is a specific way to pronounce Buena Vista and Staunton (Bew-na Vista and Stan-ton). And there’s no “s” in the Roanoke suburb called Cave Spring.

These are basic things you have to get right as a marketer, but it goes beyond the way cities and suburbs are pronounced or how to order a Coke.

"Ya Got2Know the Territory"

That statement comes from "The Music Man," one of the first musicals I ever saw. My parents loved plays—and that means I followed suit and learned my way around a show tune. In the movie version, Robert Preston starred as the traveling salesman, Professor Harold Hill. There are many famous songs from the Broadway show, but in "Rock Island" he sang energetically that "ya gotta know the territory." Ain't that the truth.

Choose your words carefully. It’s not just for a car wash. You must learn early that not every business has a customer. Some refer to them as clients, users, followers, or in the case of a medical practice, patients. Those words matter, so it’s best to talk that through with your prospect before you start a relationship. Beyond that, it’s wise to be completely confident that the targeted area is spelled correctly.

If this were the first time a billboard in our market depicted Cave Springs, then you could note it and move along. On the other hand, when you see it a few times, it’s suddenly fodder for a local writer to use as an example of focusing on the value of familiarity with language, pronunciation, and locations. And if you’re traveling through Roanoke, remember there’s only one spring, so it’s actually Crystal Spring and Cave Spring.

Time for a confession. There are times when I’m not the upbeat, energetic guy many of you may think I am.  

While I often draw energy from people, there are plenty of times when people can drag me down. There’s a certain type of person who can zap my strength. Those who either swear they’re the smartest person in the room or who work hard to convince you they’re the smartest person in the room. They really put me in a bad place.

You know what I’m talking about. They’ll tell you all the things they know. Then they’ll share the best way to do this or that. Committed to proving their point, they are sure of their facts and their opinions. (Sometimes it can be hard to tell the two apart.) They’ve been to the best places, impressed the most important people, and they know exactly how everything works. There’s absolutely nothing they can learn from you. 

I think it’s that last thought process I find most objectionable. When I consider how a person can truly believe that, it gets me thinking. So, to pick at that concept a little more, I looked up some statistics I had heard tossed around and confirmed something I had surmised.

Apply This Approach4Improvement                                                                                                                                            

Pay attention to who is asking questions and who wants to learn more.
When you do that, you start to determine who is actually the smartest person in the room. According to Forbes, only 15 to 25% of adults spend time asking questions. The same survey determined that roughly 75% of all children ask questions. Apparently, when we become adults, we know everything (or think we do).
Where did the curiosity of our youth go?

 Start by figuring out what you’d like to learn. Be determined to ask more questions.Listen to the answers and then ask more questions. That’s the best way to grow as a person, a marketer, a leader, and a business owner. Once you stop asking questions, you become the person who thinks they’re the smartest person in the room. The know-it-all.

 However, don’t stop there. Start paying attention to other people and the times when they ask questions. You’ll come to the same conclusion I did; in fact, very few people ask questions. It’s a sad commentary on our world when there is so much we can learn from others and so many places to access information. We go to Google instead of going to each other. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve left a function or a dinner and commented to my wife that not a single person asked me a question.

 The most interesting people ask the best questions.

 Think about that and then work on your inquisitory skills.  

Tools4The Job

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It’s difficult to recall those cold January nights of a few months ago when we’re enjoying the temperatures and the flowers that the month of May has sent our way. Yet, I can easily recall a very cold January night when the heat pump, at a house we own, broke. There were cute little babies in our midst and we needed heat. It was not a “Sweet Virginia Breeze,” but a cold, cold night.
Fortunately, I have a client (Thanks Bower Heating & Air Conditioning!) that was available to make an evening service call. They found our heat pump in the crawl space and quickly identified the problem. The motor was broken. Unfortunately, 18-year-old heat pump motors don’t loosen easily. Aaron visited his truck and returned with just the right tool. I know I should have asked him the name of it, just in case I ever needed to own one.

When he returned, he said, “this tool is the only way I’m able to loosen those screws.” The message was clear – you have to have the right tools to get the job done.  Aaron went on to say, “this tool was one of the first ones I got when I started in the heating and cooling repair business.” He made it clear there was no way to get at that motor without this exact tool. Which got me to thinking.

Know What You Need2Get The Job Done  

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Now, I am not particularly handy when it comes to fixing things. That work always baffles and intimidates me.

Yet, when it comes to marketing and advertising, I know the tools are different, but the approach is actually the same. There are plenty of tools at our disposal at any given time, and we have to know when and how to use them to fix our clients’ problems. We utilize them in five key areas: marketing, advertising, digital, branding, and communications. Sometimes we use the tools to create a strong internet presence. Other times for a powerful TV campaign, an impactful PR strategy, or an internal branding approach.

No one solution fixes all problems any more than you’d take just one tool to a cold nighttime call in January.  Furthermore, that 5-star Bower guy knew exactly which tool to pull from his toolbox that would get the heat back into the house with those two sweet babies. I knew to call them. They knew what to do. And I didn’t need to own that mystical “motor-taker-offer tool” myself, after all.

You’re running your business and it’s not necessary for you to understand how to apply those five critical tools we use in our business. It’s the same as when I reached out to Bower . . . you just have to know who to call.

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Recently I read an article in The Roanoke Times about the Virginia Tech athletic director. He was talking about hiring big-time coaches and how that process works. The first football coach he hired happened after one relatively quick meeting and an on-the-fly negotiation. The whole process took place within a few days.

Coaching changes always make sports news and often cross into the mainstream media. Hires are done with multiple teams competing for the same big-name leaders, and as the VT AD shared, the decisions are made fast and for big dollars. Mistakes can cost millions or tens of millions of dollars. In fact, just a few months ago, an NBA professional basketball coach was fired in his first year after just 43 games (with a 33-10 record).

What is happening in the sports world that applies to those of us in business and industry?

Over the past decade, the NFL has had an average of 6.2 head coaching job openings each year. This year, as the NFL prepares for their annual draft in the next few weeks, there are eight new coaches leading their teams. One third of the teams will have new multimillion-dollar coaches in charge by the start of the season.

Bringing It2Small and Mid-Sized Businesses

The owners of these professional franchises and the front office personnel aren't likely to admit they've made a mistake. Players are getting paid a lot of money. Blame must go somewhere. Naturally, it s the leader s fault.  Let s fire the coach and see if a new voice can lead the team in a new and better direction.

Often the coaching approach switches from a  players coach,  who can identify with the team, to a disciplinarian who demands conformation. Then they switch back when that doesn't work. While many teams in the NFL have changed coaches multiple times, one team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, has had only three coaches over the past 54 years. All three of them have had winning records and won at least one Super Bowl. Remember, this article isn't about sports, it s about business.

Think for a moment about the value of consistency.

Most of you have your team, your clients, your prospects, and yourself in the mirror. You've put faith in the employees you have in place. You've weathered the storms, helped them improve, coached them as they coached others, and determined what wasn't working right when things weren't going well. Skip the scapegoat mentality and focus on improvement and better outcomes. If you can improve your leadership, that s the best course. You don't have a group of media outlets breathing down your neck or hundreds of thousands of fans screaming for change. It s your decision to make and yours to live with. Do all you can for them before making your own  coaching change for change's sake.

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