We've repeatedly been told about the importance of hard skills such as mastering
your excel spreadsheets, bookkeeping, coding, learning new languages, and many others. While hard skills are necessary, they are futile when asking for donations. Why? Because when fundraising, you are not trying to persuade Billy the Bot to take action or to pull a specific view from a data set, but rather, you're persuading humans with real emotions to take action.
That said, we know how important it is to develop soft skills. That's why we created this blog post to share with you four of our most trusted and powerful techniques to incorporate into your face-to-face fundraising effectively.
Persuasion Technique #1: Emotional Intelligence
When we break down emotional intelligence, it comes down to connection. How are you connecting with your prospects? Are they guarded? Are you coming off too aggressive? If their guard is up when you first approach them, how can you lower their guard? Maybe tell them a knock-knock joke! If their body becomes less tense, you'll know this person is a jokester and appreciates a good laugh. By effectively picking up on emotional cues, you'll be able to understand your prospects on an emotional level and respond in a way that is curated for your prospect.
Persuasion Technique #2: Your Personality
People do not buy what you are selling. They buy you!
Your nonprofit's "why" is unique to your personality and how you can get that message across. It differentiates your mission from other nonprofits fighting for the cause or donor. People are more likely to respond positively when you are personable, passionate, and engaging in conversation. Everyone needs to know why it matters, how their dollars will help, and what impact they can make, but you'll never get that far if they don't like you.
Persuasion Technique #3: Confidence
When you think about some of the most inspirational people in history, what do they all have in common? They have confidence. When you demonstrate confidence, people who exude confidence are more likely to inspire others and their loyalty because confidence is a mentally appealing quality as a client representative. You show your prospects that you believe in this cause, know what you're talking about, and can be their leader in this mission.
Persuasion Technique #4: Active Listening
Sorry to burst your bubble, but when fundraising for your nonprofit, it's never about you. It's always about your prospects!
Prospects want to feel valued and understood, so you must listen closely to what they are saying. Find their goals, concerns, and needs, and then speak to them with empathy and compassion.
Conclusion
Navigating conversations with your prospects should focus on how you emotionally connect and understand one another. As humans, we desire to create impactful and meaningful relationships; therefore, the human connection will always outrank any hard-selling tactic when trying to persuade other humans.
Come work with us, and let us show you how we can help unleash your inner power and confidence. Look at our career section and learn more about how it's at our core to empower others.
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