GET TO THE POINT!

Next time you're making a call to a new corporate or institutional prospect, try the following:

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• State your name, affiliation and where you're located; 
• Ask for the name of the person who makes decisions about their organization's charitable activity (sponsorships, volunteerism, or the like) and if you can speak with them; 
• Share any common linkage 

If the person is unavailable, tell the individual who answered the phone EXACTLY - and I mean EXACTLY - why you're calling. For example,"I'm calling to see if Acme Corporation might be interested in sponsoring our event. Please have (name) call me back so I can tell her/him about why this is such a great opportunity."

GET TO THE POINT! And do it directly and honestly.

Over the past few days, I've been making some calls on behalf of a new client. Initially, I was trying a few different approaches but ended up returning to this old favorite. As always, I'm getting an amazingly high response and call back rate.

My focus for these calls is on recruiting corporations to support a charity cycling event with a corporate team and/or sponsorship. Prior to starting the calls, I researched my prospects, got to know about the organization I'm helping and of course, I thought about the best outreach strategy.

If you've been in the sales/fundraising profession for awhile, chances are you're familiar with the many systems, approaches, and strategies - some of which are manipulative and dishonest - for getting decision makers to call you back. While I've never gone the route of subterfuge or slick language, I have tried all kinds of scripts and phrasing I was convinced would contain the magic bullet for getting that sought after return phone call.I still believe this is the best...It's honest. It's sincere. It demonstrates respect for your prospect's time. You'd be hard pressed to find an objection to honesty, sincerity or respectfulness.

Try it next time you're prospecting.