Funding

"You're in Sales. Get over it!" -Tom Suddes

Funding

Top 33 + Routine

This is a shorthand funding strategy we’ve been using with many organizations.

Focus on your top 33 prospects:

  • Your Top 3 Champions
  • Your Top 10 Best Prospects
  • Your Next 20 Potential Investors
  • Total = top 33 prospects

In any given year, be in front of all of them. Have a specific strategy… focus… persistence… you will be where you need to be in terms of funding.

Beyond the top 33 focus on ROUTINE. Much like a yoga practice, focus on the habits and discipline of making x number of visits per week and asks per month. As coaches, we might have you (or your team) focus on your top 33 and then focus on the systems, routine, habits that get you out of the office making FIVE visits each week and a total of 10 asks per month.

97% of the funds come from 3% of your prospect/relationship family. So, focus on the top of the pyramid. The first part of the strategy is all about QUALITY and RETURN-ON-ENERGY.

The second part of the strategy is all about PROCESS and ROUTINE.

“Focus on the process, not the outcome.” – John Wooden.

The importance of routine and process should be obvious; perhaps focusing on routine is not. If you focus on the routine of making visits I can promise these results:

  • Funding momentum
  • The discovery of more and better prospects
  • Volume (in relationships and all metrics including dollars-in-the-door)
  • A more engaged leadership
  • Awareness in the community
  • The emergence of the all hailed ‘culture of philanthropy’
  • A tremendous sense of personal achievement, growth and fulfillment tied to the skill set and tied to the impact you will have on your mission

I think too many organizations try to focus on the outcomes above and not necessarily the process.

Focus on the process. You can control that. Focus on developing a routine and bettering that routine. It will generate results.

Actually, both ends of the strategy will achieve these results, independently. And, this point is crucial for those organizations that don’t have the knowledge or confidence to focus on a ‘top 33 first’.

Important: This works for you and your organization… Whether you’re the head of sales at a Fortune 500 company or the head of a small community-health organization in rural Iowa.

Focus on your Top 33 prospects and then focus on the routine of sales. If you don’t know your top 33, start with routine.