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Nix the Cultivation Event and GO AT THE GOAL

Daily Nuggets | | Nick Fellers

A few weeks ago we published “10 Action Steps to Help you Engage in 2016.” Over the next 10 weeks, we are going to use each action step as a week long theme to help you get it done!

This week’s theme is: Set your goals of ENGAGEMENT.

We often see ‘Fundraising Plans’ that call for X number of Cultivation Events a year.

The coaching on this one is always the same: Nix the Cultivation Event and GO AT THE GOAL.

  • The best way to build and maximize relationships is 1:1. (See 1x 10x 50x.)
  • When you do an event, your ‘network’ is going to expend a ton of energy getting people to the event – I would rather expend that collective energy on getting 1:1 intros.
  • You do the event and you’re still going to have to work to get the follow-up – which is the goal! SO, just go to the goal.

(See ‘No More Events’ and ‘No More Cultivation’.)

Nixing the event and focusing on getting more visits is a simpler, more productive approach. It may feel challenging to work through the ‘but-what-about-objections.’ So, here’s a few ideas:

  • You need a good message and story for the visit. Absent of this people hear (and what creates our reluctance) is “Can I come and ask you for money?” If instead people heard (and we believed), “We’re having an amazing impact and need more people like you to know about it!” (Read more The Story for the Visit here.)
  • The first visit doesn’t need to be an ambush for money. Quite the opposite – the goal should be to ENGAGE. To LISTEN. And then to overwhelm the other person with the IMPACT so that he or she says, “This is incredible, how can I help?”

This shift in thinking save hundreds of hours, thousands and thousands in fundraising costs and countless lives (because we will generate much more INCOME for our IMPACT).