Transcript
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You're listening to the nonprofit power podcast.
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In today's episode, we share two marketing secrets that will help you more deeply engag decision-makers, and do it faster.
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So.
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Stay tuned.
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If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place.
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I'm Kath Patrick and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter.
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It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are.
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To have them seeking you out as an equal partner.
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And to have them Bringing opportunities and resources to you.
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This podcast will help you do just that.
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Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
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Hey there, folks.
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Welcome to the nonprofit power podcast.
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I'm your host, Kath Patrick.
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I'm so glad you're here for today's episode.
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Because we're going to get into a topic that just seems to be one of the toughest for nonprofit leaders to get comfortable with and to use effectively.
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And yet when you're able to do that, it absolutely will transform your ability to engage decision makers and move them along faster toward the thing that you're trying to get them to do for you.
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So let's get right into it.
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The first thing we have to understand is that as nonprofit leaders, one of the many roles we have is that we are marketers.
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And if that's not part of the way you think about your role, or if that creates a little resistance for you.
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Hang in there for a minute, because this is a secret to success in engaging decision makers that is absolutely a critical core skill.
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So just stay open to this and come along for the ride.
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If you're already there, and you get it that this is key, I'm going to share some things that'll help you get even better at your marketing skills.
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It doesn't matter what context we're in.
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We're always marketing something when we're engaging a decision maker.
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Whether we're talking to funders or foundations, to contracting partners, to government agencies, elected officials, whoever it is.
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In effect we're selling them something.
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If we're engaged in a conversation about resources, we're typically selling them on the idea that paying for our services that will benefit the people we serve, that that's a good investment.
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That that's a good idea.
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So a lot of times when we're engaging decision makers, we're really selling ideas.
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We're also selling the services, the products, the actual work that we do.
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But mostly what we're selling are ideas.
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So here's a couple things.
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First of all, if that chafes a little bit and you're feeling like no, I don't like selling and I don't want to do that.
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And, and that's not what we do in nonprofit.
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I'm going to challenge you on that and say, yeah, actually it is totally what we're doing a lot of the time.
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Think about this.
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When you're engaging a decision maker to get them to agree to invest in your work.
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Either through providing resources or directing resources in your direction, or by changing policy that will make it easier for you to do your work, whatever it is that you want them to do.
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You first have to get them to agree that that's a good idea and that they want to do it.
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And so in effect you are selling them that idea.
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You're selling them the idea of investing.
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And in that context, especially.
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Selling is serving.
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Because what we're really doing when we're selling, when we're marketing.
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Is we're connecting the person we're talking to.
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We're connecting them to an understanding of how this thing that we offer is going to make things better for them.
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It's going to help them reach their goals.
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And if we weren't there to help them see that, they might never make the connection.
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They might never realize that the very thing you're offering is the answer to the problem they're having, the need that they have.
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The problem they want to solve.
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The goal they want to get to.
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So by selling them on your stuff you are actually serving them.
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You are helping them get to the thing that they want, faster and easier.
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So the first step to taking advantage of a couple of really great marketing secrets that are going to absolutely catapult your effectiveness in this work.
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Is to understand that a key piece of your role is as a marketer.
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One of the mistakes that not just nonprofit leaders, but a lot of marketers make.
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Business owners do this too.
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Is that they want to lead with the features of the thing.
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Here's what it does.
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Here's all the cool bells and whistles.
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Here's all the things you get.
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Look at this.
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It does these 27 things.
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All the Dr.
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Seuss words come to mind.
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It's got pantoozles and boozles and bells and things.
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And I'm not as good as Dr.
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Seuss at making up those words, but you get the idea.
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We want to talk about all that, all the flashy cool stuff that our things do.
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And there's a problem there.
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Which is that until the person listening understands how this thing that you're selling is going to make their life better in some way.
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They're not listening really to the features of all the stuff it does.
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Because they haven't yet connected all those things to something that's going to help them.
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And the reason we all do this.
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The reason nonprofit leaders do this, the reason business owners do this.
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Is two things.
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One, we're too darn close to our own product.
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And we're in love with it.
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And that's a really awesome thing.
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We should be in love with the work that we do, with the ways we help people, with the stuff that we put out there in the world.
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We absolutely should be in love with it, because if we're not, what the heck are we doing?
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Right.
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But because we're in love with it.
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And we've worked hard to create all of those wonderful bells and whistles that make it even better and make it even more effective.
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We want to talk about all that.
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We want to talk about all the cool stuff that we've put in there that make it so great.
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But we already know deep down how it makes things better.
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And we're almost blind to it because we regard that as a given.
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We sort of operate from the belief that, well, gosh, everybody knows that.
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Everybody knows it's transformative.
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Everybody knows it helps people do whatever thing that's life-changing about it, that's situation changing about it.
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We know that so deeply because we designed the whole thing to achieve that outcome.
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That we kind of forget to tell people that.
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And we're busy going it does this and it does that.
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And it does all these things.
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When what we really need to do is lead with how it's going to rock their world.
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How it's going to solve a problem that they have, how it's going to make their life better.
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And there's lots of different techniques for how we do that.
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And in my coaching programs we get into all the different specific messaging techniques that you can use to create hooks for that.
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And craft your messaging just so, so that it pulls the decision maker in very quickly.
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But fundamentally the principle at work is that you're leading with how it's going to help them.
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How it's going to solve a problem they have.
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How it's going to make their life better.
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And often secondarily, how it's going to make the client's life better.
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You want to address both because you often don't know which lens or filter the decision-maker is listening with, as their primary filter.
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For some, their primary filter is how will it help the people that it's designed to help.
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And for others it's how's it gonna help me?
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How's it going to make my life better?
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All decision-makers care about both things.
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But you often don't know which one is paramount in their mind.
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Honestly it can change even within a given decision maker.
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What's true one day could be flipped another day, because of something that's happened in their world that suddenly made this be a much bigger problem for them.
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And now they're frankly worried about their problem.
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And the client has become secondary in that moment of crisis for them.
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So you absolutely want to be able to speak to both.
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Generally we are very, very good at speaking to how the work that we do transforms clients' lives.
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We're great at that.
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We tend to be less effective at sharing with a decision-maker how the work that we do is going to transform their life.
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How it's going to make their life better, how it's going to solve a big problem for them.
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We absolutely have to lead with how it's going to benefit both the decision-maker and the end user.
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Because until we do that they're not really listening.
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All that list of features, all the cool stuff it does.
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All the other stuff you might be tempted to tell them.
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All your data and all of that.
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There's a place for all of that.
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But first we got to get them to care.
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We got to get them engaged.
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And fundamentally, we have to connect it to the stuff that they care the most about, which usually is themselves and their world.
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And that's normal.
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That's human.
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We all have major bandwidth issues these days.
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So even if they really want to listen and really want to hear it all, they're going to listen a lot better and a lot more closely, and be more engaged in their listening.
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If you have first, from the get-go, connected the work that you do with how it's going to solve a problem for them.
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How it's going to make their life easier, better, whatever.
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Once they're pulled in on that, then they're going to ask you.
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That sounds awesome.
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I'd love to have that.
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How do you do that?
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Tell me how it works.
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How do you achieve that?
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And that's when you can start to talk about, well, we have this proprietary model, this model we've developed over the years that we've learned is the most effective in achieving XYZ outcomes.
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And it will solve this big problem that you have.
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You want to be able to explain not only how you solve the problem, how it works.
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But you also want to be prepared to explain how you're different from maybe all others, or from some others.
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What sets your organization and your work apart as providing particularly high value.
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And then the second big thing that becomes critical.
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And there's a long list of things that we can do, but I want to give you the two biggest marketing techniques that are going to give you the biggest impact right out of the gate.
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So the first one is to lead with how it's going to change their life, how it's going to make their life better.
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The next thing that is an absolute must for a successful marketer, and for anyone wanting to engage a decision-maker.
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Particularly about any sort of a money decision, but also about policy decisions.
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And that is to anticipate their objections.
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And to have at the ready, things that will either fix their objection, or reframe it.
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And the reframing can be key.
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Something you've probably already observed.
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But I'll let you in on a little piece of information here.
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The two most common broad categories of objection are cost, and uncertainty or worry about whether it will work for them.
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Cost is just a universal objection.
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Virtually every human being on the planet wants to get the most good stuff for the least amount of money.
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That's universal.
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So don't be surprised and don't get mad at them when they are looking for the bargain.
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It's human nature.
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But understand that it is very likely going to surface as one of their objections.
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Well, I don't know.
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That seems like a lot.
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Or that's more than we can invest.
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Or any number of ways they can say, well, can't you make it cheaper.
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Isn't there something we can do.
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Dah, dah, dah.
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You want to be ready to first of all, recognize that that ultimately is going to be something of a negotiation possibly.
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But also be ready to reframe that.
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Because if they want you to make it cheaper because they just want to pay less.
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Then it becomes critical that you be able to effectively and convincingly explain to them why you can't do it for less because it will compromise the quality.
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That said you want to be prepared to negotiate on cost, if that is something you can negotiate on in the context that you're dealing with.
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And it'll be different depending on which conversation you're having with whom.
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But there's almost always a way to negotiate on cost in terms of, well, if you have a ceiling, then we can always do a smaller project or serve fewer people.
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But what we can't do is give you this same high quality for the same number of people, and then just charge less for it.
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That's not an option that's on the table.
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And you have to be ready to explain why that is.
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But that shouldn't be difficult.
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Part of this is you managing your own head in these conversations.
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So if an objection around cost comes up, to not just go straight into a bunch of stories in your own head about what that means.
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You can always ask for more information before you start talking.
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If they say something vague like, well, I don't know.
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That seems like a lot of money.
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That's not enough information for you to respond.
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Unless you have marketing skills at the level to be able to counter with a conversation about well, compared to what.
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Compared to not solving the problem.
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What is that costing?
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Or compared to solving the problem halfway, what is that going to cost?
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Those are kind of next level skills in countering objections around costs, but ultimately that is where you want to get.
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And we spend a lot of time in my coaching programs, learning how to do that comfortably and easily.
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And get to the point where you are ready with that, if that comes up.
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But if that doesn't feel like something you're ready to do right now, you can always just say, well, help me understand your concerns a little better.
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When you say that seems like a lot of money, what's your thinking behind that?
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And make them say a little more.
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It's always a good idea to ask for more information.
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And then respond to whatever their concern is.
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But you always want to come back to o key things.
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Number one you never, ever want to be defensive about your price.
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I'm going to presume that you have developed your price based on solid cost data.
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You know your numbers.
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You have priced the thing appropriately, whether it's a project or a service or a per unit cost or whatever you're talking about in a particular context.
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That you know your numbers internally and you know that your pricing is solid.
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Here's what can happen a lot of times.
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And I see this in business owners.
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I see this in nonprofit leaders.
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So, again, you're not alone in this.
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It's kind of universal that when someone challenges us on price, we get defensive.
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And we start justifying.
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And that is not a good place to be.
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You basically want to be.
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You won't say it quite this way, but you want your head firmly in the space of, that is a very fair price as it is.
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There's nothing wrong with that price.
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That's the price.
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So let's talk about what's really the problem.
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But if you get defensive about your price, you're going to go all kinds of places that do not help you.
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And could really harm you if you're in a negotiating situation.
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But even if you're just trying to engage a decision maker and you get hung up in some unhelpful conversations about price, that's not going to go well.
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So you want to be really grounded in your price and have the mindset of, that is a solid price.
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It is a hundred percent justified.
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And I'm not going to be defensive about it.
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I can answer questions about it.
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I can say, well, that price is tied to XYZ quality elements that are essential to the outcomes that we get.
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And the value of those outcomes far exceeds the price.
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That's the core thesis you want in your head.
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And you need to be able to then explain how that is the case with your particular thing, but that's where you want to be.
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The other most common objection is a worry that if you say, well, this works beautifully, it's been proven.
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Dah, dah, dah.
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They may be thinking well, okay.
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That's great that it worked for those other situations, but will it work for me?
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I don't know.
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This feels risky.
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I'm going to be investing in something that we haven't done before.
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From their perspective, if they haven't done it before and it's new in their world.
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That's risk.
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So everything you can do to assure them that yes, it will work for them too.
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The better off you're going to be.
00:17:42.994 --> 00:17:48.832
And you should just expect that some version of that objection will make an appearance.
00:17:49.108 --> 00:17:50.189
And be ready to deal with it.
00:17:50.951 --> 00:18:03.991
There are many strategies for how you can mitigate risk all of which involve basically taking on some measure of risk for yourself, in order to balance in the decision maker's mind.
00:18:04.209 --> 00:18:06.588
That make it feel like it's a shared risk.
00:18:07.429 --> 00:18:08.929
But there's an art to that.
00:18:08.929 --> 00:18:10.398
And that is a whole other episode.
00:18:11.241 --> 00:18:18.092
Simply anticipating and being prepared to respond to objections from a non-defensive place is huge.
00:18:19.092 --> 00:18:20.231
Those two things.
00:18:20.625 --> 00:18:23.265
Three things, if you count avoiding the number one mistake.
00:18:23.714 --> 00:18:28.125
So, first of all, the mistake to avoid is avoid leading with the features.
00:18:28.674 --> 00:18:36.924
Instead, lead with how the thing that you're proposing will make that decision makers life better, easier.
00:18:37.194 --> 00:18:39.865
It'll solve a problem that they care about, et cetera.
00:18:40.315 --> 00:18:42.535
And how it will make the client's life better.
00:18:42.924 --> 00:18:45.595
Because maybe that is the problem they're primarily focused on.
00:18:46.255 --> 00:18:47.724
But you want to be ready with both.
00:18:47.775 --> 00:18:55.694
Don't assume that just being able to talk about how it'll make the client's life better will be persuasive for that decision maker in that moment.
00:18:56.179 --> 00:19:00.305
You also have to help them understand how it's going to make their life easier or better.
00:19:00.904 --> 00:19:02.525
And you lead with that.
00:19:03.055 --> 00:19:07.944
There will be time to talk about the features, but it's not what you lead with.
00:19:08.469 --> 00:19:10.419
You also don't lead with any of that other stuff.
00:19:11.001 --> 00:19:16.582
Other than a brief introduction, you don't lead with who you are and how many years you've been in business and all of that.
00:19:17.028 --> 00:19:18.169
You lead with what matters.
00:19:19.035 --> 00:19:23.888
And that will feel weird and awkward the first few times you do it.
00:19:23.888 --> 00:19:30.692
If you've been kind of operating from presentation mode, where you go through the logical progression of building a case.
00:19:31.355 --> 00:19:36.586
But that is not nearly as effective as leading with how it's going to help them.
00:19:36.986 --> 00:19:38.155
How it's going to make their life better.
00:19:38.673 --> 00:19:40.323
Because that'll perk up their ears right away.
00:19:40.922 --> 00:19:43.664
With bandwidth issues, you have a short time to capture their attention.
00:19:44.117 --> 00:19:45.018
You want to do it well.
00:19:45.448 --> 00:19:46.678
So you lead with that.
00:19:47.035 --> 00:19:55.065
You wait for the appropriate opportunity to talk about features and other details that will bolster the case for how it's going to make their life better.
00:19:55.557 --> 00:19:57.597
It'll help them understand it in greater depth.
00:19:57.998 --> 00:19:58.748
That's all good.
00:19:59.597 --> 00:20:06.768
And then you anticipate and be prepared to address at least the two major categories of objection.
00:20:07.428 --> 00:20:16.198
Plus any others that you can reasonably expect from your experience in dealing either with that specific decision maker or that category of decision makers.
00:20:16.845 --> 00:20:25.815
If you, from your experience know that that category of decision-makers tends to have a couple of particular objections, then you want to be ready to address those.
00:20:26.144 --> 00:20:29.127
But from a place that is confident.
00:20:29.711 --> 00:20:33.490
Secure in the knowledge that your stuff is awesome.
00:20:33.911 --> 00:20:35.681
That it solves major problems.
00:20:35.711 --> 00:20:37.421
It is the best of the best.
00:20:37.840 --> 00:20:42.948
And that investing in it will be a fantastic decision for that decision maker to make.
00:20:43.484 --> 00:20:44.894
You have to come at it from that.
00:20:44.894 --> 00:20:49.605
If you come at it from a place of defensiveness and every time you get an objection, you start backpedaling.
00:20:50.025 --> 00:20:51.285
That goes nowhere.
00:20:51.315 --> 00:20:52.904
That is gonna kill the deal.
00:20:53.250 --> 00:20:55.560
Or at least make it a lot harder to close the deal.
00:20:56.345 --> 00:21:04.221
So be ready for those objections and be ready to address them from a place of coming back to how it's going to help the decision maker.
00:21:04.644 --> 00:21:07.055
Showing how it will work for them.
00:21:07.641 --> 00:21:11.154
That, along with leading with how it's going to make their life better.
00:21:11.845 --> 00:21:20.151
Are two of the core marketing secrets that will absolutely improve the level of engagement you get with decision-makers.
00:21:20.570 --> 00:21:25.520
And your success rate in getting them to say yes to the thing that you want them to do for you.
00:21:26.208 --> 00:21:26.958
Give those a try.
00:21:26.988 --> 00:21:28.067
Let me know how it goes.
00:21:28.548 --> 00:21:33.228
You can reach out to me on LinkedIn or at the podcast website.
00:21:33.258 --> 00:21:36.978
And I'll put the links to both of those methods of contact in the show notes.
00:21:37.278 --> 00:21:38.688
I'd love to hear back from you.
00:21:39.018 --> 00:21:43.827
Let me know maybe how you've already been applying these principles and you're going to take it to the next level.
00:21:44.038 --> 00:21:48.258
Or if this is brand new to you, give it a shot and let me know how it goes.
00:21:48.701 --> 00:21:51.731
If you have questions, I'm happy to respond to those as well.
00:21:52.208 --> 00:21:56.097
This is one of my favorite topics because it's so critical.
00:21:56.438 --> 00:21:59.048
When you first start to do it, it feels really counterintuitive.
00:21:59.464 --> 00:22:08.842
But once you make it your standard practice, you will find that it will be absolutely transformative in how those conversations with decision makers go.
00:22:09.637 --> 00:22:10.508
Thanks for listening.
00:22:10.837 --> 00:22:14.678
And I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.
