Are you the type of person who dreads picking up the phone to call potential donors or sponsors? Will you do everything on your to-do list including cleaning the office just to put it off for another day? Well, you're NOT alone!
Picking up the phone and dialing a stranger to ask them for something is SCARY. What if they hang up? What if they yell at you? What if they have no idea about you or your organization?
Working at a nonprofit means you wear a lot of hats daily and calling donors or sponsors is inevitably one of them. I am going to share with you my top 5 tips on how to prepare before a phone call so you are making friendly “warm calls” instead of scary “cold calls.”
How do I know what techniques are going to be successful and actually work? Well, not only do I have twelve years of business development experience but I’m also HubSpot certified in industry best practices on pre-call planning and “warm calls.”
I just finished learning and being motivated by Dan Tyre from HubSpot (employee #6), in his Pipeline class. He walked us through the best practices on tackling your fear of picking up the phone and how to be the best warm caller you can be! I am going to share some of what I learned here with you. But I would also read this great blog from HubSpot on how to create a compelling nonprofit story!
First, let’s define the difference between a cold call and a warm one so we are all on the same page.
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