Substitute the word “fundraising” for “income” in this priceless piece of advice from marketing consultant Dan Kennedy…
How would you like to know the number one secret to at least doubling your income from selling almost overnight? It's not a very difficult or mystical secret. Here's all you have to do: You get two eyes of newt, one black garter snake, a bottle of olive oil, and a book of chance.
I'm kidding.
What you do is – double the amount of time you actually legitimately spend selling. How do you do that? Well, one way is to delegate whatever non-selling activities you can. Save time and free up key people like you. Also get militantly tough about valuing, protecting, and investing your time.
Keep a log for every minute of your time. That's a mirror that will change behavior. If you can double your true selling time, I guarantee you'll more than double your income.
Sounds too simple, right? But it works.
After reading that sage advice last week, I decided to set aside four hours on Monday to doing nothing but making fundraising phone calls for a new project my non-profit is working on.
I’m a gardener with dirty hands.
And even though my list-to-call had already been mailed info on the project, none had yet sent a check. So I jumped on the phone and made some follow-up calls…and raised over $5,000.
Muth’s Truth: “Money isn’t given; it’s raised.”
Go RAISE some money. Ask. Ask. And ask again.
And one other quick but unrelated observation from Mr. Kennedy…
In the Pa. Senate campaign, somebody wrote a brilliant line for Fetterman: “I’ve had a stroke. I’m getting better every day and by the time I go to Washington, I’ll be 100%. But Dr. Oz will still be a fraud.”
It worked. It hit, hard. It was memorable. It came from Winston Churchill’s famous exchange with Lady Astor when, at a social gathering, she exclaimed that he was drunk. Churchill said, “Yes, I am – but I’ll be sober in the morning. You, Lady Astor, will still be ugly and unpleasant.”