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Huh? Sales managers? But we don’t sell anything!
Actually, you do! You’re selling value.
Any exchange of money occurs because a person sees value in giving away their hard-earned cash.
The private sector usually has sales managers for their teams. The nonprofit sector usually doesn’t.
Instead, they have Directors or CDO’s. But too many of them don’t know how to manage lead generation, cultivation, and tactical “closing” teams.
It’s time for fundraising shops to employ sales management principles.
I think every nonprofit with major gift and planned gift staff needs a structure that yields accountability metrics that have been proven effective in the private sector.
The best authority on this topic (in my opinion) is Mike Weinberg. Here’s a great video that explains how to do it.
>>What Activity Metrics You Should Measure for Effective Long Term Planned Giving Marketing
>>Fundraising Metrics: You Have to See Them to Believe Them
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A nonprofit recently fired their “sales manager” for expecting major and planned giving officers to make too many face-to-face meetings. He expected each manager to make 25 calls per month. What is the “normal expectation”?
It depends. What counts as a call? A face-to-face meeting?
If your org is local and you can meet with 25 face-to-face in a month that might not be out of bounds. But if the donors are spread out around the world, then of course that would be nuts.