Why tracking fundraising calls is your key to success

NO ONE WILL SAY YES TO A VISIT… I’VE TRIED EVERYTHING!

Really?

Frequently I’ll talk to someone who is just getting serious about scheduling visits and they have the same thought.

“No one seems to want to visit with me.”

The first thing I ask is if they are tracking their attempts.

Almost always the answer is no.

They have no idea what percentage of people are saying yes to a visit or just ignoring them.

When they do start tracking, many times they have about a 10% success rate.

What that means is in the course of a busy day with lots of internal meetings, gala napkin folding practice, and a fire drill in the building it can feel like you made SO MANY attempts when in reality…

you only made 7 attempts that day.

Guess what?

If your success rate is 10%, you simply haven’t made enough attempts to get a win so it feels like EVERYONE IS SAYING NO!

THE SKY IS FALLING!

So many times, you just need to make more attempts.

You need to be disciplined and make the attempts every single day no matter what.

If you’re getting discouraged and not seeing the success you want, start tracking your attempts and how many visits you actually get scheduled.

You’ll get away from your feelings, see the actual data, and then be able to see what you need to do to find success.

Kevin Fitzpatrick is the owner of One Visit Away, a consulting business helping leaders of nonprofits schedule more and better visits with their benefactors.  Kevin’s goal is to help fundraising professionals constantly seek to deepen their relationships with their benefactors.  After all, you’re just One Visit Away from growing your mission and your impact.  

Related Resources:

• “One Visit Away” podcast
• Webinar: Scheduling Visits is Scary…but it doesn’t have to be that way.
• Dr. James explains why “No” often leads to “Yes”
• The Pathway to a Significant Philanthropic Investment is Not Paved With Just “Visits”

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