Qualified Prospects
The major gift process, if executed well, gives you the greatest return on your investment…by far. Far greater return than events or large-scale appeals. You identify a prospect, do your homework, and ask for a specific major gift.
Sounds simple? It is, but only if you stay true to your instinct. You know when prospects are qualified prospects. You know you need to spend time building credibility, rapport and chemistry. And it does takes time.
But, if you fool yourself and spend your efforts with someone who is not qualified to give you these major gifts, you have wasted precious time. If you have four or five of these, you’ve wasted days, maybe weeks. From my sales training background, we call them “suspects.” Who are your suspects? These are people on your “list” but they are the furthest thing from qualified prospects. So why do you do it? Because it adds volume to your pipeline. Because you might be hopeful.
Hope is not a good business word. You cannot hope suspects into being qualified prospects, but you can eliminate suspects from your pipeline by being honest with yourself. You want to spend your time on qualified prospects, and you all know who they are.
Better to spend more time on fewer qualified prospects, than to spread your time over many suspects just because it makes your list longer!
Qualify your prospects. Remove the suspects. You will quickly learn to know the difference.
Written by John J. Corcoran
