Finding Prospects

Finding Prospects

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about lead generation and prospect development. I had tremendous feedback and discussions because of the TMC. One recurring theme was trying to get prospects for your funnel.

Where do you find prospects—real prospects, not suspects? There are the typical ways and they work.

  1. Look in your database of donors. The companies your donors work for or own may be good prospects.
  2. Look in your accounting ledger and find out whom you are spending money with.
  3. Watch the news.
  4. Look at who is buying advertising and sponsorships. They obviously have money, and if you are the right audience, perhaps they are a good prospect.

I spent some time with a couple of colleagues and came up with these “Five Non-Traditional Prospect-Finding Tools.” They are beyond the typical—not necessarily unknown, but outside the norm. Here they are.

1.Get in the media! Make your organization, program, product, or people newsworthy. That doesn’t mean a mediocre story, but a real news story. Create interest about your organization and the audience you deliver—preferably a story about you and one of your partners. Leads will come your way. There will be tire-kicking as well, but you will get some leads, not to mention overall profile.

2.Create different messaging for different audiences. Position yourself according to the audience you are seeking. If your organization can deliver a product for men 18-34 or an audience of men 18-34 and also young families, then those two messages are different, but you are still the brand or the property. Say you are a musical arts organization that delivers a senior audience for your classical music performances, but you also have a millennial audience that comes to Wednesday evening contemporary performances for networking. Make sure these are two different prospect groups!

3. Tell stories! Whether online, through media, or in person, tell stories of success. Talk about your partners, what they hoped to receive in results, and how they received above and beyond. Share stories and experience for different sector partners. This allows you to garner interest from qualified leads.

4. Network! Attend conferences, Chamber events, workshops, lunch ‘n’ learns, etc. Instead of just your own sector events (which you should be attending and continue to attend like AFP, SMCC, etc.), start attending Chamber functions. Perhaps speak to a Rotary or Lions Club about your organization. If you want to break into a new category such as banking, or oil and gas, etc., why not attend their networking functions and meet those people in their environment?

5. Stop thinking about who has money and can help you. Start thinking about what you have in audience, brand, and assets, and who you can help! Then go after those companies you can help versus those that can help you. If you help them make more money, they will share it with you!

If you have great prospect development ideas, please feel free to share them. I would love to learn from you as well!

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