Cause Partners Asset Leveraging
As a cause marketing partner of One Warm Coat — a national effort to provide any person in need of a warm coat with one free of charge — retailer Burlington Coat Factory supported the charity with 8,000 [more…]
New Cause Partners thru Your Fundraising Events
Most causes have fundraising events, but they don’t view them as the assets they are. To many, cause marketing is one type of fundraising, and special events is another, without ever thinking to combine [more…]
Reaching Out to Cause Marketing Prospects
Before trying to communicate with a cause marketing partner prospect, take a minute to consider how you plan to connect with her about cause marketing. How do you plan to identify with the needs of the [more…]
Cause Marketing Prospect First Interaction
Your first interaction with a cause marketing prospect probably won’t be in person. It will be over the phone or e-mail. There’s a schism about the best way to initially connect with prospects: phone or [more…]
Getting Your Cause Marketing Prospect Talking
Meeting with a cause marketing prospect isn’t like a poker match with opponents eyeing each other waiting for someone to make the wrong move. The more you get your prospects talking, the better the chance [more…]
Positioning Cause Marketing as Win-Win-Win
When communicating by phone or e-mail, it’s critical that you position cause marketing as win-win-win. A win for the company. A win for the customer. A win for the cause. Here are some suggestions for [more…]
Dealing with Cause Partner Gatekeepers
Gatekeepers, employees who stand between you and a cause partner decision maker, are an inescapable part of sales. Your goal is not to avoid or demonize gatekeepers, but to get them to join your team. [more…]
Staying Top of Mind to Your Cause Prospects
Cause marketing isn’t a complicated topic like tax law or rocket science, so it’s unlikely that the prospect will need to be reminded what is is and how it works. More likely, you’ll need to gently remind [more…]
Using a Blog to Stay Relevant to Cause Prospects
Calling and e-mailing a prospect isn’t the only way to stay top of mind to your cause marketing prospects. Another great way is a blog. A blog is an online journal that is regularly updated with the most [more…]
Keeping Communications Open after a Prospect Says No
During the course of a sales cycle with a cause marketing prospect, you’ll surely have many conversations, but there’s one word you never want to hear: No, as in, “No, we have no interest in working with [more…]
Preparing for the Initial Cause Prospect Meeting
Congratulations! You’ve landed a meeting! A first meeting with the prospect is a big step toward closing a cause marketing deal. Prospects are busy and generally don’t give their time to meet with just [more…]
Initial Cause Prospect Meeting: Attendees
If you have a choice about who attends the first meeting with a cause prospect, don't bring your boss, a board member, or your president, do everyone a favor and leave them back at the office — at least [more…]
Initial Cause Prospect Meeting: Bringing Your Questions
It’s crucial that you understand the cause marketing prospect’s needs and goals and ask smart questions at that first meeting. Here are 15 questions that always come up in meetings and lead to productive [more…]
Initial Cause Prospect Meeting: Support Levels
While sponsorship and cause marketing are both win-win, they’re different in several important ways. One is how sponsorship programs frequently have levels of support [more…]
Initial Cause Prospect Meeting: Better PowerPoints
With PowerPoint, people have gained the ability to share presentations on a screen or in a handout. But as was true with so many other advancements, something powerful has been given up in exchange. [more…]
Closing the Cause Marketing Deal: Deferrers
Of the types of cause marketing decision makers, deferrers are the most fascinating because they’re people of compliance, trust, and faith. Deferrers don’t linger over the pictures like a feeler or pour [more…]
Free Giveaways in Cause Marketing
If you can’t sell something, try giving it away. That’s what King Gillette, the inventor of the Gillette disposable razor concluded. Giving away his razors is how he grew demand for his new invention when [more…]
