Newsletter: Best Ways to Reach Out to a Prospective Partner 🤝 ; Does Your Partnership Team Need a Name? 🤔 ; Why Your Marketing Needs to be Irrational 🤪

Last week I got a question from a reader about the best ways to reach out to a prospective partner.

Here you go...

🔬Do your research. The first thing to do is to confirm that the company is indeed a good prospect. Next, I apply this rule: Do not reach out to a prospect unless you (1) have an referral from someone they know (e.g. "Joe Waters suggested I contact you...") or (2) an OVP (overwhelming value proposition) for them that makes the opportunity too good to miss and you had to call them.

🤝 Build relationships. The outreach process doesn't have to be transactional. Try to connect with the prospect about other things besides the partnership. Years ago, I connected with a prospect because we were both baseball fans. This meant that when we spoke we'd talk about baseball first and partnerships second.

📧 Think a lot about your subject line. The subject lines in most emails I get are horrible. Give the reader a compelling reason in the subject line to open your email. The easiest way to do this is to make the subject line about THEM and not you.

☎️ Always be reachable. I'm amazed the number of people that don't have their phone number at the bottom of their emails. I don't know about you, but I don't generally plug people's contact information into my phone. I search for the last email someone sent me and check their signature for a number.

🪄Finesse the follow up. Ok, so the prospect hasn't gotten back to you. What you do next is critical. First, don't get all passive-aggressive and imply you can't believe they haven't gotten spoken to you yet about such a wonderful opportunity.🙄 Second, take a different tact with your approach and introduce new information that you didn't share in your first communication but is equally relevant.

A little bit of polite persistency will take you far!

Are you doing something that works well in reaching prospective partners? Hit reply and let me know and I may include it in a future post! You'll be supahstah in the Selfish Giving community! 🤩

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. Your partnership team needs a name. What's yours? Should we have a contest?

2. Have you ever partnered with furniture store chains? 🛋 A few partnership ideas on this page.

3. Ok, march into your boss's office right now and yell: "It's not my job to nurture sales leads!" This article will help you explain why!

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. Why your marketing needs to be irrational (especially during a downturn).

2. I often argue that every nonprofit needs Email + 1 (additional social channel) for marketing. Here's the argument for why your +1 should be TEXT.

3. I frequently talk about "building an audience" for your nonprofit, but the hot trend right now is building a community. To get started choose the smallest action you can take to bring people together...and read this article.

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

1. Account Manager, Corporate Pharma Relations, National MS Society, Remote ($49k-$58k)

2. Director, Corporate Sponsorships, NPR, Washington, DC

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. As we all get back to networking events here's some advice. Be a croissant, not a bagel. (I've also thought of myself as a cruller - sweet but kind of twisted to talk to.)

2. The thrifter space is heating up. Goodwill is moving to online sales and Oxfam is positioning itself as a style destination.

3. Why do we like the music we like? Umm...because Barry Manilow is wicked awesome??? 🎤 🙄