Chris Barlow: Your Corporate Partnership Strategy
Chris Barlow from Beeline, returns to outline a savvy, winning strategy to help you get valuable corporate partnerships. Beeline has a free resource for you, their Corporate Partnerships Attraction Kit. This follows last week’s show, “Don’t Work For Free,” on not undervaluing your assets as you talk to potential partners.
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Transcript for 585_tony_martignetti_nonprofit_radio_20220404.mp3
too. [00:02:14.64] spk_0:
Don’t fear the reaper sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot C O. It’s a pleasure to welcome back chris Barlow, he is founder and customer happiness director at Beeline Beeline since 2015 has helped nonprofits grow their donor base attract corporate partners and expand their missions. However, chris newest skill is bouncing his youngest to sleep while writing marketing copy or planning a donor journey. The company is at your beeline dot com and he’s at beeline underscore chris, welcome back to nonprofit radio chris, [00:02:17.34] spk_1:
thank you so much tony it’s, it’s great to be with you today. [00:02:20.22] spk_0:
Pleasure, thank you, congratulations. Now you have a child # seven bouncing on your knee. Now [00:02:26.71] spk_1:
that’s right, [00:02:31.64] spk_0:
that’s incredible. Um [00:02:33.14] spk_1:
proportionately it becomes less of a difference when you go from 6 to 7 then when you go from 1 to 2 [00:02:38.84] spk_0:
or even zero or 0 to 1 even. Yes, of course, that’s true. But I mean, yes, the marginal [00:02:44.36] spk_1:
increase [00:02:49.94] spk_0:
is at this point it’s probably like de Minimus, but your, your latest is a boy or a girl girl, [00:02:57.44] spk_1:
we have a girl, boy, boy girl, boy boy girl, you [00:02:58.65] spk_0:
have a little rhythm going to [00:03:01.86] spk_1:
Yeah [00:03:09.14] spk_0:
right, Exactly. I was thinking of a paralegal for drummers, but yeah, you got okay boy girl, girl, boy girl girl. Uh [00:03:10.28] spk_1:
boy girl, boy boy girl, boy boy girl [00:03:12.50] spk_0:
oh, I started wrong girl boy boy girl, boy boy girl. Right. So now your fifth girl, I mean there’s plenty of hand me downs, there’s right, all the, all the infrastructure is already in, the infrastructure is already in place. [00:03:31.64] spk_1:
It’s true and we have a lot of, a lot of other, you know, her siblings loved all over. So that’s a lot of help there. Um, but my wife and I still look at each other and like are we doing this again for real? [00:03:37.88] spk_0:
Oh my God, how old are you? [00:03:40.54] spk_1:
I am 37, [00:03:45.34] spk_0:
37 and seven Children dang. You got years to come out, You can, you can come out of this with a dozen [00:03:49.74] spk_1:
Uh seven is a good, is a he, is it in hebrew or Jewish tradition is a good number of completions. So we’ll see. [00:03:57.44] spk_0:
Okay, okay. No pressure. But you could easily come out of this with True, that’s true. At this pace. For sure, wow. She’s congratulations. [00:04:08.06] spk_1:
Congratulations. [00:04:08.90] spk_0:
How, how recent is your, your newest girl? [00:04:12.38] spk_1:
She is five weeks old. [00:04:20.94] spk_0:
Oh, my five weeks only, wow. And yes, you save money on dolls to, for the, for the, for the girls that girls don’t have to grow up with dolls, but I shouldn’t say that for the girls. You grow up saving money on dolls for any of your [00:04:28.65] spk_1:
Children. [00:04:30.34] spk_0:
Any of your Children? Wonderful. [00:04:32.68] spk_1:
Oh, [00:04:36.74] spk_0:
congratulations. Okay. And the last time you were on you, you had some advice listeners could listen back for, uh, advice on it was, it was kind of resolving conflict. I believe [00:04:46.45] spk_1:
it was on google grants and whether you’re a, whether you’re a good fit, whether it’s a good fit for your [00:04:54.44] spk_0:
Well, no. Well that, well, that was the subject [00:04:55.28] spk_1:
matter. [00:04:57.66] spk_0:
Child advice. It’s much more important than family and child related advice. I think it was on conflict de escalation. [00:05:05.54] spk_1:
Yeah, probably. So, [00:05:07.80] spk_0:
um, yeah, like take a time, you know, take a deep breath. Was your, I think was your first, you know, one of your first pieces of advice. [00:05:15.59] spk_1:
Yeah. Like you have to calm yourself first. [00:05:17.90] spk_0:
Right. Right. Right. [00:05:19.13] spk_1:
Because you can’t actually help them if you’re all stirred up yourself. [00:05:29.54] spk_0:
Yes, I think it was the escalation. So alright, You, I’m sure you’ve only gotten better at that skill with and now [00:05:29.87] spk_1:
I hope [00:05:54.54] spk_0:
now you have more years to practice many more more years to practice. All right. So let’s take an overview of this corporate partnership. Corporate Yeah, let’s go partner Stick with partnership. Not necessarily sponsorship because they take different forms. Um, but this part of what our nonprofits, you know, like overview. Not quite getting right about these partnerships. [00:06:07.44] spk_1:
Well, I think actually the way you started describing it shows all of our natural tendencies for corporate partnerships is that we we tend to, I feel like nonprofits tend to get stuck in this idea of of corporate sponsorships [00:06:12.46] spk_0:
and [00:06:39.94] spk_1:
there you’re, there is a real goal that companies would support your organization financially. But there’s so many things that a company can bring and that’s why it’s really I say the the core is a partnership and sponsorship can be part of that partnership and if you have multiple companies who are partnered with your organization, some of them might not be sponsors, but that they all can bring a lot of value the organization. [00:07:02.94] spk_0:
Okay, Alright. So let’s not be myopic looking strictly at financial, financial sponsorship. Okay, Alright. Um, where, where, where where do you like to start with this? What’s the, what would we be thinking about if we’re going to embark on a partnership or if we’re gonna start paying more attention to this or start start paying attention to do. Maybe we don’t even have any partner, not just, you know, expanding, but maybe we don’t have any corporate partnerships. What do we need to be thinking through? [00:09:23.04] spk_1:
Well, yeah, I mean the things that a corporate partner can bring to your organization and think about what you need. And I mean a company can obviously bring um they can bring you access to their audience, just awareness of who you are as an organization to their employees to their own customers. They can connect you to their employees directly at some point if there if there, if there’s a really good partnership, they can say, hey, this is a nonprofit, we believe in, they further our values as a company and you can support them. We, you can do automatic giving through your um deductions through your of the payroll or you can volunteer with them. Um There is some real good research out there that shows that millennials and generation Z um people employees don’t often will, will not stay at a company long term, usually won’t stick around more than I think it was two years what I read. Um if there isn’t a clear the way they can, they see the company living out values that they are in line with and they and so it can, it’s really valuable to the company to have a way to actually live that out by saying we work with this organization. So you, so all the connection to the employees. Obviously there’s the sponsorship, there’s in kind services that companies can bring you, um, free publishing, printing services or they can bring in their expertise directly and help your organization. Maybe they can consult and say, here’s how to improve how you operate as an organization. Maybe they’ve got some people who are very talented and skilled and have a lot of experience and they can bring that in and, and do some free training with you. Um, so there’s a whole lot of things that a company can bring. And I think just this awareness of a nonprofit to say, okay, maybe we’ve got some decent, a decent donor base, but we want to expand two other sources of support, financial and otherwise a great way to look as companies because you’re not going to have to go through, uh, not to say you shouldn’t pursue grants and other things, but it’s, it’s a lot, there’s a company relationship is a lot more like an individual donor in terms of, there’s a lot less red tape you have, you have to approach them the right way. Um, but then once you have that relationship, you can just maintain it and it can represent a huge value with just that one relationship. [00:10:06.04] spk_0:
So should we be thinking through, well, maybe I’m, I probably am jumping ahead, but it’s what occurs to me, you know, thinking through like a solicitation that is multifaceted. It could include some in kind support, whether that’s um services or or some kind of goods, maybe tech or something like that, but but then it’s also volunteer opportunities for the employees, maybe there’s a financial component, maybe not. Um you know, brand awareness. So we wanna be thinking largely, you know, big scale about what what we’re what we’re pitching for and what we have to offer to. [00:10:50.24] spk_1:
And I recommend. I mean the strategy I teach is start small and and get a quick win and then you can start having conversations with your partner and this is kind of starting at the back end. But when you have some kind of collaboration under your belt, you can reach out and say, look, let’s have a conversation. We want to know how can we help your company further its values? And you’re already gonna know when you have that conversation that you have overlapping values because you wouldn’t have tried to form that partnership in the first place. So you have overlapping values. Your mission can help that. So, you ask that question, how can we help you further your values? What are some things we can do from here and then you can start to make suggestions or ask them for ideas about what they’re open to. [00:11:33.04] spk_0:
So now I I made you start at the back end. You know, you’re you’re stuck with a lackluster host. Uh Sorry about that. So All right. Um Well, okay, so where do where do we get started? Like how do we how do we devise our prospect list? Mhm. And let’s say, you know, our listeners small and midsize nonprofits, you know, they could have it could be just a few people could be, you know, a dozen people. I mean it could be 100 people. It’s still a small, it’s still a midsized non profit Um But you know, like overall how do we um Yeah, how do we start to develop a prospect list? [00:13:33.84] spk_1:
Yeah, that’s a great question. So um for the first mindset that help will help you to develop that prospect list is what should your first collaboration b and I like to recommend. Um and the thing that can bring a quick win and this easy yes. Is saying can we find a company that has subject matter expertise and knowledge that they could share? And together we create some kind of digital resource, like an e book or an infographic or a guide of some kind that would be we could use to help potential people who could be potentially our donors. So if we’re an animal sanctuary, we know a whole lot about taking care of animals. We know how to help create train an animal. But then a pet food company knows all about pet nutrition and specialized diets. What if we created an e book on on these some of these topics that every pet owner has to deal with and we reach out to this company. So I’m gonna give it on a high level we reach out to this company and say, hey, you guys know all about this topic and we know that our potential audience and our current audience would really benefit from learning how to pick the right food for their animal or what to do if they’re animal seems to have a special needs diet. And we would love to feature your, your knowledge in this, this digital guide we’re creating it and they’re like, they’re marketing team has to create content all the time. Anyway, and this is a new channel that you’re just saying, we want to feature you, we want to make you look like the hero, we want to put you front and center. So, so that is a, that is the idea. And so when you’re creating this list, you’re the first thing you’re looking for is expertise, subject matter, expertise and knowledge. A company that has that. And then the second thing is that their values, do they have, Do they publish their values? Can you see based on their actions or, or things that they do as a company that there is some overlap there? And if you’ve got those two things, those are that, that’s kind of the foundation for who might be a good partner [00:13:56.94] spk_0:
subject matter and values. Okay. Um, uh, if you’re, you know, the local organization. I mean, you could do this with like a approach the, uh, local retailer, like maybe it’s a local following your example, your hypothetical, maybe it’s a local Petco, Right? I mean, you know, so, you know, you may not have to go to Petco International, but you could start with something with with the local, the local store. [00:15:34.44] spk_1:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I mean, there’s all kinds of different, like, here’s another example. I work with a non profit, um, uh, the, a food bank and there, they happen to be jewish. And so they are reaching out to influencer and celebrity celebrity chefs and saying, we are creating a recipe book for our donors and potential donors on recipes with for, for the holidays. And would you be willing to just quote unquote, donate one of your recipes that we could just include in our recipe book. And so now they’re, they’re starting this, they’ve they’ve opened the door to continue this conversation with his influence or celebrity chef and they’re featuring the chef and now that people who might be interested in this recipe book and see, oh, there’s all these well known chefs who contributed to this book. Like this is good stuff. These are good recipes. So you have both on the, the potential donor side when you’re offering them this, there’s more value to it. And now you can report back to to these contributors, these chefs and say thank you so much, we’ve had 100 people download it and of course their name and their whatever, you know, we can link to, you know, you link to them in the book or whatever, it’s not like full of ads or anything, but it’s just like this, this is the people who are helping us out, these are our partners. Um and so you can, you know, reaching out to someone on instagram that has that kind of overlap with your organization. Again, it doesn’t have to be a huge brand, It can be a single person who has an audience, [00:17:08.44] spk_0:
it’s time for a break. Turn to communications, what can they do for you start with media relations, media strategy, media and pr campaigns. Crisis, hopefully you never have one. Hopefully you joined their webinar just last week on having a crisis communications plan, content marketing, they can write white papers for you e books, they can do research and then publish that research for you write reports on it. Thought leadership, like executive communications, like speech writing, ghostwriting, your annual report. Yes, they can write your annual report, take that off your shoulders. So there’s some ideas of what they do for you. Turn to communications, your story is their mission. Now back to your corporate partnership strategy. This seems like a very easy on ramp to starting a relationship, you know, a short e book or a white paper or something like that, some some kind of co branded content. Um you know, it could, you know, again, in your hypothetical, that could be local veterinary practice maybe. I mean, that’s a smaller, it’s a smaller corporation, but you know, you don’t know what might be there in the future. You know, again, maybe small community, you start with a veterinary practice or something like that. [00:18:06.24] spk_1:
Yes, we want, we we know that our donors really benefit and people who are not donors, but we’re trying to attract to us are are we want to teach them about some of the, you know, things that a vet knows that things signs to look for if you’re pessimistic, whatever or what your what your pet might be dealing with. And then here’s another thing you bring to the table. You’re not only bringing them like the fact that they’re working with the nonprofit and helping your work and the fact that now they can get their name out there and and and create content through another channel that helps, you know, the company get More followers and grow their audience and maybe customers your you can also say, look, we also have access to a Google grant that gives us $10,000 per month to advertise this piece of content and for even big companies that’s a lot of money to put behind an initiative. [00:18:28.74] spk_0:
Look how savvy you are pulling in your, your last appearance 18 months ago, got to tie these together. Yes. And then look at the, look at the consistency. This doesn’t just, it doesn’t just happen, these guests just don’t fall out of the sky, you know, this small, this is all thought out in this case, it’s thought out by the guest, not by me, but. Okay, brilliant. Alright, Alright. Yeah, you’ve got these ad dollars, [00:19:28.24] spk_1:
so yeah, so when you are crafting your list, you’re thinking about the expertise and the values, and then the next thing to consider is how big is their audience, and that could be their social media, following the number of customers, they might have their employee count. And and there is, it is helpful to, you know, you might want to reach out to really small companies at the beginning, small businesses just to get some practice, but once you’ve kind of figured out how to do how to do this outreach and and form these partnerships if if the company is too small to really be able to bring a lot of value to your organization um or they just have too many other organizations that are supporting right now, they’re working with then just keep those things in mind. It’s worth it. If you’re gonna go through the effort of reaching out and trying to form a relationship, you know, make sure it’s worth your while and and make sure they have some kind of audience that that would help you know, that they can bring to you eventually at some point um and introduce your organization to so [00:19:36.24] spk_0:
you’re saying you keep the relationship open, You know, six nose and you’re halfway to a yes [00:19:39.21] spk_1:
that’s right. [00:19:56.64] spk_0:
That’s the, that’s the sort of a philosophy of individual giving, you know, donors, working with individual people, couples. Um, you know, unless they, unless you they they tell you get out of my face, I never want to hear from you again, which you know, I’ve been doing playing giving through 25 years is my 25th year and that’s never happened. So short of that. Thank you. So short of that. You know, you want to keep them in your prospect list, right? [00:20:47.14] spk_1:
Yes. Yes. Okay. And don’t be afraid to reach out to the bigger companies. Um, but one thing that’s beautiful about this approach is you’re offering them a win and you’re not approaching the Director of community or the HR director or someone who’s got a clear title like there, you know, corporate social responsibility that the the title that all of the big nonprofits person that they’re going to be hitting up to try to form these partnerships and put these sponsorships pitches in front of your going to someone in the marketing department and you’re like, you guys have to create constant anyway, you’re the subject matter experts of the company or are some of anyway and you’re going in the side door, you’re going, you’re, you’re like, there are very few nonprofits who are going into the marketing person saying we’d love to collaborate with you [00:20:55.47] spk_0:
because once you get that [00:20:56.45] spk_1:
relationship, [00:20:59.54] spk_0:
don’t go to the don’t go to the corporate social responsibility officer. [00:21:42.54] spk_1:
No, no, go, go go to someone who has to, who’s done digital content in the company, who’s writing their blog. It might be a small business, that might be the owner who’s written a blog, that’s fine. But, but in a big company, you know, you’re approaching probably the marketing person wants someone in marketing. And then they’re again, they’re to them, they’re not thinking of you as, oh, this is just another nonprofit who wants money. They’re like, oh, this is a cool collaboration. And we’d love to find a way to support a nonprofit in a way that’s an easy win for us. I don’t have to go through all the channels to get money approved. I have to produce content anyway. I don’t have, I don’t need approval from anyone to create an e book with you. Um, you know, I can we can do that. That’s a great idea. And so you get that foot in the door and then you can start asking for introductions over time. You can start to build that relationship [00:21:50.59] spk_0:
right, build the relationship and that this is what you find. You don’t find that they say, well now you need to talk to our CSR officer. [00:22:30.74] spk_1:
I mean, no, because you’re you’re, you’re not at the the, the investment that they make is kind of up to them. Like you could get a company whose like, we’re going to help you do the graphic design or we’re gonna help you, if it’s a video, like, well, film this video, we’ll provide you. Like you could get someone who’s really gives a whole lot. Or you could get a company. I mean, it’s as simple of saying, yeah, you can use the recipe that’s already published on my website and the pictures that are already there. You know what, what, there’s no approval for that. If they’re just saying, yeah, you can put that in your things. Just give credit linked to us. Make sure that people know who it where it came from. [00:22:49.94] spk_0:
Alright, alright. You’re going in through the side door, like you said, go to the marketing folks who need content. They’re looking for partners like this. Okay. All right. Very savvy. So that’s that’s [00:22:51.63] spk_1:
who to reach out to [00:22:54.04] spk_0:
and how, [00:22:54.52] spk_1:
how, [00:22:55.72] spk_0:
how and with what? Yeah. What do you, what do you what’s your pitching? What’s your pitch? [00:25:02.54] spk_1:
Um, so I like to recommend, um, either social media or, or cold email. And I would usually start with cold email because everyone has an email address and email is not intrusive. You know, you’re not calling them out of the blue and you can craft your email to really be relevant to them. And so, um, some of the things I recommend is you start with, uh, hook of some kind that gets their attention. So I buy your pet food, I’ve been a customer, you know, of your store for my pets every year, or I just took my dog into the vet there, or we just made this recipe at home or whatever. It might be some personal reaction, like something that or my kids spilled coffee on the, on the book that you just released, Whatever, it might be something that would get their attention and then just say, I have appreciated your content and or or I I like your products or it doesn’t have to be like, just um it shouldn’t be flattery, it should be a response that you’ve had to, something that the company has done and it could be positive or negative, negative, it should still sound like you’re supporting them, but usually positive is easier to do. And 111 really easy, really easy thing you can do in this step is um that I do a lot is I read or what I read your blogger watched webinar and I loved this point and I shared it with my audience on clinton because I’m not just saying you guys are great. You got, you know, I love everything, it’s I took action based on your what your company is doing, your products, your content, your services, whatever it might be, and then you can transition, you can say because you care about X because your audience cares about X. I thought that we could do why and the why is your pitch for the collaboration of some kind and you don’t have to go into a lot of details. You could say, I thought we could create some resource together. Digital resource that helps people do this. Right, [00:25:15.54] spk_0:
Right. Don’t go into great detail. And the first introduction just now, I thought we could partner together on some content partner, you know, and okay, so [00:25:36.54] spk_1:
you and if you do that because of this, because of this other thing that I already responded to and I appreciate, you know, I think you care about this and so you’re you’re tying it to to your pitch, you’re making it clear like I think this is relevant for you and here’s the win for you. So if your your email should be, here’s the win, I can bring you not, here’s how you can support our organization because we have these same values. [00:26:49.14] spk_0:
You’re the structure of your pitch is right in line with the kind that I like to receive from people who want to be guests on nonprofit radio Like, you know, I’ve had some folks say, you know, I love the show and I left you a review on apple podcasts and and then then occasionally they’ll even like screenshot it, you know, in case I didn’t believe them, you know, there’s the there’s the little written review that they so they gets my attention. Yeah, they did exactly what you’re describing. They took action, they didn’t just say they love the content, but they they either shared it or in this case, you know, they they they shouted out in a in a in a in a very kind review. And then, you know, they’ll say I uh in in a recent episode, or I love this recent episode where you talked about X, you know, related to that my client does y or you know, or I do why? And and I think it would be a it sounds like it would be a good fit for you. It feels like it’d be a good fit for for your listeners, etcetera. So very much in line with now I’m revealing what gets my attention for pictures, but but I mean, it works, you know, it gets my attention. They don’t all get they don’t all get Yes, yes, but but I read those [00:26:58.74] spk_1:
pictures versus [00:27:09.04] spk_0:
the ones you could tell or, you know, template boilerplate, you know, non profit radio is terrific. Um, my client, you know, so and so does this and should be great for your show. You know, they have just a shallow, shallow, so you got to do some research. That’s right, that’s right. You [00:27:30.54] spk_1:
have to you have you have to take the time even if people are following the same kind of like steps, it’s still they had to take the time to get to know you a little bit, get to know the company a little bit. [00:27:31.83] spk_0:
You’re asking them to get to know you you got to get to know them first, the first outreach, so do the do the freaking work. [00:27:58.74] spk_1:
That’s right. That’s right. I like to say if you’re at a party and you’re just like you see someone you want to meet standing there and be like, oh I hope they come talk to me like or or even if you were like putting up a sign with their name on it, like that would be really awkward. Like no, you go talk to them, ask them their name, you listen to them, ask them their story, you do walk to them [00:28:04.04] spk_0:
right, right? You yeah, you’re making Yes, you’re you’re taking the first step, you gotta you gotta be the first one to do the work. All right. And I also I also appreciate not uh you know, you’re saying not not how you can support the organization, but how we can work together. Because this is such a this is a very good idea, chris is a great easy on ramp to to building a relationship, [00:28:24.34] spk_1:
but [00:28:36.54] spk_0:
you know, get your foot in the door and then as you said, you know, ask for, ask for introductions later on, things like that, you know, grow the relationship. But Alright, alright, what else? Um What else what else we got to do to get this get this relationship, [00:30:29.64] spk_1:
I think another important thing to and just in the outreach processes. Um, you know, if someone doesn’t respond to your email a lot of times, you’re not gonna get a yes right away. Um, do some follow up, uh, not a ton to, you don’t want to like pester people, but, you know, reply a few days later, send them a follow up email and then maybe a week or two later, send another one or two more follow ups. You know, don’t, don’t pester them, but just people need, you know, sometimes you’re going to write the perfect pitch that someone would want to respond to and they just, it’s a bad time. You just caught him at a bad time. So you’ve got to, you’ve got to follow up and then, um, if you don’t get a response, sometimes you can switch channels, go to go try social media and send a direct message, whatever it might be. And if you can get, if someone is gonna, is gonna be a good fit, they’re going to respond and you can always come back to him like you, like you said, If someone, unless someone says, don’t ever talk to me again, then, you know, to say, okay, I’m gonna reach out to some other people and I’ll come back. So another thing to just consider is this, this approach really can work with, I don’t, I can’t think of any nonprofit that it couldn’t work for. There probably are some, but I haven’t run into any yet. Um, we, uh we are currently working with a nonprofit that helps, uh, they’re anti sex trafficking organization and they, we are, we are going to be reaching out to um, law firms that deal with that topic. Um, universities that have counseling programs. Um, we’re gonna reach out to some personal like security, you know, like I think a little alarm companies or things that were, you know, when people are going out, they have a way to to be safe, safety devices, apps that help with like internet monitoring and watching it for cyber bullying, all those kinds of things. There’s so many things that subject matter experts that could partner with your organization regardless of who you are. [00:32:18.74] spk_0:
It’s time for Tony’s take two. Don’t fear the reaper planned giving isn’t the death conversation. That’s a free webinar. I’ve got coming up. We’re going to be hosted by Kayla. I’m very grateful for that. And I’m going to talk about what planned giving conversations are about, Okay, it’s not about death. Let’s debunk that idea. So join me and Kayla for don’t fear the reaper planned giving isn’t the death conversation. I’m going to do that on april 12th At one p.m. Eastern time. But you know, attending these things live is so 2021 you sign up, you register and then they send you the link for the video. That’s the way to do it. You watch at your leisure at your leisure. How do you sign up though? You got to know that you do have to sign up. You wanna you wanna watch at your leisure? Er You got to sign up, you do that at kayla K E L a kilo dot com click resources. And then webinars right? Where you expect it to be? Right. Webinar? It’s a resource. It’s hosted by Kayla Be with me April 12 if you like or watch the video. Either way, I hope you’ll be with me. That is Tony’s take two. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for your corporate partnership strategy with chris Barlow. Mhm. You like you like email as the as the first approach. [00:32:26.34] spk_1:
Yeah. Again, because everyone does have an email address and you can there are tools like sometimes companies published the email, their email addresses on the website. There are some tools that you can use to find people’s email addresses or at least the pattern that a company uses. That you can just [00:32:42.00] spk_0:
Hunter. [00:32:44.44] spk_1:
Hunter dot io is a tool you can use just a few times per day for free. I think it’s like five times. You can do a [00:32:48.84] spk_0:
search. [00:32:51.24] spk_1:
Very [00:32:52.40] spk_0:
Gracious of them offering 5 5 a day. That’s I mean you could do [00:32:55.81] spk_1:
20 [00:32:56.85] spk_0:
five. Well if you work on Saturday and Sunday could do 35 a week. [00:33:01.84] spk_1:
Yeah. And you can just use it will give you the actual email that you’re looking for or just the pattern at least and that’s usually good enough [00:33:07.88] spk_0:
pattern. Right, Right. Um and then you’re so you’re looking for the marketing, you’re looking for the chief marketing person, you [00:33:17.94] spk_1:
or someone in charge of content. Um Yeah, or sometimes someone who does partnerships, you could, you could reach out to usually that what the company means by partnerships isn’t what you’re thinking of, like [00:33:24.81] spk_0:
the person, but [00:33:33.94] spk_1:
it still might be someone in partnerships often has something to do with marketing and new channels and stuff, so that’s another option. Um and and linkedin is a great tool to find people if the website doesn’t have it, [00:33:52.24] spk_0:
anything else uh because I want to move to expanding the relationship getting but but but you know, give as much share as much as you can about this. Yeah, it’s easy onboarding. [00:34:55.14] spk_1:
Yeah, so, I mean, you you’re you’re just you are offering to, you know, feature them and and again, bring in the google grant, I think that’s a really like, underutilized a strategy for attracting a company because the companies can’t use that those free ads and even if they’re a major large company and they have their own huge marketing budgets, I know 10,000 month is nothing to shake a stick at, like that’s that’s nice. Um and you’re saying like, look, this collaboration isn’t is can go somewhere, like it’s not just like we collaborated on it and then there’s there’s silence. Um one thing you can do before you even start reaching out before you create your ideal list is two. There’s two things I like to recommend do some keyword research. There’s a tool that google offers inside google ads whether you have a grant account or whether you create an account just to do this research. You can do it for free ads dot google dot com. The key google keyword planner. And you can just type [00:34:56.81] spk_0:
ads dot google dot com. And then [00:34:59.69] spk_1:
inside that inside there’s the tools and settings you’ll find the google keyword planner, [00:35:04.84] spk_0:
google keyword planner. And [00:36:27.53] spk_1:
you can just search for some keyword ideas. Say how many people are searching for, how to create train my pet and you know or you know holly you know Passover recipe book whatever just all different talks. And you can then see okay there’s a lot of people searching for this across the U. S. Or across our state or across my city. That would be a I can take that as not only knowledge that this could be a really helpful resource for people and that a lot of people are there’s some demand but I could bring that to my corporate partner and say I know there’s demand for this and and you guys already have the knowledge and expertise to kind of help address this particular question or problem. You could even send um I recommend sending out a survey to your current subscribers and donors and say we’re thinking about creating a resource that helps with one of these following topics which one would be most valuable and then combine those two things to say we got this, we got feedback from our own audience. We know there’s overall volume and demand. We think it would be great to feature you guys and help us because we have we have some acknowledge in this area ourselves but we want to bring in another perspective and you guys, your company has been around all this long or maybe it’s an area we don’t have as much expertise but it’s related. So you know then you can bring in, look we’ve done our research, we know what you that this is why we’re reaching out to you guys, [00:36:34.58] spk_0:
you [00:36:38.33] spk_1:
can help us solve this problem and grow your audience [00:36:51.53] spk_0:
and give you credibility to your partnering with our with our respected name in the in the community or you know, however however you define community. Alright, right. Because remember, you know, you bring value to you also you’re not you’re not a supplicant in this relationship, you know from the beginning, even this, you know this easy onramp, [00:37:02.73] spk_1:
you [00:37:25.03] spk_0:
want to make it clear that you bring value also that’s and listeners know we just talked about that last week, that’s why this is a perfect follow on for what we talked about last week. Not you know, not undervaluing your assets, both tangible and intangible. Alright, alright, um when might we start to look for a little broader relationship? [00:37:28.84] spk_1:
We’ve got got [00:37:41.03] spk_0:
our content marketing piece out, we’ve got some good exposure, you know, we got hundreds of pieces out. Hundreds of downloads, let’s say from a landing page or however, what what when when is the right time to look to? Broaden. [00:39:57.82] spk_1:
Yeah. So I’d say the very first thing you do is you make a big deal about thinking them, thank them publicly. Obviously thank them personally share the fact that this company helped you get this out. Um and you know, just again make them look like a hero. You are appreciative of them working with you. Um In fact, if they, you know, you could, I think it’s appropriate to say when you’re in these initial conversations like can your marketing department help with some of the graphic design, like we’ve done this before, but or you know, we have some some resources but you guys are really good at this. Could your could you? So then you can thank them specifically for how they contributed beyond just the knowledge. Um and then collaborate on how you’re going to promote it? So how are we gonna promote? Well, we’re gonna do the grant, we’re gonna run, you know, and post on. So is there anything that you guys you want to send it to your email list or how and then and then after that. Well from during that planning time let’s say can we, when this is all done, let’s set up a call in a month and just reconnect and see if there’s another way we can collaborate or plan something out for later in the year. And then when you have that conversation, you know, again, talk about the values and bring it back to again the, what you, what you bring to a company long term. Um, besides these kinds of collaborations, which you can of course repeat. Is that living out their values and employee retention? I mean reply employee retention is so important right now, every company knows that, right? And just how difficult the, um, hiring environment is and, and finding good people. And so finding tangible ways for the company, a company to have ways to say, Well, we partnered with this nonprofit because they’re in line with who we are and we want to give you the employee opportunities to see and to do whether that’s to donate some volunteer or share this, their story with others and or learn about who they are. Um, so that’s the kind of thing that you can bring long term. So, and, and, and again, you have that just ask them questions. I mean, I think, I think ultimately the kinds of conversations you have are the same kinds of conversations you probably have with planned giving. So I would turn around to you and say, what are the kinds of questions you ask? People were planned giving. I think it would probably be very similar kinds of questions. [00:41:03.81] spk_0:
Yeah. Well it’s a lot about what the, what the work is that moves the donor. You know, we have the mission in common. We’re talking to establish long term donors and encouraging a gift in their in their will or some other estate plan. So we know that we have in common the work that the that the nonprofit does because the charity is doing it and the person is giving to it and they’ve been giving for many, many years, many, many times over, lots of times over. It could be decades of giving. So we have the mission in common. So we focus on the mission. So you’re suggesting, you know, focus on the mission and focus on the values of the company and how what the overlap is there. And you’ve already established that because you’ve got your your your well received the content piece of content that that talked about the overlap and and and exploited it in very tangible ways with with knowledge, you know, broke that down. So you [00:41:17.01] spk_1:
can always another another excuse to reaching back out is to just give them an update. Say we’ve had, you know, this month, over the last this many months we’ve had this many people, you know, download the, watch the video, [00:41:20.30] spk_0:
right update. Can we talk about the other ways we might collaborate. Can we plan a call? Right? [00:41:25.74] spk_1:
Easy, [00:42:00.20] spk_0:
easy way to stay in touch. Um, okay, I’ll follow your, your analogy to to plan giving and say when a person has a life insurance gift each quarter or at least each year. But sometimes even more often than that, you can show them the appreciating cash value of the, of the life insurance policy on his life insurance policies gain gain cash value every every time there’s a premium payment made. So if its quarterly you’re in touch quarterly, if its annual, you’re in touch at least and you’re at least annually. Look at look how much it’s grown in the past, since, since the, since the last time, you know, could we, could we talk about some other way that we might be able to work together [00:42:44.80] spk_1:
and if you want to get an introduction, A great question is, um, if it’s not, you know, a smaller company where it’s obvious like who is in charge of your company’s values or who helped form them and shape them and, and, and yeah, because knowing who is in charge of the values obviously cares about them and wants to see the company live those out. So, um, and you know, there might not be one person who came up with him, but there was probably someone who helped, you know, form them and helped kind of oversee that. So if you can, yeah, that’s a good way just to find who you should, who else you can meet at the company and start those deeper conversations [00:42:46.74] spk_0:
and then you’re just asking for uh an introduction, Right? [00:43:05.90] spk_1:
That’s right, that’s right, yep. And you can then you can point to the collaboration that already happened, you’re not new to the company and you can say, look, we are doing, and then you can do your pitch, you could say, look, we are doing is a fundraising event, and we would love to invite you guys to consider helping us in partnering with us in this. [00:43:51.90] spk_0:
Let me uh let us let us allay any fears that people may have, like, you know, this guy chris has good ideas, but but it is all very contrived and I feel like I’m exploiting a relationship, like, you know, I’m starting out with something small, but only with the with the intention of going bigger, as I feel like I’m being disingenuous when I’m approaching them because I don’t just want their their collaboration on a on a piece of content, but I want more than that. And so I feel like I’m being dishonest, you know, in my relationship with them. Now, I know what I would say if somebody said that to me about personal relationships individual, like this individual relationships in terms of fundraising, there’s planned giving or any other type of fundraising, but let me give you the chance to describe it on the, to allay these concerns on the, on the corporate side. [00:45:19.79] spk_1:
Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is there’s value inherent in that initial collaboration because again, if you’re reaching out to a company that has a peril or, or lateral subject matter expertise, they may actually have something really helpful to share that will help you attract new potential donors. If you’re using this resource to grow your email list, then there’s inherent value immediately. And if that corporate partner relationship never goes anywhere else, if all it is is that collaboration that you helped them get a little more reach and they helped you get some put something together, um, there’s already value in it for you both. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s really just you’re honestly wanting to work with the company has, who has shared values and the best the an easy way to do that is if they have that expertise and then you’re just starting that conversation and and seeing if that if their values are where they say they are and you again, you’re you have all these things that you bring to the table. And so if it if it’s not a good fit, that’s fine, like you don’t you’re not, you’re not just doing this collaboration for the sake of opening the door. So that would be the, the first thing I would respond to [00:46:23.28] spk_0:
that, I would add that, this is the way it’s done. You know, you have to be strategic about relationships. Uh this is how it’s done on the individual side. And for reasons you’re describing this is how it’s done on the, on the corporate side. You want to, you want to grow your work, You want to grow your revenue. You need to be strategic about the relationships that your nonprofit, uh, embarks on and, and, and looks to build and that’s on the individual side. And it’s also on the corporate side, it might be on the government agency and granting and the foundation side, you know, wherever it is, you, you have to be strategic about relationships. You don’t just willy nilly, you know, randomly reach out to people with, you know, without thought and research and you’re not even, and you know, and not being careful about who it is you’re reaching out to and with a longer term objective. Yeah. I mean, this is so it’s not exploitation. It’s, it’s strategy. If you want to build or build your, build your revenue, you gotta be strategic about your revenue sources. [00:46:38.98] spk_1:
Yeah. Yeah. And then again, you’re, you’re offering a win for the partner from the very beginning. So you’re trying to serve them to, and, and if you can turn into something more, that’s, that’s great. That’s what you hope. Absolutely [00:47:13.58] spk_0:
yes. You’re bringing value. You’re bringing value to the relationship. We’re not, we’re not just saying that to make it sound good. You actually are, you are helping, you’re helping with employee retention, employee engagement. You’re helping enhance the brand of the, of the company that you’re talking to. Um, You’re helping them create valuable content. They you’re talking to the marketing people, they have to create content anyway. You know, all these things, you know, you’ve already laid them out. I’m just putting them in one paragraph. You’ve been talking about them for 40 minutes. So, um All right, [00:47:16.28] spk_1:
what [00:47:25.98] spk_0:
else? Anything else you wanna, Is there anything else you want to share about this, this process? Uh Onboarding it we grew it or how to grow it. Anything you want to leave folks with or more advice you want to share? [00:48:22.17] spk_1:
I guess I’ll add, you know, in your pitch, don’t, you know, they’re asked can just be, are you interested? Can we get on a call? Like keep it really short. Don’t try to break down the whole thing. Are you interested? If they say yes, then you can set up a call with them. Um, so I think that one mistake people have is like, oh, we could do this, this and this and get the email too long or make it too complex. Just yes or no question. So that’s one little thing I would add. Um Yeah, just just try it. Just do some read. I mean, we we get and our own uh experience, we’ve seen about half of the people we reach out to respond with a yes or a no, or maybe yes later. And about a third of the people say yes. So it’s a very high great of people who are interested. Um, and we are we’re strategic, we’re not just like blasting out hundreds of these. We take the time. We we know it’s a good fit until we really believe that it’s a good fit when we make the [00:48:38.17] spk_0:
pitch chris Barlow, Father of now seven and founder and customer happiness director at beeline your beeline dot com and he’s at beeline underscore chris thank you very much. Chris, savvy ideas. Thank you. I love it. [00:48:48.67] spk_1:
Thank you, Tony. [00:48:49.77] spk_0:
Pleasure to have you back. [00:48:51.27] spk_1:
Good to be here [00:49:11.27] spk_0:
Next week. We will definitely kick off our 2022 and TC coverage. 22, what am I saying? 22. NTC coverage kicks off next week. Got lots of interviews coming over the next many months. If you missed any part of this week’s show, I beseech you find it at tony-martignetti dot [00:49:12.88] spk_1:
com. [00:49:57.37] spk_0:
We’re sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot C. O. Creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff shows, social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Silverman is our web guy and this music is by scott Stein, thank you for that. Affirmation scotty you’re with me next week for nonprofit radio big nonprofit ideas for the I have their 95 go out and be great. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm
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[00:01:20.24] spk_0:
Hello and welcome to tony-martignetti non profit radio big nonprofit ideas for the The other 95%,, I’m your aptly named host of your favorite abdominal podcast. We’ve got a listener of the week. It’s Adam norse on linkedin. He told me that the show is his weekly workout podcast. He said great topic as always, thank you very much for that adam when he was talking about uh the improve your relationship with failure episode. So adam Norris linkedin, Thank you very very much. Adam Norse our listener of the week. Oh, I’m glad you’re with me. I’d bear the pain of hyper Kanae Miya, if you made my heart pound with the idea that you missed this week’s show, your corporate partnership strategy chris Barlow from beeline returns to outline a winning strategy to help you gain valuable corporate partnerships on tony state
too. [00:02:14.64] spk_0:
Don’t fear the reaper sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot C O. It’s a pleasure to welcome back chris Barlow, he is founder and customer happiness director at Beeline Beeline since 2015 has helped nonprofits grow their donor base attract corporate partners and expand their missions. However, chris newest skill is bouncing his youngest to sleep while writing marketing copy or planning a donor journey. The company is at your beeline dot com and he’s at beeline underscore chris, welcome back to nonprofit radio chris, [00:02:17.34] spk_1:
thank you so much tony it’s, it’s great to be with you today. [00:02:20.22] spk_0:
Pleasure, thank you, congratulations. Now you have a child # seven bouncing on your knee. Now [00:02:26.71] spk_1:
that’s right, [00:02:31.64] spk_0:
that’s incredible. Um [00:02:33.14] spk_1:
proportionately it becomes less of a difference when you go from 6 to 7 then when you go from 1 to 2 [00:02:38.84] spk_0:
or even zero or 0 to 1 even. Yes, of course, that’s true. But I mean, yes, the marginal [00:02:44.36] spk_1:
increase [00:02:49.94] spk_0:
is at this point it’s probably like de Minimus, but your, your latest is a boy or a girl girl, [00:02:57.44] spk_1:
we have a girl, boy, boy girl, boy boy girl, you [00:02:58.65] spk_0:
have a little rhythm going to [00:03:01.86] spk_1:
Yeah [00:03:09.14] spk_0:
right, Exactly. I was thinking of a paralegal for drummers, but yeah, you got okay boy girl, girl, boy girl girl. Uh [00:03:10.28] spk_1:
boy girl, boy boy girl, boy boy girl [00:03:12.50] spk_0:
oh, I started wrong girl boy boy girl, boy boy girl. Right. So now your fifth girl, I mean there’s plenty of hand me downs, there’s right, all the, all the infrastructure is already in, the infrastructure is already in place. [00:03:31.64] spk_1:
It’s true and we have a lot of, a lot of other, you know, her siblings loved all over. So that’s a lot of help there. Um, but my wife and I still look at each other and like are we doing this again for real? [00:03:37.88] spk_0:
Oh my God, how old are you? [00:03:40.54] spk_1:
I am 37, [00:03:45.34] spk_0:
37 and seven Children dang. You got years to come out, You can, you can come out of this with a dozen [00:03:49.74] spk_1:
Uh seven is a good, is a he, is it in hebrew or Jewish tradition is a good number of completions. So we’ll see. [00:03:57.44] spk_0:
Okay, okay. No pressure. But you could easily come out of this with True, that’s true. At this pace. For sure, wow. She’s congratulations. [00:04:08.06] spk_1:
Congratulations. [00:04:08.90] spk_0:
How, how recent is your, your newest girl? [00:04:12.38] spk_1:
She is five weeks old. [00:04:20.94] spk_0:
Oh, my five weeks only, wow. And yes, you save money on dolls to, for the, for the, for the girls that girls don’t have to grow up with dolls, but I shouldn’t say that for the girls. You grow up saving money on dolls for any of your [00:04:28.65] spk_1:
Children. [00:04:30.34] spk_0:
Any of your Children? Wonderful. [00:04:32.68] spk_1:
Oh, [00:04:36.74] spk_0:
congratulations. Okay. And the last time you were on you, you had some advice listeners could listen back for, uh, advice on it was, it was kind of resolving conflict. I believe [00:04:46.45] spk_1:
it was on google grants and whether you’re a, whether you’re a good fit, whether it’s a good fit for your [00:04:54.44] spk_0:
Well, no. Well that, well, that was the subject [00:04:55.28] spk_1:
matter. [00:04:57.66] spk_0:
Child advice. It’s much more important than family and child related advice. I think it was on conflict de escalation. [00:05:05.54] spk_1:
Yeah, probably. So, [00:05:07.80] spk_0:
um, yeah, like take a time, you know, take a deep breath. Was your, I think was your first, you know, one of your first pieces of advice. [00:05:15.59] spk_1:
Yeah. Like you have to calm yourself first. [00:05:17.90] spk_0:
Right. Right. Right. [00:05:19.13] spk_1:
Because you can’t actually help them if you’re all stirred up yourself. [00:05:29.54] spk_0:
Yes, I think it was the escalation. So alright, You, I’m sure you’ve only gotten better at that skill with and now [00:05:29.87] spk_1:
I hope [00:05:54.54] spk_0:
now you have more years to practice many more more years to practice. All right. So let’s take an overview of this corporate partnership. Corporate Yeah, let’s go partner Stick with partnership. Not necessarily sponsorship because they take different forms. Um, but this part of what our nonprofits, you know, like overview. Not quite getting right about these partnerships. [00:06:07.44] spk_1:
Well, I think actually the way you started describing it shows all of our natural tendencies for corporate partnerships is that we we tend to, I feel like nonprofits tend to get stuck in this idea of of corporate sponsorships [00:06:12.46] spk_0:
and [00:06:39.94] spk_1:
there you’re, there is a real goal that companies would support your organization financially. But there’s so many things that a company can bring and that’s why it’s really I say the the core is a partnership and sponsorship can be part of that partnership and if you have multiple companies who are partnered with your organization, some of them might not be sponsors, but that they all can bring a lot of value the organization. [00:07:02.94] spk_0:
Okay, Alright. So let’s not be myopic looking strictly at financial, financial sponsorship. Okay, Alright. Um, where, where, where where do you like to start with this? What’s the, what would we be thinking about if we’re going to embark on a partnership or if we’re gonna start paying more attention to this or start start paying attention to do. Maybe we don’t even have any partner, not just, you know, expanding, but maybe we don’t have any corporate partnerships. What do we need to be thinking through? [00:09:23.04] spk_1:
Well, yeah, I mean the things that a corporate partner can bring to your organization and think about what you need. And I mean a company can obviously bring um they can bring you access to their audience, just awareness of who you are as an organization to their employees to their own customers. They can connect you to their employees directly at some point if there if there, if there’s a really good partnership, they can say, hey, this is a nonprofit, we believe in, they further our values as a company and you can support them. We, you can do automatic giving through your um deductions through your of the payroll or you can volunteer with them. Um There is some real good research out there that shows that millennials and generation Z um people employees don’t often will, will not stay at a company long term, usually won’t stick around more than I think it was two years what I read. Um if there isn’t a clear the way they can, they see the company living out values that they are in line with and they and so it can, it’s really valuable to the company to have a way to actually live that out by saying we work with this organization. So you, so all the connection to the employees. Obviously there’s the sponsorship, there’s in kind services that companies can bring you, um, free publishing, printing services or they can bring in their expertise directly and help your organization. Maybe they can consult and say, here’s how to improve how you operate as an organization. Maybe they’ve got some people who are very talented and skilled and have a lot of experience and they can bring that in and, and do some free training with you. Um, so there’s a whole lot of things that a company can bring. And I think just this awareness of a nonprofit to say, okay, maybe we’ve got some decent, a decent donor base, but we want to expand two other sources of support, financial and otherwise a great way to look as companies because you’re not going to have to go through, uh, not to say you shouldn’t pursue grants and other things, but it’s, it’s a lot, there’s a company relationship is a lot more like an individual donor in terms of, there’s a lot less red tape you have, you have to approach them the right way. Um, but then once you have that relationship, you can just maintain it and it can represent a huge value with just that one relationship. [00:10:06.04] spk_0:
So should we be thinking through, well, maybe I’m, I probably am jumping ahead, but it’s what occurs to me, you know, thinking through like a solicitation that is multifaceted. It could include some in kind support, whether that’s um services or or some kind of goods, maybe tech or something like that, but but then it’s also volunteer opportunities for the employees, maybe there’s a financial component, maybe not. Um you know, brand awareness. So we wanna be thinking largely, you know, big scale about what what we’re what we’re pitching for and what we have to offer to. [00:10:50.24] spk_1:
And I recommend. I mean the strategy I teach is start small and and get a quick win and then you can start having conversations with your partner and this is kind of starting at the back end. But when you have some kind of collaboration under your belt, you can reach out and say, look, let’s have a conversation. We want to know how can we help your company further its values? And you’re already gonna know when you have that conversation that you have overlapping values because you wouldn’t have tried to form that partnership in the first place. So you have overlapping values. Your mission can help that. So, you ask that question, how can we help you further your values? What are some things we can do from here and then you can start to make suggestions or ask them for ideas about what they’re open to. [00:11:33.04] spk_0:
So now I I made you start at the back end. You know, you’re you’re stuck with a lackluster host. Uh Sorry about that. So All right. Um Well, okay, so where do where do we get started? Like how do we how do we devise our prospect list? Mhm. And let’s say, you know, our listeners small and midsize nonprofits, you know, they could have it could be just a few people could be, you know, a dozen people. I mean it could be 100 people. It’s still a small, it’s still a midsized non profit Um But you know, like overall how do we um Yeah, how do we start to develop a prospect list? [00:13:33.84] spk_1:
Yeah, that’s a great question. So um for the first mindset that help will help you to develop that prospect list is what should your first collaboration b and I like to recommend. Um and the thing that can bring a quick win and this easy yes. Is saying can we find a company that has subject matter expertise and knowledge that they could share? And together we create some kind of digital resource, like an e book or an infographic or a guide of some kind that would be we could use to help potential people who could be potentially our donors. So if we’re an animal sanctuary, we know a whole lot about taking care of animals. We know how to help create train an animal. But then a pet food company knows all about pet nutrition and specialized diets. What if we created an e book on on these some of these topics that every pet owner has to deal with and we reach out to this company. So I’m gonna give it on a high level we reach out to this company and say, hey, you guys know all about this topic and we know that our potential audience and our current audience would really benefit from learning how to pick the right food for their animal or what to do if they’re animal seems to have a special needs diet. And we would love to feature your, your knowledge in this, this digital guide we’re creating it and they’re like, they’re marketing team has to create content all the time. Anyway, and this is a new channel that you’re just saying, we want to feature you, we want to make you look like the hero, we want to put you front and center. So, so that is a, that is the idea. And so when you’re creating this list, you’re the first thing you’re looking for is expertise, subject matter, expertise and knowledge. A company that has that. And then the second thing is that their values, do they have, Do they publish their values? Can you see based on their actions or, or things that they do as a company that there is some overlap there? And if you’ve got those two things, those are that, that’s kind of the foundation for who might be a good partner [00:13:56.94] spk_0:
subject matter and values. Okay. Um, uh, if you’re, you know, the local organization. I mean, you could do this with like a approach the, uh, local retailer, like maybe it’s a local following your example, your hypothetical, maybe it’s a local Petco, Right? I mean, you know, so, you know, you may not have to go to Petco International, but you could start with something with with the local, the local store. [00:15:34.44] spk_1:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I mean, there’s all kinds of different, like, here’s another example. I work with a non profit, um, uh, the, a food bank and there, they happen to be jewish. And so they are reaching out to influencer and celebrity celebrity chefs and saying, we are creating a recipe book for our donors and potential donors on recipes with for, for the holidays. And would you be willing to just quote unquote, donate one of your recipes that we could just include in our recipe book. And so now they’re, they’re starting this, they’ve they’ve opened the door to continue this conversation with his influence or celebrity chef and they’re featuring the chef and now that people who might be interested in this recipe book and see, oh, there’s all these well known chefs who contributed to this book. Like this is good stuff. These are good recipes. So you have both on the, the potential donor side when you’re offering them this, there’s more value to it. And now you can report back to to these contributors, these chefs and say thank you so much, we’ve had 100 people download it and of course their name and their whatever, you know, we can link to, you know, you link to them in the book or whatever, it’s not like full of ads or anything, but it’s just like this, this is the people who are helping us out, these are our partners. Um and so you can, you know, reaching out to someone on instagram that has that kind of overlap with your organization. Again, it doesn’t have to be a huge brand, It can be a single person who has an audience, [00:17:08.44] spk_0:
it’s time for a break. Turn to communications, what can they do for you start with media relations, media strategy, media and pr campaigns. Crisis, hopefully you never have one. Hopefully you joined their webinar just last week on having a crisis communications plan, content marketing, they can write white papers for you e books, they can do research and then publish that research for you write reports on it. Thought leadership, like executive communications, like speech writing, ghostwriting, your annual report. Yes, they can write your annual report, take that off your shoulders. So there’s some ideas of what they do for you. Turn to communications, your story is their mission. Now back to your corporate partnership strategy. This seems like a very easy on ramp to starting a relationship, you know, a short e book or a white paper or something like that, some some kind of co branded content. Um you know, it could, you know, again, in your hypothetical, that could be local veterinary practice maybe. I mean, that’s a smaller, it’s a smaller corporation, but you know, you don’t know what might be there in the future. You know, again, maybe small community, you start with a veterinary practice or something like that. [00:18:06.24] spk_1:
Yes, we want, we we know that our donors really benefit and people who are not donors, but we’re trying to attract to us are are we want to teach them about some of the, you know, things that a vet knows that things signs to look for if you’re pessimistic, whatever or what your what your pet might be dealing with. And then here’s another thing you bring to the table. You’re not only bringing them like the fact that they’re working with the nonprofit and helping your work and the fact that now they can get their name out there and and and create content through another channel that helps, you know, the company get More followers and grow their audience and maybe customers your you can also say, look, we also have access to a Google grant that gives us $10,000 per month to advertise this piece of content and for even big companies that’s a lot of money to put behind an initiative. [00:18:28.74] spk_0:
Look how savvy you are pulling in your, your last appearance 18 months ago, got to tie these together. Yes. And then look at the, look at the consistency. This doesn’t just, it doesn’t just happen, these guests just don’t fall out of the sky, you know, this small, this is all thought out in this case, it’s thought out by the guest, not by me, but. Okay, brilliant. Alright, Alright. Yeah, you’ve got these ad dollars, [00:19:28.24] spk_1:
so yeah, so when you are crafting your list, you’re thinking about the expertise and the values, and then the next thing to consider is how big is their audience, and that could be their social media, following the number of customers, they might have their employee count. And and there is, it is helpful to, you know, you might want to reach out to really small companies at the beginning, small businesses just to get some practice, but once you’ve kind of figured out how to do how to do this outreach and and form these partnerships if if the company is too small to really be able to bring a lot of value to your organization um or they just have too many other organizations that are supporting right now, they’re working with then just keep those things in mind. It’s worth it. If you’re gonna go through the effort of reaching out and trying to form a relationship, you know, make sure it’s worth your while and and make sure they have some kind of audience that that would help you know, that they can bring to you eventually at some point um and introduce your organization to so [00:19:36.24] spk_0:
you’re saying you keep the relationship open, You know, six nose and you’re halfway to a yes [00:19:39.21] spk_1:
that’s right. [00:19:56.64] spk_0:
That’s the, that’s the sort of a philosophy of individual giving, you know, donors, working with individual people, couples. Um, you know, unless they, unless you they they tell you get out of my face, I never want to hear from you again, which you know, I’ve been doing playing giving through 25 years is my 25th year and that’s never happened. So short of that. Thank you. So short of that. You know, you want to keep them in your prospect list, right? [00:20:47.14] spk_1:
Yes. Yes. Okay. And don’t be afraid to reach out to the bigger companies. Um, but one thing that’s beautiful about this approach is you’re offering them a win and you’re not approaching the Director of community or the HR director or someone who’s got a clear title like there, you know, corporate social responsibility that the the title that all of the big nonprofits person that they’re going to be hitting up to try to form these partnerships and put these sponsorships pitches in front of your going to someone in the marketing department and you’re like, you guys have to create constant anyway, you’re the subject matter experts of the company or are some of anyway and you’re going in the side door, you’re going, you’re, you’re like, there are very few nonprofits who are going into the marketing person saying we’d love to collaborate with you [00:20:55.47] spk_0:
because once you get that [00:20:56.45] spk_1:
relationship, [00:20:59.54] spk_0:
don’t go to the don’t go to the corporate social responsibility officer. [00:21:42.54] spk_1:
No, no, go, go go to someone who has to, who’s done digital content in the company, who’s writing their blog. It might be a small business, that might be the owner who’s written a blog, that’s fine. But, but in a big company, you know, you’re approaching probably the marketing person wants someone in marketing. And then they’re again, they’re to them, they’re not thinking of you as, oh, this is just another nonprofit who wants money. They’re like, oh, this is a cool collaboration. And we’d love to find a way to support a nonprofit in a way that’s an easy win for us. I don’t have to go through all the channels to get money approved. I have to produce content anyway. I don’t have, I don’t need approval from anyone to create an e book with you. Um, you know, I can we can do that. That’s a great idea. And so you get that foot in the door and then you can start asking for introductions over time. You can start to build that relationship [00:21:50.59] spk_0:
right, build the relationship and that this is what you find. You don’t find that they say, well now you need to talk to our CSR officer. [00:22:30.74] spk_1:
I mean, no, because you’re you’re, you’re not at the the, the investment that they make is kind of up to them. Like you could get a company whose like, we’re going to help you do the graphic design or we’re gonna help you, if it’s a video, like, well, film this video, we’ll provide you. Like you could get someone who’s really gives a whole lot. Or you could get a company. I mean, it’s as simple of saying, yeah, you can use the recipe that’s already published on my website and the pictures that are already there. You know what, what, there’s no approval for that. If they’re just saying, yeah, you can put that in your things. Just give credit linked to us. Make sure that people know who it where it came from. [00:22:49.94] spk_0:
Alright, alright. You’re going in through the side door, like you said, go to the marketing folks who need content. They’re looking for partners like this. Okay. All right. Very savvy. So that’s that’s [00:22:51.63] spk_1:
who to reach out to [00:22:54.04] spk_0:
and how, [00:22:54.52] spk_1:
how, [00:22:55.72] spk_0:
how and with what? Yeah. What do you, what do you what’s your pitching? What’s your pitch? [00:25:02.54] spk_1:
Um, so I like to recommend, um, either social media or, or cold email. And I would usually start with cold email because everyone has an email address and email is not intrusive. You know, you’re not calling them out of the blue and you can craft your email to really be relevant to them. And so, um, some of the things I recommend is you start with, uh, hook of some kind that gets their attention. So I buy your pet food, I’ve been a customer, you know, of your store for my pets every year, or I just took my dog into the vet there, or we just made this recipe at home or whatever. It might be some personal reaction, like something that or my kids spilled coffee on the, on the book that you just released, Whatever, it might be something that would get their attention and then just say, I have appreciated your content and or or I I like your products or it doesn’t have to be like, just um it shouldn’t be flattery, it should be a response that you’ve had to, something that the company has done and it could be positive or negative, negative, it should still sound like you’re supporting them, but usually positive is easier to do. And 111 really easy, really easy thing you can do in this step is um that I do a lot is I read or what I read your blogger watched webinar and I loved this point and I shared it with my audience on clinton because I’m not just saying you guys are great. You got, you know, I love everything, it’s I took action based on your what your company is doing, your products, your content, your services, whatever it might be, and then you can transition, you can say because you care about X because your audience cares about X. I thought that we could do why and the why is your pitch for the collaboration of some kind and you don’t have to go into a lot of details. You could say, I thought we could create some resource together. Digital resource that helps people do this. Right, [00:25:15.54] spk_0:
Right. Don’t go into great detail. And the first introduction just now, I thought we could partner together on some content partner, you know, and okay, so [00:25:36.54] spk_1:
you and if you do that because of this, because of this other thing that I already responded to and I appreciate, you know, I think you care about this and so you’re you’re tying it to to your pitch, you’re making it clear like I think this is relevant for you and here’s the win for you. So if your your email should be, here’s the win, I can bring you not, here’s how you can support our organization because we have these same values. [00:26:49.14] spk_0:
You’re the structure of your pitch is right in line with the kind that I like to receive from people who want to be guests on nonprofit radio Like, you know, I’ve had some folks say, you know, I love the show and I left you a review on apple podcasts and and then then occasionally they’ll even like screenshot it, you know, in case I didn’t believe them, you know, there’s the there’s the little written review that they so they gets my attention. Yeah, they did exactly what you’re describing. They took action, they didn’t just say they love the content, but they they either shared it or in this case, you know, they they they shouted out in a in a in a in a very kind review. And then, you know, they’ll say I uh in in a recent episode, or I love this recent episode where you talked about X, you know, related to that my client does y or you know, or I do why? And and I think it would be a it sounds like it would be a good fit for you. It feels like it’d be a good fit for for your listeners, etcetera. So very much in line with now I’m revealing what gets my attention for pictures, but but I mean, it works, you know, it gets my attention. They don’t all get they don’t all get Yes, yes, but but I read those [00:26:58.74] spk_1:
pictures versus [00:27:09.04] spk_0:
the ones you could tell or, you know, template boilerplate, you know, non profit radio is terrific. Um, my client, you know, so and so does this and should be great for your show. You know, they have just a shallow, shallow, so you got to do some research. That’s right, that’s right. You [00:27:30.54] spk_1:
have to you have you have to take the time even if people are following the same kind of like steps, it’s still they had to take the time to get to know you a little bit, get to know the company a little bit. [00:27:31.83] spk_0:
You’re asking them to get to know you you got to get to know them first, the first outreach, so do the do the freaking work. [00:27:58.74] spk_1:
That’s right. That’s right. I like to say if you’re at a party and you’re just like you see someone you want to meet standing there and be like, oh I hope they come talk to me like or or even if you were like putting up a sign with their name on it, like that would be really awkward. Like no, you go talk to them, ask them their name, you listen to them, ask them their story, you do walk to them [00:28:04.04] spk_0:
right, right? You yeah, you’re making Yes, you’re you’re taking the first step, you gotta you gotta be the first one to do the work. All right. And I also I also appreciate not uh you know, you’re saying not not how you can support the organization, but how we can work together. Because this is such a this is a very good idea, chris is a great easy on ramp to to building a relationship, [00:28:24.34] spk_1:
but [00:28:36.54] spk_0:
you know, get your foot in the door and then as you said, you know, ask for, ask for introductions later on, things like that, you know, grow the relationship. But Alright, alright, what else? Um What else what else we got to do to get this get this relationship, [00:30:29.64] spk_1:
I think another important thing to and just in the outreach processes. Um, you know, if someone doesn’t respond to your email a lot of times, you’re not gonna get a yes right away. Um, do some follow up, uh, not a ton to, you don’t want to like pester people, but, you know, reply a few days later, send them a follow up email and then maybe a week or two later, send another one or two more follow ups. You know, don’t, don’t pester them, but just people need, you know, sometimes you’re going to write the perfect pitch that someone would want to respond to and they just, it’s a bad time. You just caught him at a bad time. So you’ve got to, you’ve got to follow up and then, um, if you don’t get a response, sometimes you can switch channels, go to go try social media and send a direct message, whatever it might be. And if you can get, if someone is gonna, is gonna be a good fit, they’re going to respond and you can always come back to him like you, like you said, If someone, unless someone says, don’t ever talk to me again, then, you know, to say, okay, I’m gonna reach out to some other people and I’ll come back. So another thing to just consider is this, this approach really can work with, I don’t, I can’t think of any nonprofit that it couldn’t work for. There probably are some, but I haven’t run into any yet. Um, we, uh we are currently working with a nonprofit that helps, uh, they’re anti sex trafficking organization and they, we are, we are going to be reaching out to um, law firms that deal with that topic. Um, universities that have counseling programs. Um, we’re gonna reach out to some personal like security, you know, like I think a little alarm companies or things that were, you know, when people are going out, they have a way to to be safe, safety devices, apps that help with like internet monitoring and watching it for cyber bullying, all those kinds of things. There’s so many things that subject matter experts that could partner with your organization regardless of who you are. [00:32:18.74] spk_0:
It’s time for Tony’s take two. Don’t fear the reaper planned giving isn’t the death conversation. That’s a free webinar. I’ve got coming up. We’re going to be hosted by Kayla. I’m very grateful for that. And I’m going to talk about what planned giving conversations are about, Okay, it’s not about death. Let’s debunk that idea. So join me and Kayla for don’t fear the reaper planned giving isn’t the death conversation. I’m going to do that on april 12th At one p.m. Eastern time. But you know, attending these things live is so 2021 you sign up, you register and then they send you the link for the video. That’s the way to do it. You watch at your leisure at your leisure. How do you sign up though? You got to know that you do have to sign up. You wanna you wanna watch at your leisure? Er You got to sign up, you do that at kayla K E L a kilo dot com click resources. And then webinars right? Where you expect it to be? Right. Webinar? It’s a resource. It’s hosted by Kayla Be with me April 12 if you like or watch the video. Either way, I hope you’ll be with me. That is Tony’s take two. We’ve got boo koo but loads more time for your corporate partnership strategy with chris Barlow. Mhm. You like you like email as the as the first approach. [00:32:26.34] spk_1:
Yeah. Again, because everyone does have an email address and you can there are tools like sometimes companies published the email, their email addresses on the website. There are some tools that you can use to find people’s email addresses or at least the pattern that a company uses. That you can just [00:32:42.00] spk_0:
Hunter. [00:32:44.44] spk_1:
Hunter dot io is a tool you can use just a few times per day for free. I think it’s like five times. You can do a [00:32:48.84] spk_0:
search. [00:32:51.24] spk_1:
Very [00:32:52.40] spk_0:
Gracious of them offering 5 5 a day. That’s I mean you could do [00:32:55.81] spk_1:
20 [00:32:56.85] spk_0:
five. Well if you work on Saturday and Sunday could do 35 a week. [00:33:01.84] spk_1:
Yeah. And you can just use it will give you the actual email that you’re looking for or just the pattern at least and that’s usually good enough [00:33:07.88] spk_0:
pattern. Right, Right. Um and then you’re so you’re looking for the marketing, you’re looking for the chief marketing person, you [00:33:17.94] spk_1:
or someone in charge of content. Um Yeah, or sometimes someone who does partnerships, you could, you could reach out to usually that what the company means by partnerships isn’t what you’re thinking of, like [00:33:24.81] spk_0:
the person, but [00:33:33.94] spk_1:
it still might be someone in partnerships often has something to do with marketing and new channels and stuff, so that’s another option. Um and and linkedin is a great tool to find people if the website doesn’t have it, [00:33:52.24] spk_0:
anything else uh because I want to move to expanding the relationship getting but but but you know, give as much share as much as you can about this. Yeah, it’s easy onboarding. [00:34:55.14] spk_1:
Yeah, so, I mean, you you’re you’re just you are offering to, you know, feature them and and again, bring in the google grant, I think that’s a really like, underutilized a strategy for attracting a company because the companies can’t use that those free ads and even if they’re a major large company and they have their own huge marketing budgets, I know 10,000 month is nothing to shake a stick at, like that’s that’s nice. Um and you’re saying like, look, this collaboration isn’t is can go somewhere, like it’s not just like we collaborated on it and then there’s there’s silence. Um one thing you can do before you even start reaching out before you create your ideal list is two. There’s two things I like to recommend do some keyword research. There’s a tool that google offers inside google ads whether you have a grant account or whether you create an account just to do this research. You can do it for free ads dot google dot com. The key google keyword planner. And you can just type [00:34:56.81] spk_0:
ads dot google dot com. And then [00:34:59.69] spk_1:
inside that inside there’s the tools and settings you’ll find the google keyword planner, [00:35:04.84] spk_0:
google keyword planner. And [00:36:27.53] spk_1:
you can just search for some keyword ideas. Say how many people are searching for, how to create train my pet and you know or you know holly you know Passover recipe book whatever just all different talks. And you can then see okay there’s a lot of people searching for this across the U. S. Or across our state or across my city. That would be a I can take that as not only knowledge that this could be a really helpful resource for people and that a lot of people are there’s some demand but I could bring that to my corporate partner and say I know there’s demand for this and and you guys already have the knowledge and expertise to kind of help address this particular question or problem. You could even send um I recommend sending out a survey to your current subscribers and donors and say we’re thinking about creating a resource that helps with one of these following topics which one would be most valuable and then combine those two things to say we got this, we got feedback from our own audience. We know there’s overall volume and demand. We think it would be great to feature you guys and help us because we have we have some acknowledge in this area ourselves but we want to bring in another perspective and you guys, your company has been around all this long or maybe it’s an area we don’t have as much expertise but it’s related. So you know then you can bring in, look we’ve done our research, we know what you that this is why we’re reaching out to you guys, [00:36:34.58] spk_0:
you [00:36:38.33] spk_1:
can help us solve this problem and grow your audience [00:36:51.53] spk_0:
and give you credibility to your partnering with our with our respected name in the in the community or you know, however however you define community. Alright, right. Because remember, you know, you bring value to you also you’re not you’re not a supplicant in this relationship, you know from the beginning, even this, you know this easy onramp, [00:37:02.73] spk_1:
you [00:37:25.03] spk_0:
want to make it clear that you bring value also that’s and listeners know we just talked about that last week, that’s why this is a perfect follow on for what we talked about last week. Not you know, not undervaluing your assets, both tangible and intangible. Alright, alright, um when might we start to look for a little broader relationship? [00:37:28.84] spk_1:
We’ve got got [00:37:41.03] spk_0:
our content marketing piece out, we’ve got some good exposure, you know, we got hundreds of pieces out. Hundreds of downloads, let’s say from a landing page or however, what what when when is the right time to look to? Broaden. [00:39:57.82] spk_1:
Yeah. So I’d say the very first thing you do is you make a big deal about thinking them, thank them publicly. Obviously thank them personally share the fact that this company helped you get this out. Um and you know, just again make them look like a hero. You are appreciative of them working with you. Um In fact, if they, you know, you could, I think it’s appropriate to say when you’re in these initial conversations like can your marketing department help with some of the graphic design, like we’ve done this before, but or you know, we have some some resources but you guys are really good at this. Could your could you? So then you can thank them specifically for how they contributed beyond just the knowledge. Um and then collaborate on how you’re going to promote it? So how are we gonna promote? Well, we’re gonna do the grant, we’re gonna run, you know, and post on. So is there anything that you guys you want to send it to your email list or how and then and then after that. Well from during that planning time let’s say can we, when this is all done, let’s set up a call in a month and just reconnect and see if there’s another way we can collaborate or plan something out for later in the year. And then when you have that conversation, you know, again, talk about the values and bring it back to again the, what you, what you bring to a company long term. Um, besides these kinds of collaborations, which you can of course repeat. Is that living out their values and employee retention? I mean reply employee retention is so important right now, every company knows that, right? And just how difficult the, um, hiring environment is and, and finding good people. And so finding tangible ways for the company, a company to have ways to say, Well, we partnered with this nonprofit because they’re in line with who we are and we want to give you the employee opportunities to see and to do whether that’s to donate some volunteer or share this, their story with others and or learn about who they are. Um, so that’s the kind of thing that you can bring long term. So, and, and, and again, you have that just ask them questions. I mean, I think, I think ultimately the kinds of conversations you have are the same kinds of conversations you probably have with planned giving. So I would turn around to you and say, what are the kinds of questions you ask? People were planned giving. I think it would probably be very similar kinds of questions. [00:41:03.81] spk_0:
Yeah. Well it’s a lot about what the, what the work is that moves the donor. You know, we have the mission in common. We’re talking to establish long term donors and encouraging a gift in their in their will or some other estate plan. So we know that we have in common the work that the that the nonprofit does because the charity is doing it and the person is giving to it and they’ve been giving for many, many years, many, many times over, lots of times over. It could be decades of giving. So we have the mission in common. So we focus on the mission. So you’re suggesting, you know, focus on the mission and focus on the values of the company and how what the overlap is there. And you’ve already established that because you’ve got your your your well received the content piece of content that that talked about the overlap and and and exploited it in very tangible ways with with knowledge, you know, broke that down. So you [00:41:17.01] spk_1:
can always another another excuse to reaching back out is to just give them an update. Say we’ve had, you know, this month, over the last this many months we’ve had this many people, you know, download the, watch the video, [00:41:20.30] spk_0:
right update. Can we talk about the other ways we might collaborate. Can we plan a call? Right? [00:41:25.74] spk_1:
Easy, [00:42:00.20] spk_0:
easy way to stay in touch. Um, okay, I’ll follow your, your analogy to to plan giving and say when a person has a life insurance gift each quarter or at least each year. But sometimes even more often than that, you can show them the appreciating cash value of the, of the life insurance policy on his life insurance policies gain gain cash value every every time there’s a premium payment made. So if its quarterly you’re in touch quarterly, if its annual, you’re in touch at least and you’re at least annually. Look at look how much it’s grown in the past, since, since the, since the last time, you know, could we, could we talk about some other way that we might be able to work together [00:42:44.80] spk_1:
and if you want to get an introduction, A great question is, um, if it’s not, you know, a smaller company where it’s obvious like who is in charge of your company’s values or who helped form them and shape them and, and, and yeah, because knowing who is in charge of the values obviously cares about them and wants to see the company live those out. So, um, and you know, there might not be one person who came up with him, but there was probably someone who helped, you know, form them and helped kind of oversee that. So if you can, yeah, that’s a good way just to find who you should, who else you can meet at the company and start those deeper conversations [00:42:46.74] spk_0:
and then you’re just asking for uh an introduction, Right? [00:43:05.90] spk_1:
That’s right, that’s right, yep. And you can then you can point to the collaboration that already happened, you’re not new to the company and you can say, look, we are doing, and then you can do your pitch, you could say, look, we are doing is a fundraising event, and we would love to invite you guys to consider helping us in partnering with us in this. [00:43:51.90] spk_0:
Let me uh let us let us allay any fears that people may have, like, you know, this guy chris has good ideas, but but it is all very contrived and I feel like I’m exploiting a relationship, like, you know, I’m starting out with something small, but only with the with the intention of going bigger, as I feel like I’m being disingenuous when I’m approaching them because I don’t just want their their collaboration on a on a piece of content, but I want more than that. And so I feel like I’m being dishonest, you know, in my relationship with them. Now, I know what I would say if somebody said that to me about personal relationships individual, like this individual relationships in terms of fundraising, there’s planned giving or any other type of fundraising, but let me give you the chance to describe it on the, to allay these concerns on the, on the corporate side. [00:45:19.79] spk_1:
Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is there’s value inherent in that initial collaboration because again, if you’re reaching out to a company that has a peril or, or lateral subject matter expertise, they may actually have something really helpful to share that will help you attract new potential donors. If you’re using this resource to grow your email list, then there’s inherent value immediately. And if that corporate partner relationship never goes anywhere else, if all it is is that collaboration that you helped them get a little more reach and they helped you get some put something together, um, there’s already value in it for you both. So, um, yeah, it’s it’s really just you’re honestly wanting to work with the company has, who has shared values and the best the an easy way to do that is if they have that expertise and then you’re just starting that conversation and and seeing if that if their values are where they say they are and you again, you’re you have all these things that you bring to the table. And so if it if it’s not a good fit, that’s fine, like you don’t you’re not, you’re not just doing this collaboration for the sake of opening the door. So that would be the, the first thing I would respond to [00:46:23.28] spk_0:
that, I would add that, this is the way it’s done. You know, you have to be strategic about relationships. Uh this is how it’s done on the individual side. And for reasons you’re describing this is how it’s done on the, on the corporate side. You want to, you want to grow your work, You want to grow your revenue. You need to be strategic about the relationships that your nonprofit, uh, embarks on and, and, and looks to build and that’s on the individual side. And it’s also on the corporate side, it might be on the government agency and granting and the foundation side, you know, wherever it is, you, you have to be strategic about relationships. You don’t just willy nilly, you know, randomly reach out to people with, you know, without thought and research and you’re not even, and you know, and not being careful about who it is you’re reaching out to and with a longer term objective. Yeah. I mean, this is so it’s not exploitation. It’s, it’s strategy. If you want to build or build your, build your revenue, you gotta be strategic about your revenue sources. [00:46:38.98] spk_1:
Yeah. Yeah. And then again, you’re, you’re offering a win for the partner from the very beginning. So you’re trying to serve them to, and, and if you can turn into something more, that’s, that’s great. That’s what you hope. Absolutely [00:47:13.58] spk_0:
yes. You’re bringing value. You’re bringing value to the relationship. We’re not, we’re not just saying that to make it sound good. You actually are, you are helping, you’re helping with employee retention, employee engagement. You’re helping enhance the brand of the, of the company that you’re talking to. Um, You’re helping them create valuable content. They you’re talking to the marketing people, they have to create content anyway. You know, all these things, you know, you’ve already laid them out. I’m just putting them in one paragraph. You’ve been talking about them for 40 minutes. So, um All right, [00:47:16.28] spk_1:
what [00:47:25.98] spk_0:
else? Anything else you wanna, Is there anything else you want to share about this, this process? Uh Onboarding it we grew it or how to grow it. Anything you want to leave folks with or more advice you want to share? [00:48:22.17] spk_1:
I guess I’ll add, you know, in your pitch, don’t, you know, they’re asked can just be, are you interested? Can we get on a call? Like keep it really short. Don’t try to break down the whole thing. Are you interested? If they say yes, then you can set up a call with them. Um, so I think that one mistake people have is like, oh, we could do this, this and this and get the email too long or make it too complex. Just yes or no question. So that’s one little thing I would add. Um Yeah, just just try it. Just do some read. I mean, we we get and our own uh experience, we’ve seen about half of the people we reach out to respond with a yes or a no, or maybe yes later. And about a third of the people say yes. So it’s a very high great of people who are interested. Um, and we are we’re strategic, we’re not just like blasting out hundreds of these. We take the time. We we know it’s a good fit until we really believe that it’s a good fit when we make the [00:48:38.17] spk_0:
pitch chris Barlow, Father of now seven and founder and customer happiness director at beeline your beeline dot com and he’s at beeline underscore chris thank you very much. Chris, savvy ideas. Thank you. I love it. [00:48:48.67] spk_1:
Thank you, Tony. [00:48:49.77] spk_0:
Pleasure to have you back. [00:48:51.27] spk_1:
Good to be here [00:49:11.27] spk_0:
Next week. We will definitely kick off our 2022 and TC coverage. 22, what am I saying? 22. NTC coverage kicks off next week. Got lots of interviews coming over the next many months. If you missed any part of this week’s show, I beseech you find it at tony-martignetti dot [00:49:12.88] spk_1:
com. [00:49:57.37] spk_0:
We’re sponsored by turn to communications pr and content for nonprofits. Your story is their mission turn hyphen two dot C. O. Creative producer is Claire Meyerhoff shows, social media is by Susan Chavez. Marc Silverman is our web guy and this music is by scott Stein, thank you for that. Affirmation scotty you’re with me next week for nonprofit radio big nonprofit ideas for the I have their 95 go out and be great. Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Mm hmm