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| Path: Main Street : Resources & Library : Research Articles : Feature Article |
What should you really do when the reply card comes back?August 22, 1994; Canadian FundRaiser
In a recent issue of Planned Giving Today, consultant Robert J. Bruder-Mattson wrote that "the surest way to guarantee that I would never have the opportunity to visit my prospect face to face was to mail them the information they requested on the business reply card. Whenever I followed up by phone, I got a dead-end response such as 'I have not reviewed the information yet'."
Bruder-Mattson's goal in sending a BRC had always been to get an appointment with the prospect, and to prepare the prospect for their face-to-face meeting. But he made several subtle changes to the BRC and the results showed.
One of the first changes was to replace, "please send me more information about..." to "Please provide me with more information about...". He said, "Prospects no longer expected that we would send the information without further contact."
He also created a rapid response letter that he sends to prospects within 24 hours of receiving the BRC. "The letter helps ease my reluctance to 'cold call' a prospect for an appointment. It acknowledges the prospect's request for information, and formally introduces the planned giving officer who will contact the prospect on the phone. Many donors told me that the letter gave them a sense of comfort and confidence in the caller, which is very important in this day and age of phone fraud. Their comfort also allows me to do a lot of initial screening." And once on the phone, Bruder-Mattson found that he could easily determine which prospects he should visit right away, and which he could visit later.
Not long after he started using the rapid response letter, he was able to get appointments with 50 per cent of his prospects. With his previous approach, he was used to getting appointments with 15 per cent of his prospects.
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