During our sales exercise I realized that one area of sales that often gets overlooked is charity and fundraising. Even though it seems different from traditional selling many of the same principles still apply. Going around and asking people to donate was challenging because there is often no direct personal benefit in return. It often took a level of trust and understanding before the prospect thought about donating. Usually in the charity and fundraising realm people don’t donate simply because they were asked but because they feel something. Our exercise with selling rubber ducks for charity allowed us as salespeople to make a connection with the prospect and this connection let us to understand their emotional pain connected to what we were fundraising for. Our role as the seller was to uncover and connect with the prospect’s motivation for a desire to make a difference. This is where the concept of asking good questions becomes critical. Asking questions like, what causes are important to them or have they ever been involved and charity before makes the interaction feel more personal and less transactional. Trust is also a major factor in fundraising and charity sales. Since there’s often no tangible return donors need to believe that their money will be used effectively. Even though we didn’t have all the details for what we were fundraising for, transparency and clear communication allowed us to gain trust. Finally, giving people the opportunity to say no is important. Not everyone was ready or able to donate on the spot and being too pushy can be a turn off for the buyer. Having a positive interaction with them gives the chance for them to support different causes in the future, even if the answer is no in the moment.
By taylorjt23
koniecznyjr22 
johncourak23 4 thoughts on “Selling Rubber Ducks”
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I totally agree! Something my group should have done better is explicitly state the option of saying “no.” It makes interactions easier, quicker, and helps build more trust. We never really implemented this, which made some rejections harder or more awkward. I think that focusing on the charity and what it stands for was a good technique, but sometimes the prospect might care more about helping students than helping a charity.
I definitely agree with what you mentioned about people agreeing to support charity because they feel something, and how that tied into this exercise. If I were to do the task over again, I definitely would’ve spent more time explain what the charity was and why the prospect should care versus trying to quickly land the sale.
I like how you mentioned that it is hard to sell things for charity because the buyers do not really see an immediate benefit of the money that they spend. This is where I think making a connection with the prospect is important. If you can connect with them then they will be more likely to buy from you.
I agree with this post, as you said, selling things for charity is not easy because they don’t essentially see the benefit of their money being spent, even though it goes to a good cause. My group for the duck selling tried to focus on building a connection and making sure that it was okay if they ultimately said no. As a group, we didn’t know everything about this fundraiser, but knowing that it is for a good cause can help you connect with your prospects. I feel that we really have to connect with some professors and students around the school in order to make sales. Nice job on this post.