BIG’s Blog: Nobody wants to be sold

You don’t like to be sold.

I don’t like to be sold.

In fact, nobody we know likes to be sold.

So why does everyone keep trying to sell me?

Yeah !

But wait a minute. Come to think of it, I can’t exactly remember the last time someone really put the squeeze on me to buy something. Not a car salesperson, not a clerk in a store in the mall, not even my insurance guy.

Hmmm.

I think something has started to change. Yes, occasionally I run into a person who tries to get me to buy the more expensive product instead of the one I came into buy. . . but at those moments, it seems oddly strange; as if he didn’t get the memo from his boss saying, “don’t hassle the customer.”

Buying a car is no-hassle/haggle pricing. At the store in the mall, if they don’t have your size in that color, they will have it shipped to you without a shipping charge. Even my insurance company offers me discounts if I bundle my house and cars together…but there is no follow up call…it’s my choice.

Hmmm.

But then I still get those heart-tugging appeals in the mail. And even if I know some of the organizations and have even given to some of them in the past… I still feel, you know, kind of like I’m being sold.

Is this just me? I don’t think so.

Direct mail is a percentages game. And, frankly, as long as you still have enough Depression and WWII generational cohort prospects in your mix, the percentages favor you. But then all the prospecting files are shrinking because the Depression and WWII generational cohorts are shrinking.

So, since we determined that “we” (you and me) don’t like to be sold, and since we are of the Baby Boomer generation, it is safe to assume that something in the ethos of the Boomers has changed.

Definition of Ethos: 

The fundamental character or spirit of a culture; the underlying sentiment that informs the beliefs, customs, or practices of a group or society; dominant assumptions of a people or period.

So you have a fundraising business model that generates transactions… or not. The prospect either donates… or not.

Isn’t that like being sold?

There is an alternative to the transaction-based model and that is the relationship-based model.

Join us.

-Mike

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