The Four Essential Sales Skills Every Nonprofit Leader Needs

You're listening to the Nonprofit Power podcast. In today's episode, we share the four essential sales skills every nonprofit leader needs. So, stay tuned. If you want to have real and powerful influence over the money and policy decisions that impact your organization and the people you serve, then you're in the right place. I'm Kath Patrick, and I've helped dozens of progressive nonprofit leaders take their organizations to new and higher levels of impact and success by building powerful influence with the decision makers that matter. It is possible to get a critical mass of the money and policy decision makers in your world to be as invested in your success as you are, to have them seeking you out as an equal partner, and to have them bringing opportunities and resources to you. This podcast will help you do just that. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power Podcast. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the Nonprofit Power podcast. I'm your host, Kath Patrick. I'm so glad you're here for today's episode because the truth is, nonprofit leaders spend a lot of time selling to one kind of funder or decision maker or another just about every day of the week. We spend a lot of time selling, but we don't necessarily talk about it as sales. And I think that's a bit of a mistake. And here's the thing, when you get into nonprofit leadership, people don't tell you you're gonna be a salesperson. They don't tell you that's gonna be a big part of the job. Part of what I wanna do today is to first of all name that and call out the actual sales work that we are all doing. And then to focus in on four critical skill areas that are absolutely essential to successful selling. What I've noticed again and again is that there are certain aspects of sales that can be especially problematic and challenging for nonprofit leaders. And that's where we start getting tripped up and finding ourselves in situations with decision-makers where we are either not getting the sale, or maybe we're getting the sale, but we're not getting the deal we want. They're not investing at the level that we really need them to, and we're settling for something less. We often wind up in a position of feeling like we have to settle for whatever they're willing to do. There's a bunch of hazards that I see popping up that get in the way of a successful sale. One of the things that I have noticed comes up a lot is that the bigger the number, the more people struggle with the ask. And that struggle shows up in their voice, it shows up in their energy and in their language. All those things contribute either to a failed sale or to a lower investment than you wanted. There's a bunch of reasons that big numbers tend to produce extra anxiety. There are three really big ones, and there's plenty of others, but these are the ones that I think matter the most. One of them is the fear that the person being asked, whoever the decision maker is, that they'll think that the number is just outrageously high and will react negatively in some way. Anything from, "How dare you come in here and ask for so much?" Or, are you crazy? That's a ridiculous number." We imagine that they're gonna say all these really reactive, scary things. So there's that fear. Now, whether it's real or not, and I often ask people who are really worried about that, "Has that ever actually happened to you?" And most of the time the answer is, "Well, no, but it could. And part of the reason it doesn't is I don't ask for outrageously big numbers." So that's one. Sometimes, this is situational, but sometimes there is a feeling that the person or the organization isn't worthy of such a large amount of money. You can see why that would be a problem. And very often, it's the failure to realize that what constitutes a big number for you or your organization may not at all be a big number for the person you're asking. They may think of it very differently, especially if they're thinking of it as an investment and not a gift. That leads into the second hazard, which is thinking of funding as a gift rather than an investment. Let me say a little bit more about that. Think about how your mindset, your posture, your approach would differ if you were asking, whether it's an individual donor or a foundation, a philanthropic source, or a grant maker, or even a contracting partner. I have seen nonprofit leaders do this even with contracting partners where there is clearly a quid pro quo. We are going into a contracting relationship together to make something happen. I'm gonna do my part to make your stuff work better, and you're gonna pay me for that. I have even seen nonprofit leaders come to that kind of a conversation with the mindset that really the money involved, the contract itself is more of a favor rather than an investment. That it's like, could you do this with us, pretty please? And not as, hey, we have something of immense value, do you wanna invest in it? 'Cause it's gonna have great returns for you. So you can see how, if you just think about how the ask goes when you view it as a favor or a gift, versus when you view it as an investment, your language changes You may not be aware of it, but the way you're using your voice will change, your energy will change. All of it changes depending on which of those postures you're coming from. Another one that happens all the time, and these are all connected, is negotiating with yourself before you ever go to negotiate with the person that you're trying to get the investment from. And that connects to the things we just talked about. It's like, "Oh, God, that's a really big number. I don't know. We probably shouldn't ask for that much. Let's say you're asking for a million dollar investment for something. I have clients who are going after $10 million investments. I have clients who are going after two, three, four million dollar investments. I have clients that are going after $10,000 investments. And for each of those clients, those numbers represent a big number. So everything's relative. My client who's going after the $10 million would not even bat an eye at asking somebody for $10,000. But the organization and the leader for which a $10,000 ask feels like a lot, first of all, the 10 million would be inconceivable. But it doesn't matter. Wherever you're sitting, whatever feels like a lot to you, the tendency is to say, "Ooh, that's, that's pretty outrageous. That's pretty out there. I don't know." And then back to the fear that they're gonna react negatively for being so ridiculous as to ask for such a crazy amount of money. We better dial that back. Let's not ask for quite that much. Maybe we could ask, uh, two or three funding sources for a piece of that so that it doesn't seem so big, so that we're not going to one funder or one partner and saying, 'Ah, we need this big, gigantous sum of money.'" Well, that's negotiating with yourself. You're negotiating your number down with yourself in your own head before you ever get in a room with a decision-maker who is the person you're supposed to be negotiating with. Think about what happens then, right? If you've already negotiated yourself down to a number that feels more comfortable and less crazy, and then you go to talk to the decision maker that you want to invest. You propose a number to them and they push back on it. Now you're starting with less than you wanted to ask for in the first place, and you're getting negotiated back down from that because they're pushing back. So you can see why that's a big problem. My first advice to clients who are doing that is, first of all, stop it. And then we'll talk about what to do instead. But if you have been guilty of negotiating with yourself, please stop doing that. That will hurt you more than just about any of these other things. Then the last hazard is universal. The particulars differ by individual, but the concept is universal, and that is the hazard of your own money stories. Everyone has money stories. Everyone. They may be stories we grew up with, they may be stories that we developed later on, they may be stories that we have built for ourselves that serve us very well. But if you don't know what your money stories are, it's definitely time to investigate them. Because they are always operating in the background and they will affect any conversation you have about money with anyone The truth is, most people's money stories aren't terribly helpful. They often do not serve us. Examples of money stories that definitely don't serve anybody are the stuff we heard growing up. Money's hard to come by. Money doesn't grow on trees. Those kinds of things Or, people like us don't have money. People like us don't get access to money. Rich people are different from us. They're not like us. Those are just a quick sampling. What I wanna make sure you get is that everybody has money stories. The good news is that you have the ability to rewire those stories and to create new stories that do serve you. But the first thing is we have to be aware of what are the money stories that are running on autopilot in our brain all the time. Because I promise you they are affecting every single conversation you have about money. It's inevitable. So those are the four big hazards, and to go with them, we're going to look at four essential skills that will let you conquer those hazards. The first skill you need is the ability to wire in money stories that will serve you. You wanna make sure that the money stories that are running in your head are 100% aligned with your desired results for investment. We have to start there because you can fix all the other stuff, but if you haven't fixed the money stories, they will come back and bite you. To do this is both simple and not. The very simple principle for rewiring any unhelpful belief, which is all this is. These money stories are just ideas that have been repeated over time long enough that your subconscious has adopted them as a belief, and it is driving your decision-making and is driving your behavior. Simple brain science. So we use simple brain science to fix it. First step is to identify the money stories that you've already got. My recommendation with this kind of thing is always that you just start a list somewhere. And take time periodically over, maybe a week or so to write down, as they come to you, all of the, beliefs and stories you heard growing up about money. If you're like most people, you heard things like money doesn't grow on trees. Maybe you heard easy come, easy go, which is a whole other problematic belief We can get money in, but we can't hold onto it. It always goes away. Whatever the stories were that you heard. Or maybe you grew up with a constant drumbeat of a scarcity mindset. There's never enough. So pay attention. Think about what were the stories you heard growing up. What are the money stories you hear from other people in the nonprofit world? The nonprofit world in general is kind of a hotbed of scarcity mentality. There's always this feeling of there's never enough. There's never enough money. There's never enough staff. There's never enough anything. And that has consequences, because if you're making your ask from that mindset, it will affect your results. Play around with that. Make a list of all the money beliefs, and maybe there are some great ones in there too. Like maybe you grew up in a household where the belief was, "There's always more than enough. We are just fine. Everything is great." I have met one person who grew up in an environment like that, where the parents were entrepreneurs, and they had done very well. They instilled an entrepreneurial spirit in all of their kids, and most of their kids became entrepreneurs themselves. They all are walking around with this amazing mindset of there's more than enough for everybody. All we have to do is go out there and make great things happen, and the money will flow. It will be great. You can imagine the difference in the results that they get in their business ventures versus the results that an entrepreneur who is constantly obsessing over every penny and worrying that there won't be enough money to pay the bills this month, and I don't know, we'll probably have to close our doors next week. Everything about those two belief sets, you can see where they're gonna head, what kind of results they're gonna lead to. It's the same thing in the nonprofit world. So think about what you were raised with, but also what you hear from peers, what you hear from friends, family, whoever else is in your orbit. And what are the money stories that are running right now in your head? So that's step one. Then step two is you interrogate those beliefs that aren't serving you. Be a determined attorney and prosecute that belief. Is that really true? Is it true everywhere all the time for everyone? And if it's not true everywhere all the time for everyone, then it's not a fact. It's a belief. And so we can adopt a different belief that would serve us better. Well then, what would that belief be that would serve us better? You identify that, and then the process is very simple. You repeat that to yourself several times a day for at least a month. Couple of months is better. And you just keep repeating it. You can record it and play it back to yourself. You can write it down and carry it with you and say it out loud. It's very helpful to hear it out loud. There is something about the auditory aspect of it that seems to help it sink in better. My personal preference is to repeat it out loud several times a day. Whatever the new story or belief I'm building into my subconscious programming, my preferred method is to say it out loud multiple times a day. And say it like you mean it. If you're going to adopt the new belief of there's more than enough money to fund all the nonprofits in America, the money is there, we just have to go find it. Then you wanna say it like that. Don't say like, "Well, I guess there's enough money probably, maybe. I don't know." You gotta say it like you mean it because you're building a belief. Do that, repeat it regularly for a month to two months, and it will reprogram that belief in your subconscious. It's amazing. Brain science is so cool. The things we can do with that. So that is the number one thing, is wire in the money stories that will serve you, and prune out the ones that don't. It's very important that if you identified one that doesn't serve you, you need to find something close to its polar opposite as the new belief that will replace it. And you can do this in pieces over time. If you've uncovered 10 unhelpful beliefs, 10 unhelpful money stories, don't try to do 10 at once. What you can do is you can clump them in themes and tackle a clump at a time. Craft maybe two or three sentences that make a nice little vignette that you can repeat to yourself that will cover that clump. That's a way to do that that's quite effective. Once you've wired in those money stories that are going to serve you, it makes the next three things so much easier. The next skill set is the ability to build a solid case for the price you're asking and to demonstrate the value. It's never a good idea to come in and ask for an amount of money that you yanked out of the air, and I know you know that. But you want to build a case for your price. Now, I will caution you that what I've seen some nonprofit leaders do that is a mistake, is they justify. There's a difference between building a case and justifying. This is very important. First of all, if you're in justification mode, you are in the wrong head space. You want to be in the head space of, "This thing that I am bringing has amazing value. It has massive value. It transforms people's lives in the following ways. It changes outcomes. It bends the cost curve like crazy. It has this huge ROI." All the things. You come to it from that, from the incredible value that you bring. And then show how the price you are asking makes that a bargain that they're not gonna find that anywhere else, because the value is so massive. Now, the mistake, there are two aspects of a mistake when you go to justify rather than demonstrate value Justifying comes from a place, and this is back to beliefs, it comes from a place of, "Well, I'm not really sure that it's okay to ask for that much. I don't know. That feels like a lot." I had to really work on this with one of my clients at one point. A CEO who was extremely resistant to charging one penny more to a funding source for a service than were reflected in their direct costs. And I'm like, "But what about inflation? What about expansion? What about research and development? What about all the other things that you need to pay for that any business builds into the price of their goods and services?" No business that stays in business very long says, "I'm selling widgets, and the raw materials cost me a dollar, the labor cost me a dollar, and all the overhead, physical plant, et cetera, et cetera, that cost me another dollar. So I will sell this product for $3. Because it would be wrong to charge more than $3 because it only cost me $3 to put it out there in the world. Well, that business will be out of business very soon. And you can see why. But as crazy as that sounds for a business to do that, I see nonprofits do it all the time. And even worse, I have seen nonprofits actually charge less than their true cost. So they're losing money on every sale. We could do a whole episode just on price. But for the purposes of this conversation, you identify the price that makes sense to you that covers not only your direct costs for providing the service or the goods, but you also have extra built in to cover research and development, to cover inflation, to cover some of the basics that are always happening that need to be paid for. But the difference between justifying a price and demonstrating value is huge, and that's the piece that I wanna focus on. If you're justifying, you're being defensive. You're letting the decision-maker know that you don't really believe your stuff is worth the price you're asking. And that is deadly, because if you don't believe it's worth it, then why would they? Why would they invest at that level if you're basically already communicating through your language, and your vocal expression, and your energy that you really think this is too much, and you probably should be asking for less. You want to build a case and show massive value. And come in with the mindset of this is an incredibly valuable investment that you can make. Your returns are gonna be amazing. It's gonna produce incredible results for you. Everybody wins. This is gonna be great. That's the approach you wanna take to building the case for your price and demonstrating value. If you catch yourself at any point feeling like you have to justify it, back up. First of all, identify if there's a belief working there that's causing you to operate that way. But also shift that out of your language and redo that piece of your pitch. The third thing is when you are in conversation with the decision-maker. You're in the room with them. Name your price with confidence and let it sit. This one is hard. This requires that we get comfortable with silence, with challenges, and with questions. And we always come back to the core belief that this is the most amazing and valuable investment they could possibly make. And if they don't see that yet, then it's our job to open their eyes and help them see how fricking amazing this thing is gonna be. And that once they see that, they're gonna understand why this price is a great deal, and they'd be fools not to snap it up. But if they don't get that yet, there could be all kinds of reactions that are part of the things that people tend to be afraid of. You name your price and they just stare at you, or they react negatively, like, "Whoa, that's higher than I was expecting." The temptation when you get that reaction, "Oh, that's a lot. That was higher than I was expecting," the temptation is to back off and say, "Oh, well, you know, we could make it be less. Let's figure out a way to make it be less." No. Just let them say what they have to say. This takes practice, by the way. And I recommend you practice it with your colleagues because this one is hard for most people. To just sit with that, let it come in, and not get defensive, not panic, not say, "Oh my gosh, they don't wanna pay that. Now we're in trouble. Ah, we better negotiate down." They haven't asked for that yet. Wait till they ask. Just because they say, "Whoa, that's higher than I was expecting," that doesn't mean they want you to charge less. It just means it's higher than they were expecting. Who knows why they had the expectation they had? Let them talk for a minute. Find out why. Maybe they don't understand the full scope of the work that you do. Maybe they don't understand the impact and outcomes that you're able to create. Maybe they don't understand the ROI just yet. That's okay. Those are opportunities for you to come in and fill in those gaps for them. But if your reaction is to run for the hills and back off on your price the minute there is an objection or a reaction that says, "Oh, I don't know, that's a lot." Don't do that. Don't read into it. You have to be able to sit and take it in and come back to your messaging around why this is an amazing investment. Now, they may have legitimate questions, and you wanna answer those. But always from the perspective of we deliver amazing value. This is a great investment. And you won't say this part, but, and you'd be crazy not to make this investment If you come to the conversation with that belief and that energy, that will transfer over into your voice, it'll transfer into your language, and It will change the dynamics of the conversation. And the last thing that's related to all of this as well, is to be clear about your bottom line and never ever go below it. You can give yourself room to negotiate, and I recommend that you do. Depends on the setting, depends on the decision-maker, depends on the situation, but there are plenty of situations in which it's a good idea to come in with things you can negotiate about. It might not be about price. It might be that you have a gold standard package of services that are what you prefer to provide, but that you have, like, a silver offering that if they truly can't manage the investment of the gold package. "Well, okay, you might wanna go with the silver plan instead." Now, obviously, you're probably not gonna use that language, but you get what I'm saying. That you could have a slightly less intensive version that you still know will get excellent results. Never offer something that is so stripped down that it's not gonna produce the outcomes, because you always wanna be delivering that massive value. But you can find ways to offer a slightly less expensive version, if price is really the objection. But price, as you've heard me say on many episodes, when people object over price, the money isn't really the objection. There's something else going on. So you have to know what your bottom line is, and that's both in terms of your actual price. And the services that are connected to it. You can have package A and package B, and you sell package A first, and if they don't like it, then if that's really too rich for their blood, you can go to package B that's still gonna deliver a lot of value but will maybe have not quite as many bells and whistles. Or maybe you'll serve fewer people. There's plenty of ways to reduce cost without reducing quality, and that's always the thing. But what we never do is we never compromise on quality and we never compromise on our fiscal integrity. If there is a price that if we agree to it, it will place the organization at even a slight financial disadvantage, it's not a good deal. Don't take the deal. There'll be other deals. There'll be other deals with partners who do understand the value and who are ready to make that investment. If this person that you're talking to today is not there yet, then you'll keep working on them. But you never wanna be so desperate to get the deal that you're willing to make compromises that aren't wise and that you will regret later. We could talk about lots more skills. There are plenty more skills involved in successful selling. There's all kinds of messaging. There's voice work we could talk about. There's all kinds of things you can do, but at the core, if we don't have these four things dialed in, all the rest of that will not really help that much. If we don't have these four things dialed in, it's gonna be difficult to bail ourselves out with some good messaging. And you know me, I am the queen of great messaging. I am all about it. But it's also true that if your internal game is not up to snuff, particularly in the context of sales, which is where all our stuff comes out. Sales is like this crazy bugaboo. When we start talking money and we start making a pitch, all kinds of stuff can go haywire in the messaging, in the voice, everywhere else. What I wanna do for you today is give you these four core things to work on that will build the solid foundation that then provides the support for your great messaging and all the other stuff you're gonna do to make sure you're hitting home runs with sales conversations on a regular basis. So one more time, those skills. Identify the money stories that will serve you and program those into your subconscious. And while you're doing that, you're pruning out all the money stories that don't serve you. Number two is to build a really solid case for your price that demonstrates massive value. Never justify, only demonstrate value. There is a huge difference. Number three, name your price with confidence and let it sit. Get super comfortable with silence, with decision-makers challenging you or asking difficult questions or reacting in ways that freak you out, like, "Whoa, that's a lot. I don't know. Whoa, whoa, I wasn't expecting it to be that much." Those kinds of reactions, you can practice responses that will serve you and that will allow you to redirect to value. Always redirect to the value of the investment. Answer their questions, but always redirect. And I don't know any other way to do that than to practice it, but it is absolutely worth practicing. And then the last thing is to be clear about your bottom line and never ever go below it. If they are asking you to do that and you can't find a way to do the deal that maintains the integrity of your quality of services and the integrity of your price structure. If it can't do those two things, then that is not a deal you want. The other piece of that is to learn to say no. To say, "You know what? That deal's not gonna work for us. That's okay. Let's keep talking. Maybe there'll be a point at which we can work together on something." But to be able to not go below your bottom line and to be okay with walking away from a bad deal. That's it. Those are the four core elemental skills that if you can become good at those, you will have built the foundation for everything else to work so much better. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you in the next episode right here on the Nonprofit Power Podcast.