I am here on a mission of mercy. - The man from downtown
Steps to Success
- Meet with donor
- Gather 2 facts (donor age 65 owns appreciated property)
- Gather no goals
- Assume goals are tax reduction and income
- Suggest Charitable Remainder Trust
- Wait several days as donor consults advisor
- Express surprise when deal is rejected
- Go back to step 1 with new donor
- Repeat until deal is closed and quota met
- Write paper on best practices for National Committee on Planned Giving.
How to Fail Miserably
- Get to know donor as human being
- Gather through open-ended conversation the donor's goals for self, family, and society
- Encourage the donor's best instincts
- Help donor weigh the joy of a gift now or gift later or at death
- Help donor weigh inheritance to kids versus philanthropy
- Help donor weigh the benefits to children of a philanthropic inheritance, or a family tradition of current gifts, or through a foundation or donor advised fund
- Help donor reduce goals, including but not limited to philanthropic goals, to talking points for advisors
- Serve as resource to advisors as overall financial, giving, and estate plan is created
- Express gratitude as massive current gift, or legacy commitment, is made to your organization
- Abandon this process when it comes out that the donor also made a massive gift to some other organization
- Slap yourself for having helped society, donor, family, and your organization
- Return to proven Steps to Success listed above.
I am not sure planned giving as a career option can be saved. But there are jobs open in the financial services bidnis pitching product. If you are a planned giving officer who is finding Charitable Remainder Trusts a hard sale these days, I would be happy to line you up with a financial sales recruiter. If you are going to play pitch and putt to meet a quota you might as well at least have a decent commission structure, along with basic sales training. If you knew how to answer objections you would not be in this mess. There are only four objections to any financial product or service, including a Charitable Trust. Master the answers and you will succeed like a champ. I will cover these answers to objections in another lesson. By way of preview: The fourth and hardest objection to answer in any sale of a financial product or service is "No Confidence." The No Confidence Objection is best met by wearing an expensive suit. You can rent one if you cannot afford to purchase one.
Forgive me. Don't rent the suit. You would do better to buy it on a credit card with a good low teaser rate. Remember, no one will do a Charitable Remainder Trust with a planned giving officer in a cheap suit. Stay away from Glengarry plaids too.