How to ‘Up’ Your Average Performance
and Motivate Others to Do the Same

By Terri S. Turner, Director of Business Development
Kansas City Region

My dad used to say, “One out of two ain’t bad!” I thought 50% was average. On an academic scale, a C, or 70%, is average. Baseball players whose batting average is 3 out of 10, or .300, are considered far above average. Direct marketing professionals know that a consumer must see a message at least eight times for name recognition. That’s a 12% average. Business development professionals may get one potential customer out of every 10 cold calls. Success is defined by a 10% average.

Averages are not constant; they change each time you make the effort, each time you take a test and each time you go to bat. For example, if you scheduled 10 donor prospecting calls for the week and the first three prospects turned you down, you are at 0%. But if you make one more call and the prospect says, “Yes, I am passionate about your mission, tell me how I can help,” your prospecting success just increased to 25%.

For nonprofit professionals, it is not uncommon to gather your board or campaign steering committee for a planning session. Scattered on the table are lists of donor prospects. The discussion begins, “I know the Smiths. They have a great family business and can afford to give, but the economy has taken a downturn and I doubt they will.” Or, “The Jones were big supporters of the recent hospital campaign. They have been active in our organization for years, but I doubt they will support us at this time,” and so on.

When rejection and failure precede success, what motivates the baseball player to attempt a hit one more time? How does the salesperson visit the next customer?  What’s the secret to encouraging your campaign chair to ask for another $100,000 gift?

Before I give you the answer, I want to remind you that you can’t play baseball without stepping up to bat. You can’t sell without presenting your product. You can’t raise money if you don’t make THE ASK!  What prevents most people from taking action is a fear of failure. But remember, if you don’t try, you fail by default.

As director of business development for Jeffrey Byrne & Associates, each day I ask myself how I can motivate our associates to “advance philanthropy” with our clients and the nonprofit community. Each time a colleague collaboration achieves success, I am astounded at the realization that our “sales” process mirrors the development process: prospect research, prospect cultivation, ask and stewardship. And, the motivation to continue with the process parallels fundraising as well.

Omar Periu, a business motivational speaker, offers the following steps to stay motivated:

1. Attitude is everything. Condition your mind to think positive thoughts. You can train yourself to think in terms of “I can,” “It’s possible,” and “This will work.”
2. Act with a purpose. When you are passionate about your organization and its mission, you will translate that excitement to others.
3. Be interesting. Speak about your organization and your work with enough interest that you can grab another person’s attention within 10 to 20 seconds. You don’t have to convey a lot of information. Instead convey energy, confidence and excitement.
4. Put fun in the process of all you do. People who enjoy the experience exceed expectations and continue to put forth effort again and again.
5. Remain flexible. No plan should be cast in concrete.
6. Take responsibility for your results. Don’t credit luck, good or bad.
7. Stretch past your limits on a daily basis.
8. Don’t wait for perfection, do it now! 
9. Surround yourself with motivated people. Positive energy is contagious.
10. Focus on purpose and goals, not obstacles and problems.

I am sure there are prospects you could cultivate, donors with whom you could connect, or even friendships you could develop – but haven’t – all for a lack of a little extra motivation.

Make a copy of this list. Tape it to your wall or computer screen. Practice it daily. Remember, motivation is the ultimate root of success. Put your “not going to get it done” reasons on the back burner. Push your development efforts to the next level by upping your average performance and motivating others to do the same.