» PAC Persuasion

The Top 9 Things Your PAC Prospects Don’t Want to Hear

Amy Showalter — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 01:05:24 +0000

Based on my experience in delivering actual PAC fundraising appeals, as well as interviewing corporate employees and association members, here is my list of the top 9 most uninfluential and uninspiring ways to make your PAC pitch. These apply to oral, written, and web content communications. Keep it nearby when you are preparing your remarks for your next PAC membership drive, because you can, safely and without the supervision of a trained professional, try these techniques on your own. 1. “You need to give to the PAC because campaigns are expensive.” In years of conducting PAC questionnaires and interviews, I honestly have never heard a PAC prospect mention this as a motivation to contribute. Yet, it’s as popular as ever among political involvement...

Why have a PAC?

Amy Showalter — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 22:45:06 +0000

This is why... Innovate to Motivate faculty member Brett Kappel weighs in on new research from Vanderbilt University: The research finds that corporations gain clear financial benefits when individual employees make political donations. What they describe in a new research paper is strong evidence that individuals who make political donations – whether at the behest of companies or not – directly benefit businesses in their communities. “The reason we looked at individual contributions is because it accounts for about two-thirds of all the money given directly to politicians,” said Ovtchinnikov, noting that only about 10 percent of firms are actively involved in campaign finance. “Individuals are the big players in this game.” The 2010 U.S. congressional elections saw an unprecedented boom in campaign...

Grassroots and PAC Influence Lessons Learned in 2010

Amy Showalter — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:00:59 +0000

What did you learn in 2010? Watch the video below for insights Amy gained in the last year!

Common Obstacles to Trust and How to Overcome Them: Part Three

Amy Showalter — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:00:36 +0000

We're going to explore more common obstacles to trust and how to overcome them. Negative communication If we are truly grassroots professionals, we should embrace bottom up communication. Many times our messages only ask members to do something for us, or tell them what they should not be doing, saying, thinking, and so forth. It is important to be a carrier of good news. It affects how we are seen in the organization and how much time our advocates will give us in the future. People attribute negative personal characteristics to those who bring us bad news, regardless of whether they were involved in creating that bad news. We generally don't trust those we don't like. What is your positive-to-negative communication ratio? Ask your...

Common Obstacles to Trust and How to Overcome Them: Part Two

Amy Showalter — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 15:00:32 +0000

We're going to explore more common obstacles to trust and how to overcome them. Direction changes The insidious impact of direction changes is why it is so important to foster a grassroots and PAC community within an organization. Campaigns definitely have their purpose, but they can reduce motivation in the long term unless community is created from them. Our advocates will tolerate change, but not ambiguity. I'm thrilled to hear about organizations that are revitalizing their grassroots and PAC communities. However, the fact that they have to "revitalize" means that the original effort stalled. This impacts our ability to motivate our team for future battles. How do your advocates and PAC leaders know that this "revitalization" isn't just another two-year attempt (or more commonly,...

The Bailout and Persuasion Tactics

Amy Showalter — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:34 +0000

I’ve read with interest some blog postings and news accounts of the votes by the U.S. House of Representatives on the 2008 $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan. Some were straight news accounts, other heralded that the vote results were directly correlated to citizen grassroots input and nothing else. As one who promotes the grassroots persuasion “lifestyle,” you’d think I’d be doing a victory dance at these “insights.” Au contraire, it reminded me how attributing influence success to one tactic is a faulty way to evaluate success (or failure). It leads to flawed influence strategy. If I’ve learned one thing, it’s never one thing that leads to influence success. You have to have lots of tools in the toolbox, and...

Yahoo: “Despite Enormous Popularity, Old Spice Guy Not Helping Sales”

Amy Showalter — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 02:32:48 +0000

The Old Spice ads make me laugh. They generate buzz. But it's always about the results! Good to remember for your next PAC or grassroots campaign. Who is your target audience? Are you speaking their language? Here's the Yahoo story.

The Three Approaches to Preparing for Objections

Amy Showalter — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:00:09 +0000

Effectively handling objections is largely based on what we do before, rather than in, the moment the objection surfaces. Government relations professionals tend to fall into one of three groups along a dimension of increasing sophistication. One way some prepare is to self-reference, rather than contemplate the perspective of our PAC prospects. Unsophisticated influencers do not reflect on the influence situation at all. They would rather do rather than investigate. They like to have a short list of PAC tactics handy for any PAC influence situation. “I already know how to drive a car, so why should I look at a map? I know what buttons to push and what knobs to turn to make this car work.” When they do not...

Assessment: Do You Have a Persuasive PAC?

Amy Showalter — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 14:00:02 +0000

Do you have a persuasive PAC? Find out by taking our assessment.

No Apologies

Amy Showalter — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:00:22 +0000

I’m worried when I see PAC recruiters open their talk by apologizing for having to ask for PAC contributions. This is one of the weakest ways to start a PAC pitch. It can open the door to some hostile objections because you are subtly communicating that you are not positive about what you are asking your audience to do. If you don’t approach the audience with a positive attitude, they certainly won’t feel good about your message. Rest assured that your audience catches whatever attitude you are sending. At one of my recent client PAC recruiter training workshops, one of the trainees began his presentation strongly. He was gliding so smoothly, there was no reason to stop this practice run until...