The next steps
In the world of your mission, you have roughly two kinds of people: Those whom you help, and those who help you.
But from another perspective, maybe they’re all people whom you help.
Sure, we hope our service recipients and members are receiving something wonderful through our work.
But even our donors, volunteers, advocates and staff members — if we’re doing our jobs right, those people receiving something they truly value by participating in our work.
So here’s a question:
Do you believe these folks are made happy by participating in your work?
And if you could guide them, gently but effectively, to participate in that work even more, do you think they’d be even happier?
I do. If they can feel connected, and see how your work matters to them, I believe they’ll feel proud and fulfilled by participating.
But here’s a harder question:
What’s the best way to move them in that direction?
They’ve applied for services but aren’t showing up for appointments; do you just tell them not to forget next time?
They’ve signed up for your mailing list; do you just tell them how happy they’d feel to give $5000?
They’ve attended a training; do you just tell them “it would be awesome” if they became a lifetime member?
Of course, it’s not that easy. If it were, you’d be overwhelmed with resources and opportunities.
Helping someone to get from where they are now to where you want them to be is not always a simple matter.
There are any number of steps between here and there, and it’s not always obvious — to you or to them — which is the next best step to take.
Our job is helping people to the next step.
Whatever you call them, whatever you do for them — or they for you — you have (don't you?) some direction you want them to go. Some goal you’d like them to reach.
But we can't just tell them to go there and call us if they need help.
They don't see the goal as well as we do.
They don't know the path to get there.
They won’t take all the steps on their own.
But what we can do is help them to take the next step.
A little at a time.
Starting from where they are now.
And here's the thing:
To guide them to the next step, we have to understand where they are now.
And we have to think of ways to make it easy for them to progress.
If we're not doing that, we not leading them to something better.
We’re just hoping they figure it out.
And they won’t.
But…
Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a way to keep track of where people are on their journey, to discern the challenges they may be facing, in order to more easily guide them along the way?
It turns out that you do. At least, you have the tools for it, in your CRM.
Of course, defining the journey, knowing the steps, spotting the roadblocks, and guiding them along — that’s up to you. No software will do it for you.
But wouldn’t it be nice if you could do it.
I wonder what that would take …
All the best,
A.