Newsletter: Partnership Sales Lessons From the 'B2B Revenue Waterfall' 🌊 ; New Video Game ‘Stray’ is Cat’s Meow for Nonprofits 😺 ; Donor-Advised Funds are Starving Nonprofits of Money They Need 🍽

Every other week I get a newsletter in my inbox called The Authority. It's all about how consultants like me can get more clients by being a visible authority in their particular area of expertise.

Last week, the author of the newsletter, Luk Smeyer, shared an article that's relevant to consultants AND to partnership teams.

Luk discussed the importance of targeting existing clients and referenced a graph from Forrester called the B2B Revenue Waterfall.

Luk wrote...

"Notice how only 25% of won business opportunities stem from new prospects (candidates). The vast majority of opportunities lie with current customers, whom you can close through renewals, upsells, and cross-sells. Isn’t it mind-boggling that your consultancy [partnership team] may miss out on this sea of business?"

The title of Luk's post says it all: Why Do So Many Consultancies [Partnership Teams] Neglect Former and Existing Clients? That’s Where the Money Is!

Amen, Luk! 🙏

The outcome here is that in addition to needing a lead generation strategy for new prospects, you also need a nurture strategy for past and existing partners.

I agree with Luk that creating a nurture strategy needn't be hard. In fact, if you are a small nonprofit with limited staff, you may want to focus exclusively on a nurture strategy and wait on new business efforts until you have more resources.

🔬Record partnership work like your a scientist. This means analyzing everything about a partnership - good and bad. You need to become a super sleuth on what does and doesn't work.

🔂 Consistently share these insights with your former and existing partners. Remember, you're not selling anything here. You're informing and educating your partners on what's happening and what does and doesn't work. Along the way, you are building trust, rapport, and confidence - and perhaps passively racking up more sales.

✍️ Pick the right vehicle to share your findings. For me, this means writing case studies and/or sending a monthly or quarterly corporate partnership newsletter.

👉🏻 The bad news is that most partnership teams have neither case studies nor a partnership newsletter. The good news is that I can help you with both. Just hit reply to this email!

✍️ Partnership Notes

1. The popularity of a new fundraising video game called Stray has left some people tangled in yarn. But for nonprofits it's the cat's meow.😺

2. Greenwashing vs. Greenwhispering. Your corporate partners need to know the difference.

3. Another good article to share with your corporate partners. Customers may love a company's support for causes, but they care about something else even more!

🤑 Marketing Your Cause

1. Humor-based trolling is risky, but when done right, it can be effective marketing for nonprofits.

2. Something we could all use help with: 6 easy tips to shorten your sentences.

3. Did you know that for baby boomers who own smartphones, TEXTING is their top reported activity??? 🫢 I certainly didn't. How SMS can drive engagement with nonprofit supporters over 50.

😎 Cool Jobs in Cause

No new jobs this week. Shocking, right?

🧠🍌 Brain Food

1. Donor-advised funds like Fidelity’s are starving charities of the money they need.

2. I've always wanted to go back to school and learn math again. I was never good at it, but surely it was the fault of my teachers....right?

At 65, this guy actually doing what I want to do. Maybe I'll join him when I'm 65! So, let's see, that's how many years down the road for me? Hmmm....tough one.🤔

3. Red Lobster did it again! It seems that orange lobsters (supposedly 1-in-30-million but I think someone needs to check their math) are flocking to the brand in hopes of avoiding the pot!🦞