When the empowered volunteer starts prospecting, it needs to be his or her support staff ensuring that all inquires and requests for information are followed up with capable people who will close the sale or sell the prospect on joining. Very few solo empowered volunteer efforts will succeed on any kind of large scale.

How to start being an empowered volunteer or where to volunteer? First off, get empowerment. The steering committee preferably has authorized you to have business cards printed and in other ways set you up for prospecting for new members to volunteer.

Business cards can at the time of this page writing be ordered for free from more than one company. Vista Print has made this free business card offer since 2007 that I know of. I have ordered them myself. A search on google showed other companies that do it as well. Usually the postage fee is needed though. Ask most business men or women, business cards for free is a sweat deal.

http://www.vistaprint.com/free-business-cards.aspx?&GP=4%2f8%2f2013+7%3a06%3a19+PM&GPS=2800999868&GNF=1

If an empowered volunteer is forced to venture out and sell his or her group without the support of their group leadership, first off they should be very motivated, or passionate when the present their volunteer opportunities. This is by far the hardest way to go about enlarging the groups membership, unsupported. Consider joining another group that wants to support such and effort rather swimming upstream in a fashion. The group that doesn’t support this effort may not be worthy of your efforts!

If you say that it will be worth the effort, fine. Know that the potential for losing many prospects over the lack of support is very real and can be disheartening. Unless you are already a proven sales professional used to prospecting and other sales functions all at the same time you are likely to see some frustration during your efforts.

If you feel up to it, conduct a SWOT analysis on your own and follow it for directing your efforts. This will have limitations but it is worthy of some effort. As before, if you are a proven sales professional with the talent to wing it, go for it. Some sales professionals just don’t need structure, they have an instinct for where the sales or prospects are. If you are one of those very few, have fun and drive some prospects who will not fly at the first issue they see into the group. Then take them under your wing and set them on to the path that your group uses for new members and their volunteer work.

If you are not a sales professional, don’t be discouraged. If you are passionate, believe it or not you can still make prospecting effective. But you must steel yourself for rejection. There is no sales professional in the world who don’t see rejection when they make presentations and ask closing questions. Everyone who sells get rejected to some degree. Just like in baseball statistics if your averages are even remotely positive your are a qualified success. Practice until your prospecting gets to where you have a feel for who to ask to join and who to ask for referrals.

In sales, every person you can talk to is either a prospect or a referral to a prospect. This is really about attitude. Get tough and don’t worry about hearing no. When someone says they are not interested, usually accompanied by some excuse, get their information so that they are not contacted again if possible and then ask in your most polite voice for a person you should be talking to. The key is to keep prospecting. It is a numbers game, the more you ask the more you will have a chance of success.

Another aspect to selling volunteer groups is to target “joiners”. These are folks who have over time  joined other groups. If someone was in several youth groups then they already have a history of joining. They are a better prospect than someone who has never joined a volunteer group. Find out why they joined other groups and look for the emotion they felt when they were in those other groups. Every sale at it’s basic level is an emotional purchase, despite all of the data points and other features that most folks haggle over. In the end, it is about how the purchase or joining will make the buyer feel.

If anyone says anything but a firm “no” to your initial request to join, tell them about the health benefits listed in earlier posts on this site. Figure out which health benefits you like to talk about and can relate to and then make the prospect aware of this knowledge. Be prepared to provide the evidence. Show that you have something for them rather than just being a taker, you are providing a service to them that they will find worthy of their time. These features may settle into their memory and make them return for more information later on.

Passion for your group must over flow from every presentation you make to the prospect. They need to feel the passion you have, without any phoniness to it. You must serve the prospect so much energy that they are wanting to see the group just to see what has so inspired  you. Passion sells, I promise you. It sells much better than anything else you can do.

Practice three or four different ways to approach prospects. For the newly minted empowered volunteer with little or no sales experience, that is plenty. Don’t over do your presentations. Keep them short and sweet. Something like, introduce yourself and your purpose, small bit about the group, and ask for the sale. The sale can be attending a presentation, a membership drive evening supper, or simply to sign the petition. Always be closing, what ever your closing is. Ask everyone and anyone of age to either join or to refer you to someone you can help.

Note that once you ask a closing question (ask for the sale), SHUT UP! Closing questions are simple. Are you ready to sign up today, are your prepared to fill out the paperwork and sign up, are you willing to take the next step to help you live longer! Any question that leads the prospect to taking advantage of your offering in sales lingo is a closing question. NEVER say another thing once you ask the question, until your prospect answers the question that is. The person who talks first owns the product, or service. If you talk first, you keep the group and you don’t get to share it with a new member. Very simple stuff but this is one of the main truths in sales. I can not stress enough how strong this technique is.

The two things going for the “wing it” prospecting by an empowered volunteer listed here to have success is passion for the group and absolutely no fear of rejection.

Business cards should have the group logo on it if at all possible. This adds legitimacy to your prospecting. If the group logo is protected and you can’t get permission to put it on your business card, wear some kind of marketing propaganda from the group. Whatever you can do to make the prospect know you represent the group legitimately.

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People living in higher socioeconomic areas are likely to see a wider diversity of bird species in their parks, according to Paige S. Warren, who holds a joint appointment as a research scientist in the Department of Biology at Virginia Tech and the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University. Their work is part of the Central Arizona-Phoenix Long Term Ecological Research Project.

While this is interesting, it is not in itself a reason to volunteer or seek volunteer opportunities just to potentially raise your status, but a result of higher status individuals preferences in the way they maintain their surrounding environment outside their dwelling.

Another example of health related social economic status inequality is found in a study by The National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, May 27, 2004. Meg Gallogly reports that tobacco is the leading cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 Americans every year.  Another 8 million Americans suffer from a smoking-caused disease, disability, and other serious health problems.

From this same study Gallogly continues, “thanks to the tobacco industry’s targeted marketing efforts, lower-income and less educated populations are particularly burdened by tobacco use – low-income people smoke more, suffer more, spend more, and die more from tobacco use. Smoking is directly correlated with income level and years of education. Since the release of the first Surgeon General’s Report on smoking in 1964, smoking has become ever more concentrated among populations with lower incomes and fewer years of education. Whereas the highest income Americans once smoked at levels even greater than the poorest, they now smoke at barely half the rate of those of lowest income.”

These studies suggests that for the highly motivated lower SES persons (often thought of as poor) who want to climb the social status ladder through education, the potential for liberation is possible. Higher education is one method to increasing one’s status, and therefore increasing one’s potential health.

In another study we find the Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health  reporting “a growing body of evidence indicates that socioeconomic status (SES) is a strong predictor of health.  Better health is associated with having more income, more years of education, and a more prestigious job, as well as living in neighborhoods where a higher percentage of residents have higher incomes and more education.”

The mission of the Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health is to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms by which socioeconomic factors affect the health of individuals and their communities. Furthermore, the Network reported “With a few exceptions, disease is more prevalent and life expectancy shorter the lower one is in the SES hierarchy.”

In another example of social capital in action, the State of Utah has enacted The Social Capital Formation Act of 1996 as part of welfare reform. The purpose of the Social Capital Formation Act is to promote the availability of social capital in Utah. The act defines social capital as “the value provided to the state by civic organizations.” This means volunteers of America or at least in Utah are targeted for support! This program is promoting volunteering in civic groups as a solution, which is something that the empowered volunteer will hopefully take country wide.

According to the Utah statute, “using social capital, clients of and applicants for services . . . may receive a wide array of services and supports that cannot be provided by state government alone.” The act encourages government efforts to strengthen civic agencies and establishes a process whereby DWS will assess individual applicant’s needs and may refer them to civic agencies. In the act, however, the Legislature also “recognizes the constitutional limits of state government to sustain civic institutions that provide social capital.”

Furthermore, the Utah report stated that, “President George W. Bush’s recent initiative on faith based and community organizations appears to have many similarities to Utah’s social capital law. The federal government may become more involved in this area, but the federal program is not yet well developed.”

A significant source of vital information on social capital can be found on the  Saguaro Web site at http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/saguaro. The Saguaro Seminar: Civic Engagement in America is an ongoing initiative of Professor Robert D. Putnam at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “The project focuses on expanding what we know about our levels of trust, social connectedness, and community engagement and focuses on strategies to increase this engagement.”

Furthermore, this study has quantified many aspects of social capital. It is a study of fraternal and civic groups in Indiana, along with other social capital achieving groups. This study would be beneficial to all empowered volunteers who wish to understand more about this field and the implications involved. I highly recommend this information be included in any SWOT analysis for groups, which can find correlations with which to work with.

Lastly, one of the many ways someone can on an individual basis attempt to improve their status and their social capital is through joining groups which help to improve their members as well as creating platforms for their mutual benefit. An example, one of many that could be listed is the group Toastmasters International. This group promotes the individual experience of public speaking, something which is usually not taught in America’s high schools to any extent. This group not only promotes public speaking, they have a highly structured system that teaches the subject, with many opportunities for practicing the art!

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