NOTE: This is refresh of a 2022 blog. I’ve added some additional insights for nonprofit leaders.
No matter what kind of organization or company you lead, your donors or customers are always your best resource for insights into how you should talk about your brand. When you ask them the right questions, they’ll tell you all you need to know. In this blog, I compare and contrast the role of a nonprofit fundraising team to a for-profit sales team in supporting your marketing goals. Collaboration between your sales/fundraising and marketing teams leads to more informed and elevated outreach.
Your Sales (or Fundraising) Team is a Powerful Source of Customer Insights
While direct contact with donors or customers is valuable, your sales or fundraising team is often the most powerful source of insight for marketing outreach. These teams interact with your audience daily, listening to their concerns, motivations, and needs. Their firsthand knowledge of what resonates—or doesn’t—can directly shape more effective messaging and outreach strategies.
Your fundraisers and sales teams know what messaging lands best with different donor or customer segments. They understand the language supporters use to describe their connection to the cause and can identify common objections or hesitations. This insight allows marketing teams to refine their messaging, ensuring it speaks directly to audience values and expectations.
Additionally, these frontline teams can detect shifts in sentiment. For example, during economic downturns, donors may become more concerned about how their contributions are used, requiring marketing to emphasize transparency and impact. In a for-profit setting, sales teams may notice that customers are prioritizing cost-effectiveness over premium features, signaling a need for a different messaging approach.
By fostering strong collaboration between fundraising, sales, and marketing, organizations can create outreach campaigns that are both persuasive and deeply aligned with supporter or customer expectations. When your teams work together, marketing strategies become more targeted, leading to stronger engagement, donor relationships, and brand loyalty.
Case Study: Collaborating for Successful Senior Living Communities
When I took over the marketing for our three assisted living and skilled nursing communities at LSS, there was very little interaction between the marketing team and the in-house sales managers. While the marketing team managed their digital channels and created most of the marketing materials, the sales managers created their own sales materials. They ignored a lot of the approved marketing messaging. As a result, our messaging was confusing, disjointed, and misleading. Our target families did not understand our services, and the brand suffered.
I started having regular meetings with the sales team, and we worked together to revamp the marketing and sales materials so they were consistent and brand-right. Above all, the materials addressed the concerns of our target families so they could see how we could help them. The collaboration strengthened the brand and gave the sales team a boost. They felt like they impacted our brand messaging, and that empowerment translated into better performance.
Our collaboration was especially critical during the pandemic. The lockdown was especially hard on our senior living facilities. Our occupancy levels dropped to historic lows and it was increasingly difficult to bring in new residents because they couldn’t tour the community. Once the lockdown ended, there were new safety protocols that needed to be communicated to residents and new leads. While I created the agency communications about our response to the pandemic, I could not have effectively used it in sales materials without our sales team. They were the people who were hearing what was most important to our target families. For example, my team assumed that potential residents would be most concerned about our staff wearing PPE. However, our sales team reported they were more worried about when and how their family could visit. That information was extremely valuable in creating effective advertising and marketing materials.
Strengthening Collaboration for Elevated Outreach and Enhanced Engagement
The disconnect between sales or fundraising teams and marketing can be damaging to your organization’s outreach efforts. These teams should work together to create messaging that works for both functions. A warm and ongoing collaboration between marketing and sales or fundraising ensures a more accurate customer or donor persona, helping to attract more qualified leads and supporters.
When your teams work together, both functions become stronger. Marketing becomes more informed and relevant, while sales and fundraising efforts become more effective. Strong collaboration makes both teams successful, driving better outreach, engagement, and, best of all, greater impact.
Let’s work together to refine your outreach messaging strategies! Schedule a discovery call today.
