During your telethon show you will experience an entire spectrum of emotions.

When you start the fundraiser you’ll experience nervousness about asking for money, and anxiety as to whether or not people will call.

Once you get your first pledge, you will probably experience a boost of energy, which will turn into excitement as more people call and as the station gets another step closer to blowing past $65,000 in pledges.

There may be low points, too. There will probably be a time when you’ll plead a well-reasoned and heartfelt appeal for listeners to support your show … and no one will call in. If the phones continue to remain silent, you’ll probably begin to feel a bit angry and discouraged.

A common mistake that people make at this point is letting their anger and discouragement creep into their on-air appeals. Yikes!

Raising money over the radio is a process … and once you understand that process, you can remain upbeat and positive even when the phones aren’t ringing.

The Process of Making Contact

Back in 2003, I worked in a training role at The Plain Dealer. I helped the PD salespeople win more business with technology – via email, web sites, and computer programs. I work with high-performing salespeople on a daily basis.

I had an insightful conversation with one of the salespeople who helps bar owners and club owners advertise in The Plain Dealer’s “Friday!” magazine. He told me that to get a new advertiser in the paper usually required seven or more visits to the business. He knew it was a process, and he never got discouraged.

His comment mirrors that of other salespeople I have worked with over the past 11 years within several different industries. It always seems to take at least seven contacts to get a purchase from a potential buyer. It’s a process.

This has always struck me as interesting, because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) has found the same measurement to be true for listeners of fund drives on public radio and TV.

CPB found that listeners tend to call in donations after hearing an average of seven (7) appeals by the station employees.

Specifically, they give after hearing seven appeals that last five to seven minutes each.

What This Means to You

This means you can’t expect listeners to call on your first pledge break and make a donation. Maybe not even your second pledge break either.

If your listeners don’t call right away (or perhaps don’t call at all), you’re simply setting them up to call later. Maybe they need to hear three more appeals before they give … or two more … or maybe just one more but they turned off their radio for today.

On the other hand, you might get calls on your first or second appeal. After all, some listeners may have heard five or six other appeals already during the day or week and you’re just putting them “over the fence.”

In fact, this shows up in our past telethon results.

As the week progresses, we get more pledges because of the momentum and excitement generated by the programmers on the first days of the telethon. Therefore, stay positive when on-air!

If you have done your prep work of creating outlines … if you picked specific premiums … if you spoke in the listener’s interest … and if you presented accurate facts and proved that we need the money and it has to come from the listener … then you have done your best.

You can be proud of whatever pledges you’ve received. You can also be comforted to know that you have set up the other listeners to give later in the day or in the week.

How to Avoid Sounding Discouraged

You can avoid sounding discouraged by the words you use. For example:

DISCOURAGING: “Geez, you all called last week with requests. Where are you all this week?”

ENCOURAGING: “I always like to hear from you with requests and you know I play them. This week I’m hoping you’ll show your appreciation for what I do by calling with a donation to this show.”

DISCOURAGING: “You ungrateful saps!” (This was actually said on-air by a WRUW programmer several years ago. )

ENCOURAGING: “We’re grateful for the support of so many listeners. We hope you’ll join with them in supporting college radio.”

DISCOURAGING: “I know you hate this interruption, but I have to do this stuff.”

ENCOURAGING: “This is our once a year special event and your ONLY chance to make a donation to help keep us growing and improving through the year. Give us a call now.”

Put the positive spin on everything you say to avoid sounding discouraged on-air.

How Long to Speak

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has also found that a well-structured appeal of five to seven minutes in length is “just right” for getting people to call.

Why? Two reasons.

First, it takes about 4 minutes for the listener to react and think … “hmm, I listen, I like the music, I should give.”

Second, 5 to 7 minutes is just long enough to give the listener the opportunity to stop what he is doing, go over to the phone and make the pledge call – without missing the regular programming.

If your total mic time (including reading your playlist, and giving an ID and telethon appeal) totals 5 to 7 minutes, you’re right on track.

Final Thoughts

Work to stay positive and upbeat during your show. Some of you will get more phone calls than you usually do. Some of you will get fewer calls than usual. It’s nothing against you personally. That’s the nature of the telethon.

Make it a goal to give 3 or 4 pledge breaks each hour of your show. Remember, this telethon brings in 50 percent of our budget. You can help make it a success by stressing the importance to your listeners as often as possible without being annoying.

Talk long enough for people to stop what they are doing, so they can make their pledge call.

It takes all of us, each raising a little bit of money at a time, to blow past our goal of $65,000!