Many years ago, I was shopping for my first new car.

My parents and I went to a Dodge dealership way out East on Mayfield Road to test drive a Dodge Neon.

The salesman that descended upon us exemplified every stereotype: he wore a brown and green plaid sports coat over light brown corduroy pants. His hair was either very unwashed, or it was severely greased down against his skull. He had a smile that showcased his extensive dental work.

The sales manager who ran the dealership was even more stereotypical: he was six-feet tall and in great physical shape, wearing a custom-fitted navy pinstripe suit, and two pinky rings. His hair had just a bit too much gel in it, and his aftershave lingered in the office for three minutes after he left.

You can probably guess I didn’t buy a car there. Why?

First of all, I didn’t like the ride of the Neon. More importantly, I just flat out had “no trust” for the salesman or his manager. Everything about them and the dealership screamed “we’ll take you for a ride in our cars, and then we’ll take you for a ride on your finances!”

“No Trust” is the reason a lot of people don’t buy retail products and services.

If people don’t trust you, then forget it. They won’t share money with people they don’t trust.

Look smarmy? You won’t get their money.

Come across as a fast talker? No check for you.

Bad reputation? I’ll go elsewhere, thank you very much.

Sometimes Listeners Don’t Trust WRUW

Unfortunately, radio is a one-way medium, so we can never really SEE our listeners’ reactions to what we say during the fundraiser. We never see how we lose trust and credibility during the telethon.

You can’t see your listeners turn off the radio when you say something that directly contradicts what everyone else is saying about how we spend our money.

You can’t see your listeners turn off the radio in disgust when you play Top-40 music to “convince them” to give.

You can’t watch as they shout at the radio ‘I gave last year and you said you would buy more music I like, but you took my favorite show off the air.’”

A loss in trust is a loss in credibility.

A loss in credibility is a loss in listenership and donations.

What “No Trust” Sounds Like

“I don’t trust that you’ll handle my credit card number with privacy.”

“I don’t trust that you’ll deliver the premiums I’m asking for.”

“I don’t trust that you won’t skim some of the money for yourself.”

“I don’t trust that you need the money, especially since you’re part of big wealthy Case Western Reserve.”

“I don’t trust that you will use the money well.”

“I don’t trust that you’ve spent money in the past as you say you have.”

“I don’t like the sound of your voice, so I don’t trust you.”

“You said you would only talk for a few minutes, but it has been 10 minutes and you’re still going. Shut up already.”

Turning Around Trust Levels

One way to combat “no trust” is to take any of the sample sentences above, and develop some kind of trust statement around each one.

For example, take the line “I don’t trust that you need the money, especially since you’re part of big wealthy Case Western Reserve.”

You might say on-air to your listeners:

“Now you might be thinking we don’t really need money since we’re part of Case. Well, looks can be deceiving. The only thing Case (the institution) provides us with is space for our studios, electricity, heat and air conditioning. The students of Case provide us with less than half our budget through an annual fee for their activities, but that’s all they can afford to do for us. So, we have to make up the remaining income ourselves. That’s why we do this on-air appeal once a year.

You listen to us and therefore seem to like what you hear. So we’re hoping that you, and other listeners like you, will help provide the finding we need. We have to raise sixty-five thousand dollars this week, and your donation of forty dollars or more, will take us one step closer towards achieving that goal. Based on our record keeping so far, we’re already at the ten thousand dollar mark. We’ve still got a ways to go so we can buy more of this music I’m playing and more equipment to make it sound great for you. So, please call in your donation right now at 216-368-2208 …”

(That’s a sample of what you can say. For my sake, the station’s sake, and your listener’s sake, if you like what you read, PUT IT IN YOUR OWN WORDS. There’s almost nothing worse than hearing 15 people say the exact same 195 words during the week of the telethon!)

You can’t just say it!

To combat distrust, you cannot just literally say the words “trust us.” In a voice-only, one-way medium like radio, you have to demonstrate trust through explanation, facts, and reasoning.

So, take the other “No Trust” statements I listed above, and sketch out some kind of phraseology that helps engender trust in WRUW and our telethon. Why should they trust us with their credit card number? How can you prove we spent their money well? Can you prove we don’t get paid? How?

It’s up to you to prove WRUW’s level of trust … during the fundraiser, and all year.

If you’ve screwed over or pissed off your listeners for the last year, you can just as well kiss off any hope of donations. Hey, don’t blame them for not donating. You did it to yourself.

However, if you’ve done a pretty good show each week, conversed with your listeners on the phone, played requests, announced local concerts, and given away tickets, you have done a lot to build trust with your listeners. There’s a great chance some of them will donate because they trust you.

So, take your show this telethon week and remind your listeners of all the things they like about WRUW and that keep them tuning in each week.

Remind them that a donation to WRUW will be safe and used wisely. Give people compelling reasons to give, remind them of how we have used the money in the past, and explain how we will continue to use the money in the future.

We don’t need 10,000 people to donate in order to reach our goal. Last year, we only had 745 of our listeners pledge a donation and we raised over $60,000. Let’s make an effort to beat that.

We hope you have found these messages useful for your show preparation.