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Making an Effective Ask

It doesn’t matter if you are asking for someone’s time, money or advice, the fundamentals of getting them to do what you need them to do are the same.

We’ve seen it often, online and offline:  Jane wants help from Joe, so Jane calls Joe and goes into a long, involved story about why what Jane is working on is the single most important issue in the history of the world, how many lives it will change, how it will better the future for us all, yada, yada, yada.

Joe is a good person, and he is interested in the issue, so he asks, “What can I do to help?”

And Jane, so overjoyed by his eagerness gives him a long menu of involvement options:  1) Call your congressperson, 2) Attend a house party, 3) Give some money, 4) Man a table at the state fair, 5) Go door to door in your neighborhood, 6) Forward this email to 10 friends, etc, etc, etc.

Joe says, “Yes, I’ll help.”  Jane says, “Great.”  They hang up and Jane thinks she’s just found a great new ally, and Joe goes about his day doing nothing to help this issue.

Where did Jane go wrong?  In a nutshell:  she didn’t make a proper ask.  She gave Joe so many options for getting involved that he became overwhelmed, didn’t know which would be the best, and so did nothing.

When making an ask, follow these 3 Things to get people to do what you need them to do:

1) Be Clear. Be clear about the issue and why it’s important to the world and why they need to get involved today.  Do this in 3 minutes or less.  “Issue A impacts X number of people each year.  Organization B is working right now to solve problem C and we need your help.”

2) Be Specific. We cannot stress this enough:  You must ask for one thing and one thing only at a time!  If they say yes, you can then go back (once they’ve completed it) to ask for more help, but if you give people a menu up front they will get overwhelmed and choose to do “something” (and just like “some” is not a number, “something” really means “nothing”).

Now, you should have a menu for yourself so if they say no to your first ask, you can come back with a different, hopefully easier, ask so they are still getting involved, but don’t offer up a list of choices right off the bat.

Example: Jane:  “I am hoping you can send a letter to the editor to the local paper by Friday.”  Joe:  “I’m not interested in doing that right now.”  Jane:  “No problem, would you feel more comfortable sending an email to your Congressperson today?”  Joe:  “Yes, I’d be happy to do that.”

Another big part of being specific is having a specific deadline for completion.  If you don’t give people a deadline, it will get lost in “the future” and just never happen (not because people are bad, but because life happens).  Ideally the deadline is less than 48 hours from the ask so the person doesn’t have a chance to forget.

3) Follow up.  Follow up after receiving the commitment in order to both ensure it is getting done, and that it is getting done in the manner that will be most helpful to you.  It’s not so helpful if your issue is climate change and the volunteer sends her letter urging education dollars (you laugh, but we’ve seen it happen)!

Your follow up (preferably in email so you have it in writing) should include a preemptive thank you along with whatever tools they need to complete their task (ie:  sample language, phone numbers of their Congressperson, talking points, phone list, etc), your contact information should they have any questions, and your deadline for completion.

Then hold them accountable.  If Joe agreed to send an email to his Congressperson and he didn’t do it, call or email him reiterating both the importance and his commitment.  99% of the time, Joe just got busy with something else and forgot and just needed that extra little reminder.

Hopefully this will help you maximize your asks so you can get more people doing what you need them to do.

Have a great week!