How long should I stay when I visit a donor? You need to be sure you don’t overstay your welcome. Ask for only 30 or 40 minutes and GET OUT when you said you would. It’s a great strategy because then they will be highly likely to see you again. They will know that you will be mercifully brief. They will know that you won’t drone on and on!
Never wait until the donor makes signs that they are finished with the visit. Always be the first one to begin the process of ending the meeting. You NEVER want to make someone feel like you are a drain on their time.
Use your internal radar when you are in front of a donor. Your goal is to make them feel important and interesting. And let me be clear – to you they are without a doubt very important and you are totally interested in what is on their mind.
When should I leave? When I am making a call or visit, my internal radar is going round and round. I am carefully watching my donor for signs of boredom or distraction.
If I sense that they are becoming tired of the visit, you better believe that I get out of there quickly. The last thing I want my donor to be is impatient or bored. I want him to remember the visit as enjoyable and interesting.
If he remembers the visit experience as boring, then all is lost. I can’t imagine how he would ever be willing to see me again if that was his experience.
When I was Director of Development of the Kenan Flagler Business School, I called on many of our crackerjack alumni on Wall Street. Most of these guys had an attention span of about t13 ½ minutes. Of course they were wheeling and dealing in millions every minute, so their time was precious.
So my strategy was: Ask for 15 minutes and then get out. And I followed that rule. Now and again I would stay longer if my donor was really enjoying herself. But I would watch her carefully for signs that she was ready to end the visit and then split quickly.
Sometimes I would deliberately leave even when someone clearly wanted to keep talking. I figured that was insurance that they would be willing to see me again – they would know for sure that I would leave when I said I would – and that they had more to say to me so they would want to visit again.
