As nonprofit leaders, one of the many roles we have is that we are marketers. And if that's not part of the way you think about your role, or if that creates a little resistance for you, hang in there for a minute. Because this is a secret to success in engaging decisionmakers that is absolutely a critical core skill.

It doesn't matter what context we're in. We're always marketing something when we're engaging a decision maker. Whether we're talking to funders or foundations, to contracting partners, to government agencies, elected officials, whoever it is. In effect we're selling them something.  

Marketing and selling can be one of the toughest skill areas for nonprofit leaders to get comfortable with and to use effectively. And yet, when you're able to do that, it absolutely will transform your ability to engage decision makers and move them along faster toward the thing that you're trying to get them to do for you. And there are two marketing secrets in particular that will have an outsize impact on getting decisionmakers to yes.

In this episode, we share:

• What we’re really selling to decisionmakers
• Why selling is serving
• The biggest mistake many leaders make when they’re selling to decisionmakers, and what to do instead
• Our biggest blindspot and how to correct for it
• The two most common types of objections you’ll encounter with decisionmakers
• How to master a key part of the mental game of selling

If this is brand new to you, give these two secrets a try and let me know how it goes. If you have questions, I'm happy to respond to those as well. If you've already been applying these principles and you're going to take them to the next level, tell me what you're up to! 

Reach out to me on LinkedIn, or on the podcast website. I’m looking forward to hearing from you!