I was having breakfast in one of my favorite Nyonya fried noodle restaurants when a young guy approached me with a polite gesture. I have never seen him before and so I just waited for him to make the first move.
The normal reactions of most people would be waving their hands signaling No! No! No!, immediately rejecting anything the approacher would say next. But I was curious to hear what he has to say. In this case, was a solicitation for money. Money for their care homes.
The last thing I wanted was to get conned.
Just to make sure I don’t get screwed, I did two things; Since the guy asking for money was a student, I asked ” Where are you studying?”
“UCSI”
“What course?”
“Applied science”
I tested him more by probing questions regarding that subject to see if he is genuine. OK, verification is done, he knows what he is talking about. I made a phone call to the number to make sure this home for disabled kids even exists. It does.
So, truly convinced. I gave him RM50.
He said thanks and the normal appreciation manners and gave me a receipt. I didn’t bother looking at it because I was eating still.
After my breakfast, I took a look at the receipt and I realized (shockingly)…
There was a BIG lesson for this Home to learn!
While the receipt states my name, there was a MISSING element for them to be aware of. I just gave RM50 in less than 3 minutes; I can be considered a generous donor.
The problem was… they did not get my contact.
If that Home needs money again, guess what will they do? Get some volunteers and hit the streets again, mistake, a mistake.
The lesson here, ask the donors for their contacts, get permission to put them into an email system which they can get volunteers to help to do, that way they can keep in touch with their donors. They can show the donors what they have done with the RM50 I gave them.
Same thing with retailers, or any sort of business. DATABASE is the word. Get it, keep it and use it.
Hanzo Ng
Sales Ninja Grandmaster
