The sinking feeling set in as you realized you face the daunting task of building support for your organization within your community. It could be for growing an association’s membership, fundraising, promoting a new event, or even developing a brand. While community relations can be overwhelming, take a step back to consider how you can develop a plan to build a bridge between the community and your ’cause’. In my “Community Connections programs, we discuss 6 critical questions to ask:

• Who? Determine who your target audience is and identify their hot buttons. Know who you’re trying to reach, prioritize those groups, and then determine what’s important to them by asking questions.

• What? Develop message to communicate about your organization in a way that’s relevant to the target audience hot buttons. It’s easy to communicate from your perspective, but how about theirs?

• Why? Understand why your cause should be important to your target audience, then be prepared to communicate that message with power and passion!

• Where? Brainstorm events and activities where there are opportunities to reach your target audience(s). Strategically approach those events with a plan of action!

• When? Make a commitment to a timeline for building your bridge and involve other team members to develop their ownership.

• How? Follow a proven sales process to strengthen the relationship and “sell” your cause. A process I’ve seen work well: build rapport, identify needs by asking questions, offer solution for their needs, motivate to action, overcome objections, and then get their commitment.

Answer these questions and you’ll be on your way to constructing a solid bridge for your organization. Remember… it doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. It’s simply connecting people to a cause that offers tremendous benefit to them and your community!

What do your customers expect? Great salespeople find those expectations and meet them as quickly as possible, while mediocre salespeople drone on about their company/product/service without even examining customer expectations.

Do you look at each interaction with your customers as an opportunity to learn? If not, it might be time to think more in terms of diagnosis. The “Selling Power Sales Question Book” offers a wealth of ideas for probing questions:

Want a great gift to give your customers this season? Here’s a simple, cost effective solution… your ears. We’ve all heard the cliché “God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason.” Yet how many times do you come across salespeople who dominate the conversation and focus more on “their pitch” than the customer?

We have two ears to listen closely to customers with, yet we often spend more time focusing on what’s going to glide off of our golden tongues. While I do like to talk, I believe we were given 32 teeth to hold our one tongue in place while we put our two ears to use. Many salespeople I’ve worked with have more difficulty with this than you might expect. After all…if you believe in your company and you know your product, then you’re excited to tell them all about it!

Keep that enthusiasm in check long enough to ask some thought-provoking questions and then actively listen to the answers. In other words, spend more time preparing insightful questions that will extract information from your prospect instead of worrying about how you’re going to wow them with your company’s product or service. This will not only make the other person feel important, but also give you a chance to hone your discussion points to their interests. Not only will your sales pitch become all the more brilliant; your numbers will increase as you put those ears to use.

As I always tell audiences in my sales workshops, leave a scar in your tongue if you have to, but spend more time using those two ears than anything else! Listening is one of the best gifts to give both your customers and your sales career

“Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” ~George Bernard Shaw

Leadership is passion. Without passion, a person will have very little influence as a leader. I believe passion provides an individual with the light of leadership and creates an undeniable drive to make a difference.

Consider the legacy of historical leaders like J.F.K., Mother Teresa, or Abraham Lincoln. They are regarded as great leaders because they passionately worked to help others. In the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, John Maxwell said “leadership is about influence – nothing more, nothing less.” This moves beyond defining the leader to looking at the ability of the leader to influence others. Indirectly, it also builds upon leadership character, since without maintaining integrity and trustworthiness, the capability to influence will disappear.

Leadership is not achieved by those who speak the most eloquently, command the most attention or win the most awards. Rather, leadership is one’s ability to influence and help others – as Maxwell notes above. I believe this philosophy needs to be emphasized more in our society today, particularly as it relates to leadership development in youth. We often reward young people for “face value” leadership activities rather than really focusing on skills to draw a team together and move the group forward. For example, students with polished speaking skills or athletic prowess are often awarded with leadership positions without determining their abilities as a leader.

One only has to look at the demise of business ethics to see the results of “face value” leadership. True leaders combine absolute integrity with an innate ability to unite a group around a central cause. Warren Bennis said “Good leaders make people feel that they’re at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens, people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.”

This “meaning” is essential to the happiness of an individual, whether they are working for a large corporation, volunteering for a non-profit, or developing their own business. After all, human naturally desire to make a positive contribution to society; a lasting impacting both on both the present and future. I believe great leaders recognize that need, draw upon it, and use it to engage individuals in their cause. Essentially, they draw others to the flame of their passion!

Unfortunately, the passion that fuels leadership can be used for both good and evil. One hour visiting a concentration camp leaves an everlasting picture of how Hitler’s passion influenced thousands to create mass human devastation. Osama Bin Laden offers a modern day example of a leader that left an indelible impression on a generation who never before experienced war on our land. While I do not advocate such destruction, it is my opinion that September 11th served as a wake-up call for widespread apathy across the United States.

Many positive examples of leadership were found in that tragic day, yet there was one figure that consistently stood out from the dust settling around the twin towers. Passion for the U.S.A., America’s freedom, and our inherent independence defined Rudy Giuliani’s leadership legacy. Like many great leaders in world history, Giuliani’s legacy was defined by leading through a crisis.

Impassioned leadership gave Giuliani the courage to face the unthinkable in his beloved city. We should all learn from the leadership examples of September 11th that finding our personal passion allows us to influence individuals at a level we might not believe. As Eleanor Roosevelt said “You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.”

We need to remember those lessons as we are challenged with economic uncertainty, information overload, and increasing apathy. Now is the time when we must find ways to extract that passion and create more leaders of influence. After all, if we are to pass on the splendid torch noted in George Bernard Shaw’s quote to future generations, we need to ensure it is burning as brightly as possible. Passion is the light of the leadership torch that will help guide the way now and in the future!

Tremors run down your back when you think about working with a new group – either they might give you the dreaded “no!” or you’re not going to be able to answer a question. The fear of rejection and not having enough knowledge to talk about a cause consistently rank as the greatest concerns of attendees in my “Building Bridges in Your Community” workshop.

A simple way you can address both of these fears is to think in terms of the target audience interests. Dale Carnegie has said that the most magical thing to another person is their name; my philosophy is finding and hitting their “hot button” runs a close second. A hot button is a need or interest area, something a person feels passionate about. In other words, what can you discuss that will really push the buttons of your target audience? This may be as simple as giving a child milk and cookies or as complicated as addressing animal welfare issues with an animal rights activist.

A hot button is a priority to your target audience; a need to be addressed if you want to connect your cause. What are the hot buttons for the groups you’re likely to talk to? Think about the target audience you identified in your personal action plan at the conference. Do these food industry examples bring up any ideas for hot buttons you can address?

How do you identify a hot button for your target audience? Preliminary research will give you some indication, but the best way to find a hot button is to simply ASK them and then LISTEN! Asking questions is critical to successfully connecting your cause to a target audience, plus it will help you feel more knowledgeable and be less likely to be rejected. Asking questions doesn’t have to be complicated or even intrusive; it’s merely an opportunity to learn more about the person or group you’re talking to. If you’re stumped about what to ask, think about the six questions addressed in “Building Bridges in Your Community” – who, what, why, where, when, and how.

Once you start asking questions, you’ll quickly make the other person feel at ease because you’re showing interest in them and it will become easy for you to understand their hot buttons. This will also help address your concern about not having enough knowledge because as you learn more about the target audience, you’ll be able to connect facts and points of interest about your cause. Further, you’re less likely to experience rejection because successfully identifying hot buttons and then connecting your cause will become a natural solution.

Hot buttons — a straightforward approach to turning a daunting task into simplyrelating to people. Why don’t you go out to your target audience today, ask questions, and find their hot buttons?