Bev Pomeroy: “The Backyard Philanthropist”, CEO of online donation platform company Global Currents and president of production company Filmanthropic Productions
Trying to sell Vancouver’s non-profit community on a digital fundraising platform, Bev Pomeroy’s company, now called Global Currents, hit some roadblocks – even when offering a free fundraising tool.
“We would be phoning up all these non-profits going, ‘Hey, we’re here, we think we’re awesome,’ offering this amazing, at the time free tool for them to garner digital fundraising dollars,” Pomeroy recounted. “But they didn’t trust us.”
For three months, Pomeroy said the sales team tried unsuccessfully to cold-call its way into sales.
“Our [return on investment] was horrendous.”
Pomeroy said the three-month mark was when she decided to regroup and attack the sales problem from a new vantage point – not as a businesswoman, but in another role she knows inside out: as the mother of a daughter with a life-limiting illness.
“I thought, ‘If I want to fundraise for Canuck Place or [BC] Children’s Hospital or one of these amazing organizations supporting my family, what would make me feel safe in doing that? What do I need? What would make me trust this tool?’”
And that’s when it clicked: Pomeroy realized the company needed to get out of the office and meet fundraisers and non-profit organizations and earn their trust.
“We had to get involved a lot deeper in the non-profit community and create person-to-person relationships – versus an outside sales model, which in a typical business would work.”
Pomeroy added that she began to attend non-profit events, find ways to be seen in the non-profit community and get to know board members. Her change in strategy, she said, is paying off in spades. According to Pomeroy, Global Currents lands all its business based on referrals, and sales over the past year have grown 400% each quarter. She added that the relationship-based sales approach can pay off in any sector – not just with non-profits.
“[Sales] is really about having a trusting relationship; I do think people forget about that.”
