Sample Phone Script of Candidate Calling Donor
Before making any calls, take the opportunity to send a pic to your donors (one donor at a time) to give them a visual first impression and an opportunity to know what you’re talking about before you call. The below is a simple screen capture (with minor cropping) of the home page of a candidate website.
Voicemail script to be used if future donor doesn’t answer: “Hi John, this is Bill Hammons [Joe thought it would be a good idea for me to give you a call]. I’ll try you again later, but if you’d like to give me a call back my number is 3038196141. Thanks!
Candidate: Hi, is this John?
John Smith: Yeesss…
Candidate: John, this is Bill Hammons. 1) I heard you’re a fellow Uniter OR 2) Joe Smith gave me your number and might have told you that I’d be giving you a call about my campaign. How are you today [this morning] [this evening]?
John Smith: Campaign for what?
Candidate: Well, I am running for President of the United States. I support things like Term Limits for both Congress and the Courts.
John Smith: I guess you’re asking for money
Candidate: I’d like to ask for your vote, but, yes, I do need the support of you and others to make an impact in 2020
John Smith: What do you plan to spend my money on?
Candidate: First order of business is getting on the ballot, and, in the State of Louisiana for example, our ticket can get on the ballot with just a $500 filing fee.
John Smith: K. I’ll support you.
Candidate: Terrific! Let me text you a link to our PayPal donation page [Copy & Paste https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=XB86EFXD3MMQQ into the body of a text message and send]. Click on this link and you’ll see that it takes you to the United National Committee PayPal donation page (that’s the Unity Party of America, and they can not only donate to my campaign but also fund general party activities). I can walk you through the process.
John Smith: Done.
Candidate: Terrific! While I still have you on the phone John, who else do you know wouldn’t mind getting a call from a candidate for President of the United States?
John Smith: You can call my daughter Jen.
Candidate: Great! What’s Jen’s #?
John Smith: 303-999-9999
Candidate: Got it. I’ll be sure to give her a call. And who’s the next person you know?
John Smith: That’s it for now.
Candidate: Fair enough. John, let me send you a text right now that you can forward to Jen to give her a heads-up that I’ll be calling [Copy & Paste this 160 character message (which should transmit as one unbroken message on most phones these days) and sub out the first name of the person you’re speaking to for the 0’s, maybe changing “please” to “pls” etc. if their first name is more than 10 characters in length: “0000000000, please let those you mentioned know Presidential Candidate Bill Hammons will be calling them to ask for their support. His # is 3038196141. Thanks!“] Did you get the message?
John Smith: I did
Candidate: Terrific. Please be sure to send that right now, because I’ll be calling her soon and I’d like her to know what I am calling about. And John, could I get your mailing address to send you a thank you card? [Two reasons to ask for a mailing address: 1. It’s the right thing to do to mail a thank you card 2. FEC reports ask for the mailing addresses of many donors, especially the ones who make larger donations]
John Smith: 123 Main Street Apt 456, Broomfield, Colorado 12345
Candidate: Thank you. John, please be sure to let everyone know that I’ll be giving them a call soon, thanks again for your support, and enjoy your day!
