Coaching is such an important part of successful blood donor recruitment. By letting your Conversational Marketing Experts (CMEs) know what they are doing right and what they can improve upon, you are increasing your chances of meeting blood donation goals.
What Is The Sandwich Approach?
Consider using a “sandwich” throughout your Formal Coaching Sessions in order to balance your positives and opportunities to improve. Think of the positives as the bread of a sandwich.
Lead with positive discussion, transition into opportunities for improvement (never refer to them as problems or failures), and wrap up with more positives. This helps reinforce that you are there to help the CME, not to scold them.
Make Improvement Opportunities SMART
While discussing opportunities to improve, lead the tele-recruiter in defining SMART goals for the Follow-Up Coaching Session. SMART—an acronym for Specific, Measurable,Attainable, Realistically high, and Time-bound—is a widely used and time-proven method for defining goals in a way that invites accountability and achievement.
- Specific: No vague statements. For instance, “I’ll get better at following the script,” is vague. Who is to say what “better at” means? “I will follow the script,” on the other hand, describes exactly what the tele-recruiter is committing to do.
- Measurable: In order to incorporate accountability, goals must be measurable. “I will follow the script,” is specific, but as it is written, following it just one time is not enough. “I will follow the script in 100% of my conversations with donors,” tells exactly how often the tele-recruiter will comply.
- Attainable: Setting a goal unrealistically high only results in frustration and can be demotivating. Perhaps the tele-recruiter currently follows the script only 75% of the time. It may be that 100% of the time is too lofty of a goal for one week’s improvement. “I will follow the script in 85% of my conversations with donors,” may be more attainable.
- Realistically High: Nonetheless, goals need to stretch individuals. Improving from 75% to 85% in a week may be too easy. “I will follow the script in 95% of my conversations with donors,” may be difficult but doable. It may be realistically high for the individual.
- Time-Bound: Finally, there needs to be a date range within which the tele-recruiter will accomplish the goal. Because you will be meeting again in a week for Follow-Up Coaching, most often you will have the tele-recruiter set a goal to accomplish within a week’s time. “I will follow the script in 95% of my conversations with donors in the next week,” locks in commitment and accountability.
What kinds of coaching methods do you use with your blood donor recruiters?