Dianne

The following week, I was back pounding the streets of Newbury town centre again. My task was to recruit local shops and banking halls to host a local charity event for the day in order to raise awareness of local charitable work and to recruit more volunteers. I would need to speak to Managers face to face and win them over to the concept, getting as many as possible on board for the event taking place on the 5 June 2010.

I had a plan; I decided to divide my time between revisiting those businesses that had shown an interest and were waiting for their respective Head Offices to give approval and visiting new businesses in order to win them over to the idea. 

Some of the Managers I revisited remembered me from the previous week. On this occasion, I was able to create some sort of rapport.  They asked how my campaign was coming along and wanted to know more about the Volunteer Centre.  At this stage, I was beginning to feel more confident.  I was able to make a note of first names and request email addresses so that I could update everyone about the campaign as the weeks progressed. 

The rest of my time was devoted convincing managers to get onboard, informing them about the forthcoming charity event and the publicity that was planned.  The event is being covered by West Berkshires own radio station ? Newbury Sound and by the Newbury Weekly News.

When talking to Managers about the event, I no longer stood in the doorway looking awkward and uncomfortable, but walked boldly into premises, with an optimistic approach, a smile and head held high, I spent some time browsing their stock and complimented individuals on the quality, layout and goods on display. 

At one stage I was invited into the offices of one particular business owner, in order to meet her staff and inform them about what I was trying to achieve and the progress I had made so far.  This Manager was keen to be included on my list of participants. Her team were very encouraging and wished me well as I left.  It was all about my approach, I felt that I didn?t need to be quite as forceful as before.  I would impart information and wait for a response.  I didn?t feel that I had a 5 minute slot and had to blurt every fact out as quickly as possible.  This more relaxed approach might just work, I thought to myself.

The following day I phoned the Volunteer Centre and spoke to Garry, I needed to know if we had any more positive feedback.  The response was good; gradually one by one business owners were contacting Garry and requesting that they be included.