Raising Money for Films

How do you convince people to give you money for something you’ve never done?

For 9 months, my mornings all started with the same questions: Did I have meetings setup? Who hadn’t I called yet? Who had asked me to follow up with him or her? Then I would grit my teeth and jump on the phone. A wise friend once told me that he’d been fishing all his life, but only once in all those years did he ever see a fish jump out of the water and land in his boat. In other words, people weren’t going to be lining up at my door to hand me $50,000 checks. I was going to have to get out there and do some serious convincing.

Never once at the end of a first meeting did I get someone’s commitment, so there were several crucial things to remember. Before I left, I always determined how we were going to follow up. Then I’d make sure to send each person a hand-written note, thanking him or her for taking the time to meet with me.

The more you try and sell something, the better you get at fielding people’s objections. That’s really all sales is in its simplest form- overcoming objections.

- Jeffrey Goodman on raising money for The Last Lullaby @10 months ago
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