Street Chuggers

Analysis of Experience

The perspective of a solicitor

The following analysis was gathered as testimony from Jake, a solicitor at DialogueDirect that works on behalf of Children International. I found Jake (or rather, he found me) on the afternoon of Thursday, March 6th, on a corner of Copley Square.

1. They're wandering about.

You learn to pick out the person from a distance. Before they even spot you you’ve decided whether or not to approach.

2. You spot them looking your way.

a. Over time, your intuition picks up on who is god and how isn’t. There are just natural demographics to who will stop for certain solicitors. It’s a matchmaking game. For Jake, younger women and dudes will stop for him. Older white folk definitely won’t stop. Asians are weird and are often the hardest to get to yield (this seems to be the trend regardless of the solicitor, he finds).

• Stopping women: His boss (a woman) tells him that women are the easiest: You just need to make sure to compliment them as soon as you can. Another guy that works the same area says that this doesn’t work for him: he gets so into talking to them he feels like he’s talking to them to get to know them, to get their number, and then it just goes all downhill from there.
• Stopping men: Jake’s figured out that with guys, he just has to act like the guy is one of the coolest guys on earth, so he approaches with the opener “Dude, I just gotta stop you cuz you look like you’re one hell of a guy. I just have to meet you.”

3. They’re in close proximity.

a. The first thing you have to do is show them the notification form on the spot. Having an iPad helps make you look legit enough that they might take you seriously, so you just gotta be quick to have it available when you swipe up. It’s not so great that you show them the fields to enter money and credit card from the beginning, but what works is that they see that you’re serious about their business with the website’s logos, the Better Business Bureau logo, and the Wikipedia article on your organization. Then people know you’re legit.

b. Then comes the sweet talking. The strategy here is Feel. Felt. Found. It goes like this (after the layperson first says no):

• Hey, man, I feel you. I understand, I get where you’re coming from.
• ii. You know, I felt the same way when someone approached me the first time. You know, before I decided to give back and become a volunteer. It’s not easy to give $28 a month at first.
• But what we’ve found is that it makes it a lot easier when you know us better. We’ve found people want to know 3 things:
1. Do you have a website?
2. Are you accredited?
3. Where does the money go?

If you look away, upset:

• They’ll ask why you’re being so mean, why you’re being to trite with them when they haven’t been so with you because they just wanted to talk with you, is all.
• You’ll look away, with a stern face, and mumble that you don’t have time, you’re in a hurry, or late to a meeting. Now you’re upset at the situation, you’ve either had to make up a white lie or give an empty reason for not approaching you.

4. They leave, and you’re either making bank, or not.

a. A chugger’s salary is performance related on a weekly basis. Eventhough you get payed $8.25 per hour of being on the street, the real money comes when you’ve signed up, or not.

• If you sign up to 4 people in one week, you’ll earn $55 commission for each of them plus the $22 per day (up to $330 in a week)
• If you sign up to 6 people in one week, you’ll earn $65 commission for each of them plus the $22 per day (up to $500 in a week)
• If you sign up to 8 people in one week, you’ll earn $75 commission for each of them plus the $22 per day (up to $710 in a week)

Jake’s average is getting 2 persons to sign up every 2 days, or a $330 work week. His boss, a Native American woman who claims to get all the minorities and the white folk passing by, holds the company record for 27 sign-ups in one week.

When asked about the commercials that organizations like Children International also have on TV on unusual hours of the night, Jake said that commercials are effective in getting the word out and emotionally stirring their audience (something much harder to do on the cold and busy streets of Boston). The challenge remained in getting people to pick up the phone and dial in (something easier with the in-person peer pressure methods of the streets). Apparently, 85% of the people that sign up to donate come from street sign-ups.