A 3 second 'pause' could help you unlock a valuable legacy insight.

One of the greatest skills I've learnt since becoming a legacy fundraising consultant is learning when to keep shtoom (or slient). And trust me, it took a long time for me to master 🫢.

Silent prompts (3-5 seconds) are a really powerful tool to surface deeper emotions 💗 when conducting 1-1 interviews especially with legacy supporters. 

Why? Because after a rational response, a silent few seconds signals 'permission' 👍 for the interviewee to continue talking. So they may continue to follow their train of thought and open up with the desirable 'why' behind the response.

Of course, it's not appropriate to use all the time for e.g. if someone is feeling anxious or you haven't built enough of a rapport yet.

But if it is, then I'd highly recommend, when you're having a conversation with a legacy supporter, using this small but effective way to reveal what supporters feel about the future, how they'd like their values to continue and why your charity is the right one to leave a gift in their Will.