Don't forget to reveal barriers when developing a legacy value proposition.

A vital insight which often gets missed when developing a legacy value proposition is revealing what’s stopping a prospect from acting on leaving a gift in their Will.

Prospects delay legacy gifts not because they don’t care, but because they fear making an irreversible mistake, even though they could amend a Will in the future.

It’s important but challenging to listen carefully for any emotional frictions when conducting qualitative research. At Woodgreen Pets Charity, mistrust of charities and Chief Executive salaries were fears that emerged from a research study.

These valuable insights helped us to strengthen our ‘promise’ by finding ways to reassure prospects through our communications. One such action we took was to remove all Chief Exec-led comms and instead we introduced trusted front-line staff voices.

So the point I’m making is this: don’t just focus on the promise when developing a legacy value proposition. That’s only half the job done. Remember to put just as much effort into revealing and overcoming emotional barriers, so that you reassure prospects that their values will continue beyond their lifetime.