Helpful Tips On Successful Phoning
If you’d like some help getting started and to hear some tips on calling from our field organizers, join one of our 30-minute, small group conference calls, scheduled throughout the day. Click here to sign up.
Welcome To Call for ChangeThanks for agreeing to call swing district voters with us. Together we may be able to end Republican control of Congress, but it will take a little help from a lot of us. We hope that the materials you find on this page will make your participation in the project more productive and more fun. Below you will find some tips that other volunteers who have made calls found helpful. Thanks again for being a part of this important effort. Best wishes, –The MoveOn.org Political Action Team |
What To Expect
- Phone banking is like panning for gold. We’ve found the best calling lists we can but there are still many bad numbers. You may have to sift through a lot of wrong numbers, busy signals, hang-ups and conservatives, but the gold you’ll find is, well, gold. Even identifying bad numbers so that we can remove them from our lists is very valuable to our efforts.
- Don’t let one difficult call discourage you. It’s inevitable that if you make enough calls you will run across at least one surly voter—it’s the same law of averages that applies to checkout clerks. Just try not to let it get you down, and make another call right away so that you put it behind you as quickly as possible.
- Try to encourage a friend to make calls too. By recruiting a friend to make calls too, you’ll have someone to exchange stories with about what it’s like to make calls and to talk about ways to improve your own calling.
General Things To Keep In Mind
- Follow the script as closely as possible. Try to follow the script as closely as possible without sounding like a machine.
- Be yourself. The less forced and mechanical you sound, the more likely people are to answer your questions.
- Be polite and enthusiastic.
- Record the information you get accurately. We are grateful that you are spending your time to help us out. That’s why it is so critical that the information that we gather through these calls is accurate.
- Don’t answer questions when you aren’t certain of the answers. We certainly don’t want to give people bad information. If folks ask you a question you don’t know the answer to, just politely say so.
- Always thank folks for their time. That’s a great way to leave them with a favorable impression.
Get-Out-The-Vote Calling
- Speak to whoever answers the phone You can speak to any voter at the number you're calling, so just start your script as soon as the phone is answered.
- When you ask them if they support the candidate we're supporting, listen carefully. Whether they say a strong statement of support for a candidate (“I’m voting for the Democrat”) or a weak statement (I’m not sure but probably the Democrat”) record their responses accordingly.
Tech Issues
- Practice on the calling tool. And be sure to let us know if you think of ways we could improve it.
Sample Call
You can click here to listen (in MP3 format) to a sample call where the caller sounds natural, engages the voter and makes a compelling GOTV push.
Al Gore Making a Call for Change
You can click here to listen to former Vice President and Call for Change volunteer Al Gore calling voters.
Go Ahead And Get Started Now!
Now that you have read all about it, you're probably eager to get started making calls. To start right away, just click on the link in the email we sent you. If you can't find that email, you can click here to have it sent again.
