Role plays are the key to a successful canvass as they build confidence. Every canvassing guide will tell you to have volunteers practice their pitch in a role play before they leave. Volunteers are uniformly glad that they have practiced their lines before their first door knock. Yet role plays rarely happen.
These six techniques will ensure that every volunteer practices their lines at least once before they go out.
1) Expect volunteers to practice their lines
Never ask anyone if they want to practice their lines. They will decline. Make it clear that the role play is a part of the program. “Now all you need to do before you knock on doors is to practice your pitch a couple times. Sarah are you ready to try? Craig would you be the voter for Sarah?”
2) Role play cards
Print a stack of role play cards (I print ten to a sheet on colored card stock). The front can say: “Your role” and the back tells them that they are a strong Dem and agree to fill out the Commit-To-Vote card. I put the same role on the back of all my role play cards, but if you feel creative, change the wording a bit. All role plays should specify that they are to fill out the Commit-To-Vote card.
The role play cards serve several purposes. They make it more fun for both because it feels more like a game. It keeps the person acting as the voter positive. If you don’t specify that they are to be positive, they will not be. It makes it clear that you expect the role play to happen.
It won’t take long for the canvassers to figure out that the roles are all the same. That does not diminish their effectiveness. Just explain why they are all the same. People will still pull a role play card and follow its instructions even if everyone in the room knows that all the roles are identical.
3) Don’t let them leave until they are ready to ask voters for a Commit-To-Vote.
Try: “I need to be sure that you are ready to ask people to fill out a commit-to-vote card before you leave.”
4) Ask reluctant volunteers if being effective is important to them.
“I find that practicing my lines even just once before I go out, makes me more effective. Would you like to be more effective?” Or if that feels too passive aggressive, try: “Would you do this for me? It will make you more effective.”
5) Have a respected individual lined up to play along
No one wants to go first. So while you are recruiting to your first Commit-To-Vote canvass ask someone you trust to help you get the role play started. If the candidate is there, she is a natural choice (have her pull a role play card and be the voter). It can be a member of the candidate’s family or a leader in the local resistance movement, an active volunteer or any volunteer. Explain the importance of the role play and ask if you can count on them to participate and be positive.
6) When you have just one volunteer, ask anyone present to be the voter
Sometimes a volunteer shows up after the rest of the volunteers have headed out for the canvass. Or a volunteer stops by wanting to canvass at a time when you don’t don’t have a canvass launch, As they sign in and get their packet, ask anyone in the room if they would be willing to be the voter for you. This could be a phone banker or any other volunteer. If no volunteers are around, ask a staff person. If you are in a coffee shop, pick a random patron, explain what you are doing and ask them to be the voter. You might end up with a volunteer lead.
By involving someone else, you make it clear that the role play is necessary. Have the “voter” pull a role play card and then ask the canvasser to go ahead with their pitch.
After the role play – be positive
The goal of the role play is to improve their confidence. Praise anything that you can find to praise. Did they ask for the voter by name? Praise that. Did the voter fill out the Commit-To-Vote form? Praise that. A phone number? A signature? More opportunities for praise.
If they did not ask the voter to fill out a Commit-To-Vote card, you have to make a quick judgement call. If they aren’t willing to ask voters to fill out a Commit-To-Vote card, cut your losses, avoid pairing them with a volunteer who is still new to collecting Commit-To-Vote cards. If they are willing to ask but simply forgot, tell them that their pitch was fine. “… and can you do this one more time, asking for the Commit-To-Vote this time?”
As you send them out, tell them that you are confident that they will ask for Commit-To-Vote cards and that you look forward to seeing the ones that they bring back.
See my blog post entitled: Winning your campaign’s first Commit-To-Vote canvass for more suggestions on how to make your first canvass a success.
My tortured history with the role play
It took me a long time to figure out how to make role plays happen. After failing at several launches during the Parnell special election (SC-5 June 2017), my wife told me that she expected me to have volunteers role play the next day. That worked that day, but the next I slid back into asking volunteers if they wanted to do a role play. My big break came when I started making role play cards. My first cards had a different role on each. It was quickly apparent that positive roles were far more effective at building confidence.
Ken Stanley 