Almost all manufacturers and systems integrators have had at least some experience selling to churches, though those who have mastered the art of the sale to the house of worship market are surprisingly few. I’m going to share my two decades of sales experience in this oft-misunderstood vertical niche and help you know when a […]

I continue to hear from people who read about the house of worship market here on rAVe and are looking for ways to differentiate their offerings. For manufacturers and systems integrators alike, I recommend starting with the one problem to solve for churches. The problem is not insufficient or inadequate technology. Churches don’t need more […]

Church online: where local churches are hosting either live or video on demand services for attendees who are not at their physical church campuses. Yep, thanks to the technology the Audio/Video/Lighting (AVL) industry manufactures, a rapidly growing number of churches have taken their church services to the congregant, online. In my study of this growth, […]

To ensure your technology solution ends up in more churches, you simply must solve the one problem all churches have. And to do that, you’ll need to understand why, exactly, they’re having the problem in the first place. It’s not that technology hasn’t been widely adopted, or that the exponential increase in performance coupled with […]

New research on the church market revealed a stunning stat that will further increase sales of AVL gear: Nearly 14,000 churches now average between 500 and 1,800 attendees each weekend. That is in addition to another 3,000 churches that average over 2,000 in weekly attendance. With more attendance comes more services, more venues, and even […]

Back in 2002, I wrote a widely-publicized article about all churches needing to make the move to 16:9 aspect ratio widescreen. Nearly 15 years later, it turns out I was right — well, almost right. I saw dimly into the future of church video technology and was ahead of the curve in predicting the future of […]

A new 2015 study showing attendance at mid-size churches growing rapidly is big news for a vertical market known mostly for the extremes of tiny and massive congregations. This study confirms my own anecdotal findings that have been presented here on rAVe for years, suggesting a shift for the House of Worship (HOW) market towards […]

Like the sound systems of old, large screen displays have undergone a major change that would benefit churches with lower cost of ownership and far greater visual support. And, also like old sound systems, it’s time for an upgrade. Especially when it will be less expensive and more effective within even the next five years. […]

There is a saying that churches buy a sound system three times. The first is the one the building “comes with” that was most likely designed by the general contractor or a local music store. A well-meaning but ill-experienced volunteer who adds some new equipment typically installs the second system. The third system is usually […]

The writer inside of me knows that people want helpful insight and good advice. It also knows that ticking off potential advertisers for rAVe isn’t a good idea. Sometimes, the two are at odds. I also believe that telling the truth, kindly, is possible. And it is with this good intention that I focus this […]

Each year, I look for the most effective ads of A/V/L gear targeting the House of Worship (HOW) market. I can tell you that, once again, the vast majority (greater than 99 percent – I’ve looked through hundreds of terrible examples) of the current ads for the HOW technology market are either A) too niche […]

Is the church market profitable for you? Or is it the ‘elephant in the room’ that your sales and marketing teams don’t know how to address? This market, which will likely spend over a billion dollars in 2016 on Audio, Video, Lighting (AVL) technology and infrastructure, seems to be harder than other verticals for many […]

Every local church should be making a difference — a notable impact — on and in their local communities. Technology is a force multiplier and can be a helpful part of churches making an impression and fostering an environment for attendees. There are four aspects to helping facilitate this kind of impact that technology providers […]

Reaching the right church decision-maker with your technology solutions for AVL is obviously important; what’s less obvious is exactly how and where to reach them. I’ve included a starting list of potential places to reach churches online as well as the kind of messaging your firm should focus on in order to maximize your qualified […]

The perfect product has not yet been built, but that doesn’t stop today’s audio, video and lighting manufacturer’s engineers from trying to build it. If they did, they’d end up building the product they wanted to use, right down to the subtle minutiae of every killer feature and ergonomic design. And it would be a […]

The church bought all of your gear and are fully equipped to leverage the best of your technology. While this sounds like a sales dream, the natural progression will now turn downhill unless you continue to provide the church with what they really need most: your expertise. Interestingly, the Second Law of Thermodynamics provides us […]

“We don’t have enough sales in the church market,” laments an audio/video/lighting (AVL) integration firm owner. “We need to find a way to do more of these church installs…” he says, letting his sentence trail off as an open invitation for me to answer with some huge epiphany or closely-guarded secret about having success in […]

I’m not a fan of link baiting titles (“Five ways to better…three steps for…”, etc.) but I was tempted to entitle this article “The Five Questions to Ask Churches” because, well, that’s what I’ve written about. However, there’s a warning that comes with this article: These are not sales techniques, but are a paradigm shift […]

Is selling into the house of worship market about more and better leads or about better follow-up to existing clients? The answer is ‘yes;’ the better question is ‘How?’ to get both. Content marketing automation is not new, but it has grown up. The digital sales pipeline represents a huge opportunity for getting more leads, […]

When a church technician asks a question about video, are they also thinking about lighting? As the saying goes, ‘without light, it’s just radio.’ In online forums or at conferences, I’ve heard the same type of questions focused around a specific technology, narrowly focused on one aspect when the bigger picture needs to be considered. […]

I have a love/hate relationship with Google; it serves me ads that it thinks are relevant to me, but often they key in on something that’s simply not representative of my needs and the frequency and repetitive nature of seeing an irrelevant ad irritates me. In a similar way, I think that churches are irritated […]

I used to make my living as a consultant focused on the large building programs of churches investing millions of dollars at a time. It was not difficult to allocate 10 percent to 15 percent of a $20 million dollar budget on audio, video and lighting and make a very comfortable living. Many of my […]

A casual perusal of the house of worship facilities and technology magazines is enlightening: the majority of advertisers push marketing pablum to reach every church, yet fail to identify with almost all of the audience. Their failure is not the inclusion of church lingo or boring stock photography, but in missing the first maxim of […]

Vision drives need. Need drives technology. Technology drives budget. This simple truth is needed not only within the AVL industry, but within local churches, where purchasing decisions are often made in a vacuum of vision. Solving today’s issue may be a temporary fix, but ‘band-aids don’t fix bullet holes’ that are left from poor planning […]

It’s just a matter of time. The house of worship market has grown up, and with it, has come the need for specialized staff, beyond the technical arts directors, to include a new team member focused on leveraging the digital communications channels that crop up daily. We are about to see a Pastor of Digital […]

“We’re a church with a limited budget. How much budget do we need for this gear?” “We have ‘this amount’ of budget, what technology do you recommend?” Or, my least favorite, “We need to set a budget for our audio, video and lighting. What’s a good amount?” I hear these question from well-meaning people who are […]

While you’re at InfoComm, take a look for technologies that are NOT typically associated with the AVL market but have clear in-roads for systems integrators: networking, cloud computing and storage, automation technologies (and not just AV automation) and even Bluetooth Low Energy. The trends that look beyond thin displays, LED lighting and new levels of […]

The debate between those who want technology turned off during church services versus those who not only want it on, but want to actively use it as part of the church-going experience, is a matter of personal preference. That being said, there are plenty of churches using passive technology that would jump at the chance […]

The old sales trick of providing a list of desired features and benefits to overcome purchase barriers may still work with some church leaders, but the Internet has taught consumers a thing or two about what is offered and what they really want. To justify the expense, churches need metrics from real data. Rethinking Repairs Technology […]

I posted an article here on rAVe I wrote about IMAG (Image Magnification — live video projected onto a screen) and stated that it was overused in small venue churches where it wasn’t difficult to see the action on the stage without a live video image. There are times where limited usage of live video for infrequent […]

Audio. Video. Lighting. Budgets. Safety? When churches think about audio, video and lighting (AVL) technology, safety isn’t on the radar for the vast majority of pastors. However, with the exponential increase in the use of flown speaker arrays, screens, and lighting fixtures, keeping the technical staff and congregants who sit below these devices safe needs to […]

How much should a church set aside for making audio, video and lighting (AVL) upgrades? As each church is unique and budgets are vastly different from church to church, the best way to answer that is to look at what drives their budget. Considering about 50 percent of a church’s annual finances are dedicated towards […]