Anthony Coppedge

Anthony Coppedge

Agile Sales & Marketing in B2B Tech | Certifications in Agile Coaching, Agile Leadership, and Agile Marketing. Anthony has been consulting, teaching, and speaking to leaders since 2003 and writing for rAVe since 2012. Connect with Anthony on LinkedIn.

Church Video Venues in High Demand

When churches realized the value of video had also intersected with high brightness and low cost, the multi-site and satellite campus model went from a handful of mega churches (churches with greater than 2,000 in weekend attendance) to tens of thousands of churches. With this exponential explosion of multi-site churches — that is, a separate […]

Church Video Venues in High Demand

Toss Aside Conventional Wisdom and Stay Relevant

For an industry that leads in so many ways, the Audio/Video/Lighting manufacturers still have a lot to learn when it comes to reaching targeted prospects and clients. The dissonance from engineering to marketing is jarring. I have identified “Three Mistakes AVL Manufacturers Are Making” in this month’s Trends article, hoping to help re-frame the conversations […]

Toss Aside Conventional Wisdom and Stay Relevant

If You Build It, They Will Hack It

There’s a great quote from an article by John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, about hacking into systems: “There are two types of companies: Those who have been hacked, and those who don’t yet know they have been hacked.” While Mr. Chambers point is about securing data, networks, and storage, the quote prompted a different […]

If You Build It, They Will Hack It

Three Mistakes AVL Manufacturers Are Making

As a house of worship consultant to manufacturers and systems integrators, I’ve seen and heard from a wide array of companies in the Audio/Video/Lighting (AVL) space about their experience with the church market. I think your experience at a manufacturer or dealer will likely follow one of these patterns of thought and leadership. All the […]

Three Mistakes AVL Manufacturers Are Making

Mind the Underserved Church Market in 2015

Churches. They’re still not on the front page of many manufacturers and systems integrators based on past experiences with this market segment or perceptions about what church even looks like today. And, still, there it is: The underserved market that’s got money to spend and a need for what you make and sell. 2015 has […]

Mind the Underserved Church Market in 2015

What CES 2015 Means for the H.O.W. Market

Fellow geeks have united and converged upon Las Vegas, Nevada once again for the annual tech-fest that is the Consumer Electronics Show, and the future’s digital handwriting is on the proverbial wall: audio/video/lighting (A/V/L) technology is once again the dominant technology. With prognostications aside, the trends of these present-future technologies have a direct impact on […]

What CES 2015 Means for the H.O.W. Market

The Untapped Market — Portable Churches

Stats vary, but the trend shows that portable churches make up over 20 percent of all new churches in the United States. A ‘portable church’ is a local congregation without a permanent facility, and often meet with the help of volunteers for setup and tear-down in venues such as schools, movie theaters and community centers. […]

The Untapped Market — Portable Churches

2014: A Banner Year

2014 has been a banner year in the A/V/L tech world. We’ve seen more innovations — deep, significant changes that are still reverberating. It’s certainly exciting, but as much as there’s been change, some things never change, including the need for better training for the operators of all this marvelous technology. With a new year […]

2014: A Banner Year

Your Technology Is Not The Problem

This year saw some of the best new technology breakthroughs in decades, but manufacturers and systems integrators still don’t understand why innovative gear fails to succeed in the house of worship market. It seems counter-intuitive, but approaching the top of the technology apex in audio, video and lighting isn’t generating the kind of sales one […]

Your Technology Is Not The Problem

Top House of Worship Ads of 2014

At the end of 2014, I rounded up half a dozen ads of A/V/L gear targeting the house of worship HOW market. I chose ads that were placed in more than one publication and published through at least two different publishing companies. All ads were scored in three categories, on a one-to-five scale where one […]

Top House of Worship Ads of 2014

Sell the Solution, Not the Product

If your firm had the goal of growing the bottom line by 10 percent next year, would you consider the possibility that you might just be able to do that by selling into and serving the House of Worship market? It’s true, and there are manufacturers and systems integrators focusing on this underserved vertical market […]

Sell the Solution, Not the Product

How the A/V/L Industry Sees the Church Market

“This church market — it’s kind of a thing now, eh?” This is how the A/V/L industry sees the church market. Manufacturers and systems integrators are highlighting their House of Worship (H.O.W.) market products and installations more than ever before. The emphasis is directly correlated with the increase of sales into churches, which are starting […]

How the A/V/L Industry Sees the Church Market

Church Video Production – Selling the Workflow

Near cinema-quality field video capture is available for well under $10K, a price point so low that the A/V/L industry feels threatened by low cost technology dazzling the focus and buying power of consumers. A visit to InfoComm or NAB quickly reveals a rush to service the exponential growth of the sub $10K market space, […]

Church Video Production – Selling the Workflow

What Dell Can Teach the AVL Market

This month, I highlight one of the biggest innovators not in the A/V/L market: Dell. For reasons that will become abundantly clear, this company has figured out how to listen to customers, solicit feedback and incorporate customer service into a commoditized market — and still have steady revenue. It’s important to learn what Dell can […]

What Dell Can Teach the AVL Market

Social Media and Customer Service

A digital software company that focuses on building platforms for customer service knows a thing or two about what happens when customers are unhappy with customer service. Zendesk released a study in 2013 of 1,000 customers in the U.S. to understand consumer habits and complaints, and a few of the findings are especially noteworthy for […]

Social Media and Customer Service

Reversing Product Commoditization

Box sales. Internet commodities. Bottom-dollar buys. Is it too late for the audio, video and lighting market for reversing product commoditization in the house of worship vertical segment? Encourage Systems Integration In the online ‘box-sales’ world of product commoditization, the Internet sale is rumored to have removed service from the purchasing equation. Perhaps for truly […]

Reversing Product Commoditization

Check Your Mousetrap

Has your company made the equivalent of a better mousetrap? Check your mousetrap. Innovation is everywhere, with new products launched with greater frequency than the trade shows where they’re promoted. Yet, I have two questions for you: Are you making just making better products or are you doing a better job at positioning them? Are […]

Check Your Mousetrap

How Game Theory Can Change the Industry

I geek out when I find out new ways of using my smartphone — hidden features or undocumented I-didn’t-know-it-could-do-that shortcuts elicit mini-celebrations and a secret calculation of how much more more value I just got out of the original purchase price. Usually these are shortcuts and features that existed when the phone launched; I’m just […]

How Game Theory Can Change the Industry

Better Products vs. Better Product Positioning

What’s more important: building a better mousetrap or simply solving the problem of mice in the house? Your answer depends on your perspective. The people living in the house simply want to not have mice in their home. The people selling the mousetrap want you to buy their newer, better mousetrap. So, who’s correct? If […]

Better Products vs. Better Product Positioning

House of Worship: A Billion Reasons to Enter This Market

Half of one billion dollars in audio, video and lighting technology sales over the next 12 months. And that’s just from one segment of the house of worship market, representing only about 2 percent of all churches here in the United States. It’s likely your business hasn’t seen the majority of your sales come from […]

House of Worship: A Billion Reasons to Enter This Market

Creativity Has Nothing To Do With Technology

Creativity has nothing to do with technology. It certainly has nothing to do with the type of tools you have to offer or even how many of your tools church clients are using today. No, creativity is what enables people to use your technology. Creativity Puts No Requirements On The Pocketbook The engineers and designers […]

Creativity Has Nothing To Do With Technology

$580M in One Year — Multi-site Churches

According to research studying the 8,000 multi-site churches in America, 57 percent of them will launch an additional campus in the next 12 months and spend $580,549,500 on technology for those new multi-site venues.* While I’ve written about the unique opportunities for A/V/L vendors in the fast-growing trend in multi-site churches (see HERE and HERE), […]

$580M in One Year — Multi-site Churches

Product Value and The Lowest Price?

Does the value of your product really come down to the lowest price? In an effort to sell more, dealers and systems integrators are often setting the price of their technology based on an aggregate price that they believe will help make the sale happen. Sales may happen, but the value of your brand, manufacturers […]

Product Value and The Lowest Price?

The Future of Selling to Churches

As an entrepreneur, I’ve discovered, lived and taught that change is a constant. When I started consulting with churches, the focus was on audio, video, and lighting system design. This tech-centric focus increased with the addition of teaching and speaking opportunities where I was able to rattle off the latest model numbers and point people […]

The Future of Selling to Churches

The Race to the Bottom for Technology in Churches

At a time in an industry where commoditization is leading to thinner margins and online price wars, the discussion of Good, Fast or Cheap is sorely needed — before your organization wins the race to the bottom. Most of us know the Venn diagram below, depicting the reality of choosing any two, but never all […]

The Race to the Bottom for Technology in Churches

The True Cost of A/V/L for Churches

Is it better to spend more on a higher priced technology than to go for the cheaper alternative? This is a question of the ages that has been exploited on both sides of the same coin by the marketing teams at manufacturers, seemingly forever. We’ve all had situations where the axiom “you get what you […]

The True Cost of A/V/L for Churches

The Matrix of Church AVL Systems

There are many A/V/L systems in place at churches of every size, location and style. Many are there because they were the lowest bid price point; others are stitched together over time, mostly borne out of necessity — and yet others are in place because an integrator specified what worked in other churches. Finally, there […]

The Matrix of Church AVL Systems

Branding and Value: Are you Listening?

How important is your brand name? Is your brand not merely well known, but well liked? In the House of Worship market, your brand is who the churches say you are. It is vital that you as manufacturers, systems integrators, consultants, rep firms, and dealers provide this unique vertical space with who you are, not […]

Branding and Value: Are you Listening?

The Cloud, the Church and Content Curation

Hopping down from the church stage platform, iPad in hand, the church technical director sees one lighting fixture not quite overlapping the center point upstage position. He casually selects the fixture on his iPad and drags his finger while keeping his eye on the scalloped edges of the light moving slowly, stopping only when he […]

The Cloud, the Church and Content Curation

Big Churches, Big Data

The upside of adding Ethernet and/or Wi-Fi to audio, video and lighting gear is both the convenience and scalability of managing technology, but the more IP-addressable the A/V/L industry becomes, the more managing the vast amount of unique data becomes problematic for the end users. Churches are no different than many other venues when it […]

Big Churches, Big Data

Tradeshow Season

It’s trade-show season, in full swing. With one of the biggies behind (NAB), and other biggies coming soon, are you open to hearing from your users and incorporating their feedback into your new products BEFORE you launch them? Every vertical market has overlap in how they use your products, but there’s enough differentiation in vertical […]

Tradeshow Season

If Only Your Gear Did This…

I imagine the engineers and R&D teams working diligently for months, years even, on new products to roll out at the next big trade show. They’ve innovated, broken through with new levels of sophistication and — best of all — it’s going to allow for increased margins! It’s a win — until… The first day […]

If Only Your Gear Did This…