|
|
Volume 2, Issue 3 — March 20, 2013 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Church Redux
By Anthony Coppedge
House of Worship Technology Consultant
I’ve written about growth churches and mega churches in the past because they offer a lot of sales potential for Audio/Video/Lighting manufacturers and systems integrators. Fast growth = frequent sales opportunities. I’d put the majority of my marketing and sales resources there, no doubt.
However, there’s something to be said for the other 90 percent-plus of the churches in North America. That’s right: The vast majority of churches are either in slow growth, have plateaued or may even be in decline. While that doesn’t sound like a sexy, ripe market, the sheer numbers can’t (and shouldn’t) be ignored. Of the roughly 300,000+ churches in the U.S. alone, roughly 270,000+ are an underserved market. A huge market. So the question lingers: Is your marketing ignoring focusing on targeting this massive market?
Focusing on the Majority
While churches are, in fact, churches, the many articles I’ve written have focused primarily on reaching the top 10 percent (or even less). This time, I’m saying that tapping into this staggeringly large, virtually untouched market needs a focused approach.
Because the average size of a church is right around 90 people, the opportunities for sales are both limited in quantity and revenue more often than not. I contend that there are two simple approaches to making the most of marketing and sales efforts into this numerically significant church space. The first is a shotgun approach to provide low-cost, box sale opportunities that are time sensitive (the deals expire) to pick up the easy sales. The second is to further subdivide the market from those churches that are simply getting by with technology to turn-around churches — a category of churches actively engaged in becoming growth churches again.
Sell Once to Many
With greater than a quarter-million unique churches fitting into the small-church category, targeting the senior pastor or worship leader is not only smart, it’s likely the only staff members you’ll need to reach. The idea of speaking to felt needs is important, as these churches will spend money, but they’ll do so far less frequently.
With Easter coming in just a few weeks of the publication of this article, the last-minute marketing push to this demographic is prudent. From easy, self-installation product sales for replacing aging gear to reminding these non-technical staff of swapping out expendables with fresh replacements, the quick sale is easy and helpful for churches.
For many churches, there are a couple of budget numbers that are helpful in staying under to expedite sales. The first is the sub-$500 sale. Far and away, churches often place no restrictions on processing a purchase order that’s under $500 without the additional step of added authorization. Make a sale in this price point, and you’ll likely have a credit card transaction happening nearly instantly. The second price point is sub-$2,000. It’s a safe number for many churches to allow senior managers/leaders to spend up to this $2k tipping point when important repair/replace decision need to be made quickly. Though less common than the $500 P.O. limit, it’s still a nice way to market products that make an immediate, notable difference for church services.
Of course, capturing these sales contacts is helpful, but I’d further recommend adding a custom field to your CRM database for Typical Weekend Attendance (TWA). This lets your marketing and sales teams know the size of a church prospect/client; helpful for targeted marketing and sales campaigns. <100; 100-500; 500-1,000; 1,000-2,000; 2,000-5,000; 5,000+ are standard TWA ranges to use.
Targeting Turn-Around Churches
A subset within the 90 percent of churches described above are a group called turn-around churches. These are churches that often have new, young leadership actively campaigning to take a church that is either in decline or has stagnated in growth to a new level of community reach and growth.
Here the tact is slightly different. Instead of only focusing on low-cost, fast sales, the felt need is both short- and long-term. Because these are quite typically young pastors, they’re attuned to the value of technology and are interested in leveraging electronic tools to both revamp their image to their community and as a way to be more efficient and effective with a small volunteer-only team of techies.
The short-term sales opportunities are similar to their counterparts in this 90 percent of the demographic; they have repair/replace issues that need solving, too. But because they’re more future-focused in their turn-around efforts, they’re also open to low-cost solutions that get them down the road towards more significant technology purchases once the growth curve has brought in additional revenue. The tweak to the marketing and sales efforts here helps value their self-described turn-around philosophy, applauding them taking the harder, more courageous road towards effective change. Speaking to their short- and longer-term mindset helps them identify with your brand as a potential partner on this journey; something not lost on the lonely who walk this path.
Value Proposition and Value Budgets, Together
As I continually remind our readers, the value proposition is more important than the features and benefits. This is a market where meeting felt needs is the way to more sales and long-term, loyal purchasing. At the same time, the reality of a smaller church requires acknowledging the smaller budgets that are a reality for this demographic.
Those sub-$500 sales are important to all churches — all of them. Yet it is important to identify which portion of the market a marketing campaign is targeting because stopping at the quick, low-cost sale is too short-sighted and leaves money on the table for those churches interested in leveraging technology as part of their roadmap for more effective growth.
Is it too much to ask manufacturers, rep firms and systems integrators to put the minimal effort into subdividing this vertical market into the very real categories that exist? Getting the right message to the right people in the right way at the right time is the crux of good marketing. The house of worship market deserves this kind of attention and deliberate, focused effort if this industry wants to see the revenue opportunities that are available right under the surface.
A former staff member at three mega churches and church technology consultant, Anthony Coppedge has developed a respected reputation as a leader in technical and communications circles within the church marketplace. Reach him at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com or on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/anthonycoppedge
Leave a Comment
Share Article
Back to Top
|
|
Click above to learn more
|
|
Industry Trade Shows: The Golden Ticket
By Anthony Coppedge
House of Worship Technology Consultant
Manufacturers, rep firms, consultants, integration firms and freelancers all attend the same shows, year after year with the differences between exhibit floors all a similar blur. Orlando. Las Vegas. Long Beach. Dallas. Atlanta. The cities change, but the conferences begin to take on a one-ness to those who regularly attend either as an exhibitor or out of some unwritten industry obligation as an attendee. “Familiarity breeds contempt” is the trite phrase that can so aptly describe the regularity and similarity of the conference and expo scene.
Yet industry insiders are not the target audience. Tens of thousands of attendees flock to see, hear and learn about how new technologies, systems and processes can help them in their context. Almost hidden amongst this mass of humanity are attendee name badges hung limply on sponsored lanyards with names like “Church of God,” “First Baptist,” “New Life,” “Fellowship” and “Community Church.” Dressed more or less the same as their corporate, government and education counterparts, these church delegates are standing in the same lines, watching the same demos, listening to the latest pitch and occasionally piping up to ask the same kind of questions that one would hear from a touring group’s seasoned experience.
Golden Tickets
Instead of reading every name badge looking for a needle in a stack of needles, these church representatives should be invited to the same conference after-parties, private demo suites and early morning breakfast meetings that the industry regulars attend. They’re people, too. They’re also influencers, decision-makers and buyers attending these shows with the same end-goal as their secular counterparts.
I can’t tell you the number of times I’d bring a small group of church friends along for a private demo suite viewing of products not quite ready for the expo floor. You’d think they thought I had some sort of magic wand to gain them access to these behind-closed-door meetings and demos. No one else had thought to invite them!
On more than one occasion, I’d introduce a church leader to one of my manufacturer rep friends and help make the connection that these guys get the church’s needs and not only have great products, but they’ll help your church make the most of it, too. A quick chat with a regional rep, a product owner or the CEO of a company, and suddenly these churches were being allowed, for the first time, into the world that industry veterans attended without a second thought.
What’s mundane to a manufacturer employee is a privilege to these church envoys. A few manufacturers have figured this out, as I’ve begun to see excited church attendees use the free registration mailed them by one a manufacturer or rep firm to pick up their lanyard and badge. You and I know those free registrations are no big deal (to us), but to the church market, they’re like the Golden Tickets to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory.
Invite Churches to Be Your Guest
For next-level experiences, invite churches that have expressed serious interest and have engaged with a rep to attend invitation-only events, including after-parties. Yeah, even the ones with open bars. Look, some of these guys and gals won’t drink the alcohol at all, while the remainder will only drink in moderation. But don’t feel that they’d be offended, because they won’t.
If you really want to woo some church prospects, create a VIP lanyard that you can mail to them ahead of time or have them pick up at your booth. The experience here is what matters. Dudes like free swag and being added to the behind-the-scenes stuff, church staff or corporate employee. People, as they say, are people.
I’ll never forget an InfoComm event I attended as a young church staffer where I was invited to be the “guest” of the product manager for a large display company. They sent a limo to pick me up from the airport to drop my bags off at the hotel and then whisked me to the convention center. It was just a Town Car cab, really, but to a church staff guy, it was like being in the President’s motorcade. I’d bought before and they knew I had more projects in the works, so it was worth the small investment to make a big impression.
People Buy From People, Not Just Brands
Later, when I worked for large systems integrators as a regional sales manager, I observed a trend: Our sales reps sold more product from the reps that serviced them frequently. What they were selling was the rep, not the brand. My sales team knew that they’d get a demo unit if their client needed it and that they’d have a fast-track into a customer service issue should a product problem come up. I can attest to the fact that most of my reps sold more product — regardless of spiffs — when they had a personal relationship with the rep (manufacturer or rep firm).
There should be a lesson in this for our readers: People buy from people, not just brands. Since this is true from the manufacturer to the systems integrator, it’s also true from the integrator to the church client.
Qualify Church Clients
The “Sales Funnel” is true across the board; the more qualified leads at the top of the funnel, the more deals you’ll have come through the bottom of the funnel. Simple, right? When it comes to church leads, this principle still applies.
Qualifying church prospects includes understanding their felt needs. The terminology is slightly different than from most secular clients, but the result is the same: The right technology solutions solve today’s problems and help prevent future issues. As I’ve written about extensively here at rAVe, understanding the buying terms, timelines and personnel at churches isn’t all that complex. Solution-oriented, value-proposition based selling is, was, and will be the way to land more church clients. Period. Feature/benefit selling is something that happens much later in the sales process, once the value of the solution and the unique value benefit of the brand for the church has been established.
While I do actually recommend sending free passes for attendance at multiple conferences and expos to your entire church prospect/client database, I would recommend creating a simple gated content (one-step) process for having those who plan on attending to give you more information via an online registration form to help qualify their needs and budgets. This group can then be targeted for follow-up communication (targeted email list, social media contact list, sales rep lead assignment, etc.) that includes those high-value invitations to after-parties, special events and private suite demonstrations. The hot leads can then be given the VIP treatment, which I promise will pay dividends. Pay for a hotel. Send a limo to pick them up from the airport. Treat them to a private breakfast or dinner. In short, treat a great church prospect like you’d treat any great prospect. They’ll value it, Tweet and Facebook about it and share their positive experience with your brand to their network. You can’t buy advertising that targeted or that good!
Send Them Back With Something, Too
Everyone loves swag, so why not have special swag reserved specifically for churches that meet with your people or visit your booth? Of course, this idea extends to any vertical market, but I know that because churches attend less conferences than most other vertical markets, this small extra effort is a big deal to many church attendees.
For those high-value prospects, make sure you’re loading them up with t-shirts, hoodies and gadgets for them to take back in their bags. I can’t begin to describe how often I see a church tech director sporting a logo’d t-shirt or hoodie for years after an event. In fact, I’d actually recommend adding the name and date of the conference on the t-shirts, as these are worn like prized concert t-shirts until they’re worn out.
Are there costs in this? Yes, of course. What I’m submitting to our readers is that when church market prospects are valued like they are in other markets, the revenue will follow. People – even church people – are still people. Go ahead. Give them a Golden Ticket to experience something magical – a regular trade show.
A former staff member at three mega churches and church technology consultant, Anthony Coppedge has developed a respected reputation as a leader in technical and communications circles within the church marketplace. Reach him at anthony@anthonycoppedge.com
Leave a Comment
Share Article
Back to Top
|