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