The talk doesn’t have anything specifically to do with church marketing, but the principles will get you thinking.  Cameron shares some of the entrepreneurial skills he developed as a child and what I like about it is that there are some very creative aspects for church leaders to consider when thinking through how they can “connect” with people in their communities.  There are also some great principles that he suggests that as a parent you could encourage in your child.  I think there is value here and worth the time to take in:

Business vs Religion Debate

This is an interesting move by the denomination which its director of communications admits is motivated purely by money:

“The genesis is the need for money.” In particular, the church must find private money to pay the $10,000 cost of live-streaming the nine-day gathering, Synod on Demand, or cancel the web-cast.

Over my corporate career I have attend and organized conferences of various sizes.  A national conference is a big undertaking.  So, should a church denomination approach conference organization any differently than a business?  The church is after-all an organization in its structure like any other.  It is merely the mission it undertakes that is different.  Or is it?  Well, that in itself is a great debate.  The business side of me sees nothing wrong with the sponsorship idea. Having been in a corporate roll as “sponsor”, I have my doubts about whether corporate sponsors garner the attendee loyalty, attention and subsequent marketing value they hope for when they sponsor an event, conference program etc.  Our culture is so saturated with advertising that I think we are being conditioned to block most of it out.

The Christian side of me doesn’t struggle with the concept either. Every “Christian” conference I have gone to has ads in the agenda or program and a host of other ad banners and “sponsored” by paraphernalia throughout the conference centre.  So, I personally think the concept is fine.  It is a conference afterall.  It is not a weekly church service.

Too Late To The Plate

The bigger issue in all this from my perspective as a marketer is timing.

Only time will actually tell if they will get the kind of sponsorship they hope for but I immediately see typical “church event organization” at work here.  One of my greatest frustrations with church marketing and promotion is the lack of planning that goes into the marketing of many events.  When do the Anglican Church conference organizers roll out this sponsorship plan?  April 16th. When is the conference?  June 3rd. Seven weeks before the conference.  Seven weeks! When do you suppose they knew the exact conference dates?  Unless something weird has happened, they most likely knew this time last year.  Why did they wait so long?  Probably because they just thought the sponsorship idea up…or it got so mired in internal red tape that they only just got approval last week.

The challenge they now face in “selling” the sponsorship plan to any prospective organization is immense.  Since this is a first-time go-around, no one knows what to expect.  Most companies budget their sponsorship dollars within a fiscal budget.  Those monies were set and allocated within corporate budgets months ago.  In many cases the “ad money” the Anglican Church now covets is spoken for.

This plan is simply too late.

Too late to “sell” and too late to execute.  This is the 11th hour.  Sponsors (if they even have the money) have very little time to get their sponsorship materials ready.  Ads specifically targeted to the demographic, promotional kits collated, banners, “flags”, and last but not least the conference program need time to be printed.

Time.  Time is running out!

Leaving it to the last minute will lead to panic, unnecessary rush, disorganization, and mediocrity.  Perhaps even failure.  The concept may be fine (whether you agree or not) but the marketing and communication execution (in my personal opinion) is a disaster.  It is announced so late that the probability of this actually working for this year’s conference is minimal.

Hey, only time will tell.  Needless to say, the organizers have a mammoth task on their hands trying to pull this together in the next 7 weeks.  From my experience, most “church” organizations are simply not that good.  Since the conference is here in Halifax, maybe I’ll pop over and do a follow-up report.  The end result will be interesting to see!  I hate to see this fail, but I cringe at the task before them.

I see a train coming down the tracks…

What do you think?  Share a comment on whether like the idea and your thoughts on the execution and timing of the sponsorship plan.

Yesterday as we walked through Pikes Place Market something powerful happened.  We had stopped to buy Starbucks coffees so we could stroll and sip as we took in the shops and market stalls.

We approached one produce vendor.  He immediately engaged my wife in conversation.  “Shelly”, he said, “would you like to try this beautiful peach”?  My wife was totally taken off guard.  Here was a guy she did not recognize calling her by name – in a city we had never been in before.  He wove the conversation masterfully as she desperately tried to figure out how he knew her name.

Turns out in his keen observance that he read the name off the sleeve on her Starbucks coffee!

Guess what happened?  She bought some peaches from the guy!  Why?  Because of him being observant, engaging, charming, and a masterful salesman…and it all started with the power of using her name.

The lesson here for us at our churches or in our small businesses is to get good at knowing our customers – by name.  You may not always immediately have the advantage this guy had (but you have to give him bonus points for being very tuned in and observant).  Studies have shown us that people respond powerfully when we engage them by using their first name.  I have to admit that this is not something I am very good at but it is something that I really would like to get better at.  We all should.

When we speak to people by name they feel special, important, and appreciated.  It may seem like a small thing but it makes all the difference in helping you stand out and to make that special relational connection with your patrons or church visitors.

If you could “get rid”of one piece of technology in your life, what would it be and why?

The piece of technology that absolutely drives me crazy is the automated phone attendant answering system that most larger companies (and churches) now integrate to “manage” their in-coming calls.  Seldom if ever, are these systems a good idea.  All the companies who choose to operate with these think they are saving money by not having real people funnel this process of in-coming call management.  However, what they forget is that having customers call you is an opportunity to actually dialogue with them.  Something has happened in the life of your customer that they are reaching out for your help and that pain-point has made them highly motivated to take their precious time to pick up the phone and call your organization!

Calling For Help!

Often, I realize, that this means that they either have a complaint or they are in desperate need of help in relation to your product.  This anxiety is an opportunity to connect with your customer and provide smooth resolution to their particular issue.  You now have an opportunity to build a higher level of good-will with them, increase their customer loyalty, and build greater brand value.  What automated phone systems do is completely the opposite.  They increase the anxiety level to unnecessary heights because these systems almost inevitably drag the customer into a heightened world of frustration and uncertainty.  As a result, the good-will that could be built is often catapulted 180 degrees in the opposite direction.  Then the customer feels more confrontational when and if they ever get to talk to a real person to get their issue resolved!  Read about Seth Godin’s recent fiasco with KitchenAid for more on How To Answer The Phone.

The Cost is More Than You Can Measure

This is a problem! Every one of us has had multiple frustrations of this type – we all have a “bad” story, right?.  Sure, the automated phone attendant does appear to help a company’s bottom line financially by removing the salaries of real human beings.  However the cost to the organization is far more than a few administrative level salaries would ever be.  Business is lost.  Good-will is lost.  Relationships are lost.  Sales are lost.  One of the most important positions in any organization is the person who answers the phone for you!  They are your organization’s first point of contact with people who are already your customer, or better still, ones who want to be.  This is the point of customer engagement that is worth more than most organizations ever realize.

Get rid of the automated attendant, I say!  Hire the best person or people you can find who will represent your organization at its very best from the moment that phone is picked up.  The future health and success of your business depends on it!  And everyone who calls you will appreciate dealing with real people!  What a concept!

Feel free to share your thoughts or stories about your own bad (or good ones if the exist) interactions with automated phone systems in the comments section of this post!

Marketing Fires

Ever had your marketing efforts go up in smoke and chaos break out in your company as a result? I had an instance in my career where I gave 100% on marketing a new product offering with no success at all. Career-wise, it was one of the most exhausting and frustrating seasons I have ever gone through. It seemed everywhere I turned, there were fires…fires from the competition, fires from customers, fires with sales reps…and it seemed impossible to put them all out. In the end, we sold almost nothing and the product development, marketing, and sales loses were huge.

In most cases like this, there are one or more causes of the failure that have nothing to do with your marketing efforts. I am not trying to shed the blame here either. In my case, there were some serious product development flaws and shortcuts that resulted in a seriously inferior product. If a product comes up short by miles in comparison to the competition, not even the greatest marketing and sales efforts can compensate.

Tuned In or Tuned Out?

I am currently reading an advance copy of a new book called Tuned In (publishing June 27th) by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott (I’ll do a compete review of the book in the next week). Early in the book the authors write:

Rather than focusing on buyers and their problems, the organizations that struggle to resonate in their marketplace are the ones that develop offerings from the inside…tuned out companies try to develop products exclusively within their own walls, based entirely on what they already know. Then they try all sorts of gimmicks and buy expensive advertising to take the dissonant ideas out into the market.

This perfectly describes what happened when my product marketing went up in smoke. We did indeed throw a ton of resources at marketing and selling a poorly developed product that should have stayed in development for at least two more years. The company rushed the product to market against numerous suggestions and warnings to wait. The lesson for you and I as small business entrepreneurs is to make sure we listen to our target market customers when we are developing our product or service offering. This is as important a marketing process as an R&D issue. If we have not properly done our market research, if we do not know our potential customer’s needs, and if we do not know why our competitor’s product’s are thriving in the market, we can not possibly disrupt things with our entry into that market. You need to be tuned in to your customers.

Please do your research, tune in to your customer’s needs, and you will have a better probability of your marketing succeeding because your product or service will resonate in the marketplace.

Picture courtesy of: Willem Waltman

The goal has been, and always will be, to find a way to connect with your target audience in a way that is compelling, relevant, and timely. You make it more difficult for yourself, as an organization, when you put a language barrier between yourself and your audience. – Media Rules pp.22 by Reich and Solomon (c)2008

In every organization, profit and non-profit, we create our own internal language. Some organizations are more guilty than others but we are all guilty. This becomes a real problem when we alienate our customers because we integrate that org-speak in into our marketing, sales, or customer service.

We can all think about the org-speak that is unique to our organization or industry. It is a good exercise to review what that terminology is and endeavour to remove this lingo from our connection with customers. Simplify your language and never assume that your customer will have any idea what that internal jargon means. When we learn to speak the language of our customers, there is room for relationship. When we build relationship, we build trust. When we build trust, we are much more likely to get a sale…and that makes everyone feel good!

How is this like business? Well, it depends on what angle you look at. Sure, I lost all three games. Losing is never fun. But, in all three games I was right in it to the end. A worthy competitor.

I have learned in 18 years of sales and marketing that sometimes even when you are a worthy competitor you still lose. Sometimes numerous times in a row. When you lose in sales, there usually is no prize for second place. No silver medal if you will. So what do you do? You have to assess what went wrong, what your deficinecy was or is and try to correct that in the next sales situation. If you keep repeating the same process and not winning, you are essentially spinning your wheels – and going nowhere. The other really important thing is to keep a positive perspective and attitude. The losing gets worse when negativity creeps in and that can effect morale in your organization.

So, keep positive, focus on improvement, and keep building on your strengths. Focus on the task…look at all the angles and sink that 8-ball!