Selling to an Industry
Selling to Churches Businesses
The vast majority of churches have tight budgets and no time for games. The hard part is crafting a selling strategy that captures the attention of top-tier buyers.
There are no magic formulas for selling to churches. The foundation for success is the same as it is in many other industries.
With market momentum on their side, entrepreneurs are streaming into the marketplace, eager to earn their share of the profits. Competition is fierce, so emerging businesses have to be careful about the way they approach churches.
How to Communicate Your Message
Messaging is an important part of a successful sales strategy. Confused messaging dilutes the sales cycle and makes it difficult for prospective customers to discern the value of your products.
For maximum impact, the identification of key messaging should be incorporated into a comprehensive planning process that combines sales and marketing into a coherent strategy.
The next step is to reduce your contact list to the contacts who are most likely to respond to your messaging. Although lead generation techniques are diverse, lead lists can be a useful resource for generating a list of prospects that are receptive to your messaging. Vendors like Experian specialize in providing targeted lists of churches that can be tailored to meet geographic and demographic criteria.
How to Evaluate Sales Staff
Frequent employee evaluations are a must for companies that sell in this industry. Businesses that achieve significant market share recruit the cream of the crop and routinely evaluate them against performance goals and benchmarks.
Although annual reviews may be enough for other business units, sales units should be evaluated quarterly with monthly or weekly reviews of sales totals. Training, coaching and sales incentives can be useful for increasing sales volumes and individual achievement. In some instances, it may be appropriate to team underperforming sales reps with reps that have more experience selling to churches.
Casting a Broad Net
The first step in selling to churches is to cast a broad net. Strategies that limited to the local market are not likely to succeed in an environment that leverages the benefits of long-distance sales techniques.
Although a geographic concentration may be a useful strategy for new sellers, you will eventually need to broaden your focus to include prospects outside of your initial range. You can also broaden your prospect base by introducing new products and partnerships into the mix.
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