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PODCAST INTRODUCTION: Give yourself and your sales team the GIFT of SALES TOOLS!

February 9, 2020 by selltochurches Leave a Comment

Sell to Churches Podcast from Yvon Prehn
This podcast will help you be more successful in selling to the church market. Subscribe so you don’t miss an episode!

******BEFORE PUTTING IN THE PODCAST LINK–actually make this a NEW blog ***PERMALINKS need to change actually did….but redo permalinks

 

NO Business of comparable size prints more than churches and they MUST print large volumes of material EVERY WEEK. If you aren’t making the most of this fantastic market, I can help! One the best way of how do marketing in nowadays is by social media like tik tok, so if you are interesting in start doing this for your business you may be interesting in check the info about TikTok and Microsoft.

Hi, I’m Yvon Prehn and welcome to the Sell to Churches Podcast!

I’ve created this Podcast to help you because I know you are all incredibly busy and seldom have time to sit down at the computer, but with a podcast format available on iTunes and many other podcast services, each week I can give you updates and tips on how to be more successful in selling to and serving the church market. You can listen while you are driving from appointment to appointment, when working out, or wherever else works for you.

Before I get into some of the specifics of how I will help you, if you don’t know me (and I know many of you listening do) a little bit about my background so you’ll understand why I have the expertise that will be helpful to you.

As far as the church is concerned, my husband was a bi-vocational pastor for many years—we are now active church volunteers. We have been involved in many areas of ministry and I did all the communication work for us. As a result of doing that and working as a writer and senior editor at two international Christian organizations,  I wrote the first book on desktop publishing in the church (The Desktop Publishing Remedy) when personal computers were first being used by churches. Shortly thereafter I became a recognized national authority on church communications.

I was then hired to teach seminars on Desktop Publishing by Pagett-Thompson, the nation’s largest one-day seminar company and later started my own church communication ministry where I continued to write books and speak at conferences and seminars.

At that time the RISO Corporation wanted to grow their faith-based market and they contacted me to do seminars for them. That kicked off the most wonderful working experience of my adult life!

I did seminars for RISO for 15 years where I traveled all over North America, doing seminars for churches. Not only did my work greatly increase their church market (let’s be honest, they wouldn’t have kept me doing it, if it hadn’t), but I learned a LOT about the challenges of selling printing equipment to churches. I KNOW what you go through, I know your challenges, and I know how to make you successful.

After the 2008 Recession, RISO quit doing seminars, but I was hired to continue to train church salespeople by the RICOH corporation, again rehired by RISO, and have done a number of independent training and consulting with individual dealerships. I keep in touch with many of you I’ve worked with who have scattered to working with many different manufacturers and companies. Many of you have started your own successful dealerships.

I can’t get away from this business…..and don’t want to.

But this version of working with those of you who sell to the church market is different.

First of all, it is completely independent of any specific manufacturer or line of equipment.

Three things matter more to me than a specific brand on a box:

  1. The CHURCH, specifically the historically defined Christian Church
  2. ALL of YOU—I’m doing this not only because a number of you keep asking me for resources, but because I truly believe that what you are doing is incredibly important. I believe the church has the most important message humanity needs to hear and I believe YOU can help churches communicate it effectively. I believe that print is still extraordinarily important (I’ll have lots of resources for you to pass on why) and YOU are the ones who can help churches print cost-effectively, efficiently, and making the most of current technology.
  3. I know many of you need HELP (some a little, some a lot) on HOW to SELL to the Church Market and I know I can help. I can not only provide resources that will help you sell to the church (things like samples, Lunch & Learn programs, etc.) but I can also coach you in what makes the church market unique and different from other business markets you may have sold to and how you can be most effective with them.

I’m doing this, not beholding to any one manufacturer. I do admit, I have my favorites in various areas and may have some materials specific to the, but that is not my focus.

Because I’m independent, I also may not be politically correct in all areas to the satisfaction of some. Though any person, any belief system, or any church is more than welcome to use my materials and you are free to share them with anyone, I am a Christian, a follower of Jesus. Though I won’t pound anyone on the head with my views, it will also be very clear in my samples and training that this is the church I am communicating about. Having said that, I honestly think I’m not obnoxious about it. When I taught my live seminars I was very clear about my personal religious preference also and was very happy with how numerous times people from very different belief systems let me know that they found my materials very useful without being offended by my presentation.

Speaking of my samples, if you don’t do anything else after this podcast, do go to www.effectivechurchcom.com/templates/ for HUNDREDS of free samples you can share with churches and that can demonstrate what you printing equipment will do.

While you are there sign up for the free newsletter so you’ll get notices of new templates and updates the new ones I create for each holiday or special event in the church.

It’s a whole new system and I hope it works!

An important question to answer upfront is: How will I make money?

Good question, because no matter how much I love all of you and enjoy working in this area, bills must be paid. To do that there are several ways this new approach will make money:

  1. Materials for sale on this website, which will include:
  2. Lunch & Learn Programs which you will be able to buy and download from this site. Other podcasts will describe them in detail.
  3. Ebooks that you can download and also buy the rights to reprint.
  4. Materials on the Effective Church Communications site that you can buy, such as training classes in church communications–again, more information will be coming on them.
  5. Sponsorship of this Podcast. If this podcast is helpful to you, please consider becoming a monthly supporter of it. I do not take advertising nor do I participate in any affiliate marketing for the podcast, this website, or the Effective Church Communications ministry.  I want to be able to talk about resources without any hidden agendas and I want you to be able to access my resources without being bombarded by obnoxious ads. I need your support to that. The site that hosts my podcast gives you the option to support it at .99, 4.99, and 9.99 a month. If the podcast proves useful to you, please consider monthly support. I greatly appreciate it!

What I have planned for the podcast

The podcast will have two types of episodes:

  1. TIMELY TIPS: in this type of podcast I’ll give you quick updates of seasonal events that are important to churches now. In addition, I’ll let you know about resources that are available on the Effective Church Communication site and if I have any additional resources on this Sell to Churches site that will help you be effective in contacting and selling to churches. For example, as I’m putting this together we are about to enter the season of creating communications for Easter. This is a fantastic time for samples, tips, ways to help you help your churches and I’ll be giving you lots of them.
  2. CHURCH SALES STRATEGY: in these podcasts, there are numerous things I’ll include. One of the most basic is that I’ll help you understand the uniqueness of the church market and how to be more effective selling to them. At times these will refer to additional resources on the Sell to Churches site, such as new Lunch and Learns, that will help you. This type of podcast will also go into more depth on the ministry of church communications and how you can coach your churches to be more effective. There will be a wide variety of topics in this type of podcast. Not all of them will appeal to everyone, but I will try hard to label them clearly. They will be timeless (as opposed to the Timely Tips) and you can pick and choose what will be helpful to you and when. You can also use these for training sessions at your dealership.

That’s enough of an introduction–if there are questions you have or areas you’d like me to cover, email me at: yvonprehn@gmail.com.

By the time I post this I’ll also have other podcasts up for you, so check them out and go out and do a fantastic job of selling to churches!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What to do if a church says they don’t have money for a new printer? Suggest designated giving!

August 24, 2017 by selltochurches Leave a Comment

Sell to Churches Podcast[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5673629/height/45/width/450/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”45″ width=”450″]When churches tell you they don’t have the money for printing equipment, don’t let that statement discourage you. They probably don’t have piles of money sitting around just waiting to be spent on a new printer. And they may know that getting that added to the church budget may not work.

But that doesn’t mean money can’t be raised for new equipment in a tried and true way in the church and that is through what is called “designated giving.” The podcast and the resources here will help you understand it and make it a useful tool for helping churches get the funds they need for the equipment necessary to do their work.

Below is a copy of an article I wrote for the Effective Church Communications website on this topic, Raise money for your church communications program with designated giving

Following the article is a link to a PDF of the church finance expert Dan Busby’s article that would be a great resource for you to take to or email your church customers.

Designated giving advice
It can be a confusing puzzle to raise money for your communication ministry. Designated giving might be an answer.

A continuous challenge for any church communication ministry is having enough money for equipment, software, and training needed to run a truly effective church communications ministry. Though one of the most important ministries in the church and the one on which the success of most other ministries depend, it often isn’t a priority when it comes time to set the overall church budget.

But new equipment and training is needed—so what to do?

Designated giving may be the answer

Designated giving is, in short, where church members can decide they want to give money (above their regular tithe of course) for a special project.  This is a greatly simplified explanation and later I’ll give you a link to a longer, more complete one, but this is enough for the foundational idea that designated gifts are definitely an area worth pursuing.

Who participates in designated giving?

In the past, when computers and communications were just getting started, often the youth ministry would approach people who were concerned that the youth program have great communication and ask them to designate money for printers, software, or training. For example, one or more sets of parents may wanted to designate a large gift so their kids would have the contemporary communication tools they needed.Continue Reading

Vacation Bible School–a great opportunity to be helpful to churches

June 20, 2017 by selltochurches Leave a Comment

Sell to Churches Podcast[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5466304/height/45/width/450/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”45″ width=”450″]If you didn’t grow up in a church, you may not be familiar with Vacation Bible School, commonly referred to as “VBS” in churches, but it is not only a wonderful event for children, but a great opportunity for you to demonstrate what the ComColor can do for churches and how cost effective it can be.

Here’s how:

Churches have to print up a lot of material to put these on. Now…..here is what is important for you to know about this and for future interactions with churches. They don’t buy finished, printed materials from Christian publishing companies anymore. Many of the materials that they use, they get either as downloads or on DVD and they are expected to print them in their churches. Needless to say, this can get costly and time-consuming.

You can offer to help them out and print some of the things they need. It will save them time and money and is a great way to demonstrate what the ComColor can do.

In addition, CLICK HERE to go to an article on the Effective Church Communications website that encourages churches to print out a flyer after VBS, that will invite families to come back to church, if the participation in VBS was their first contact with the church.

These flyers make great samples for you to print and take to churches to get the conversation started on how they need the ComColor for their children’s ministry. Below are samples of the flyers:

***THIS IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT****

This isn’t a demonstration that is for VBS only! This is the way the children’s curriculum companies distribute ALL their material these days–in that the church does not buy all the finished materials, but is expected to print many of them. Children’s ministries don’t require fancy, high-end glossy printing and this makes them perfect canidates for the ComColor machine.

Positioning the ComColor as an essential tool in the children’s ministry, and in the other ministries of the church that need communications and printing done, but often don’t get it because it is seen as too costly, is a great way to get into the church, particularly if the church has a high-end printing method for the church bulletin.

 

Strategy–sell to Printers who sell to churches and a webinar to help you do that

June 16, 2017 by selltochurches Leave a Comment

Sell to Churches Podcast[podcast src=”https://html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/5455160/height/45/width/450/theme/standard/autonext/no/thumbnail/yes/autoplay/no/preload/no/no_addthis/no/direction/forward/” height=”45″ width=”450″]Let’s be honest, one of the biggest obstacles to selling the RISO ComColor machine to churches is the cost. In the past, you could easily sell Digital Duplicators (and you still can) to any size church confident that any church could afford one. That isn’t the case with the ComColor and the number of churches that can afford it has shrunk significantly.

But WHAT IF……a group of smaller churches could get together to buy a machine and they could all use it when needed to get printing done very quickly and cost-effectively when they didn’t need glossy finish printing. The ComColor is PERFECT for postcards, children’s materials, connection cards, door-hangers and so much more.

Now bear with me, this will take work, coordination and some strategic thinking, but what if you could sell ComColor machines (one or multiples) to the printers in your area AND you help them market to the smaller churches in their area. You have access on this website and the Effective Church Communications website to samples, Lunch & Learn materials, tips and ideas you could pass on to them to help THE PRINTERS market to and serve the churches. If you help the Printers get clients, not only will they love you for it, but indirectly you are greatly increasing your supply sales.

I know many of you have HUGE lists of churches you serve and this can be a way to continue to serve them, plus make significant machine and supply sales to the PRINTERS who serve them.

What prompted me to start thinking this way is that I was asked by Andre D’Urbano to do a webinar for Idealliance, the professional group for Printers on “What churches print.” Information on that webinar is below, plus a CODE for the RISO community and all the printers you want to give it out to, to be able to attend the webinar for FREE.

The webinar is not until July 27, and until then, if you have ideas, questions, or anything you specifically want me to talk about in the webinar, email me at: yvonthechurchlady@gmail.com.

Let me know if you think this idea is useful or any feedback you’d like to share would be great. I’ll continue to work on ideas related to this as I do believe this is a great win/win for everyone, for all of you, your dealers, the printers and churches!

Link to description of the Webinar and the code to take it for FREE:

http://services.idealliance.org/prod/risowebinar

Code to take the webinar: RISO617

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Resources for you

  • Church Communication Types
    • Bulletin Inserts or Ministry Flyer
    • Connection Cards
    • Invitation Cards
    • Newsletter
    • Postcards
  • ComColor Samples
  • Digital Duplicator Samples
  • Encouragement
  • MARKETING MATERIALS
  • Misc. Articles
  • PDFs to share
  • PODCASTS
  • SALES STRATEGY
  • SAMPLES
    • Bulletin Insert or Ministry Flyer
    • Connection Card
    • Door Hangers for Sales Calls
    • Newsletter
    • Postcards
  • SEASONAL
    • Christmas
    • Easter
    • Fall Holidays
    • Father's Day
    • Mother's Day
    • Summer Special Events
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    • Sales Training Videos

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