Can the Sales Pitch

I am on an email list that sends me very helpful teachings called McKaughan Musing.  I wish I could provide the link, but after days of trying, I am having technical difficulty.  So I will cut and paste.  These musings are from http://www.missionexus.org/, but I cannot get you to the direct link to the article I am quoting.

For the February 2013 edition the focus is Marketing vs. Sales.  McKaughan says this,

 I was re-reading a book on Peter Drucker, who was my generation’s leadership and management Guru. (A Class with Drucker by William Cohen) I came to a chapter on Marketing and Sales and it got me thinking.

   For Drucker, marketing was central to strategically leading any organization. Sales, on the other hand, was merely a second or third tier tactical issue

   To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product. Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold. What you produced met the customer’s needs and desires. Sales on the other hand had to do with pushing things on people where there was little intrinsic need or desire. Selling had to do with the creating or manipulating need or desire. According to Drucker, sales dealt with tactics, not strategy. Strategy always trumps tactics. If your strategy is wrong, your tactics will never lead to success.

Transformational Giving is about principles that guide our strategy, which in turn will guide our ‘tactics’.  Wrong strategy leads to wrong tactics. 

Could it be that the reason the listener often hears our fund raising presentation as ‘begging’ is because we are using tactics built on poor strategy?

McKaughan strikes on a truth Drucker taught that is core to TG.  "To Drucker, the clear distinction between marketing and sales was that in marketing you found out what your customer wanted and then you built that into your product."  The teaching we give in the migration of the champion (donor) is to find out what God is doing in their life.  This strategy is built on principle #4 in the 10 principles of TG.  Principle 4: A champion connects with an organization for the purpose of enhancing their mutual impact on the cause, not only to support the organization’s impact on the cause.

It is about the champion’s impact not ours.  So it is about the champion and what she needs, not my need for their funds.  Then as Drucker said, “Since what you produced was what was wanted or needed, a well- designed and carefully manufactured product hardly needed to be sold.”  So if your ministry is designed to fill the gap God has placed in someone’s life (i.e. their need) then God will go before you and the need you present meets the champion’s need not just yours.  In this case it will hardly need to be “sold”.

Let’s take helping orphans as an example.  You are trying to raise money for your orphanage. So the tactics could be to show starving, lonely children.  The tactic being, show the kids and the funds will come.  I talked with a group that even flew the kids from a Majority World Culture to the states and paraded them to churches to raise money.  It worked, short-term. The problem was, in two years they had lost momentum.  They could not sustain the sympathy.  So they were trying to find a new group of kids to fly to the states for another ‘tour’.

But if raising money for orphans is not just about you or the kids, but also the giver and his need, how would this change the tactic?  Does the Bible not tell us to take care of the orphan?  Is this need being meet by the local church or the members sitting in the church that day?  The ministry to orphans is not just about the kids, it is also about the listener’s need to answer the call of God to serve children.  So now the strategy changes to reflect the biblical need of the believer to get involved in the lives of orphans.  It moves to an all-encompassing need.  The children have needs, the agency designed to reach them has needs, and the listener has a need to obey the command of God to serve. 

Now giving is fulfilling the champion’s need to obey and be a part of ministry.  The strategy moves from closing the deal to get the sale, to meeting the need of all involved.  We have moved from a transactional exchange to lives being transformed. The giver is now as blessed as the receiver. 

A Positive Shift

In the latest book from Steve DeNeff along with David Drury, SoulShift, there is a chapter on shifting from being a “Consumer” to being a “Steward”. Good stuff in this chapter relating to the end result of what this blog calls Transformational Giving. So whether you call it ‘shifting from being a consumer to steward’ or ‘moving into a life of TG’, it is the same principles.

Parts of this chapter hit on key principles of TG. Allow me to quote some of Steve’s insights.

“Consumer to steward is a shift in ownership from acquiring things for ourselves
to offering what we have to God and others.”

In the parable of the talents, “Stewards see the master as generous. However, to consumers, the master is stingy.”

“The steward’s most coveted thing is never the master’s possessions but the master’s happiness.” I love this quote!!!

“Consumers always want to be on the receiving end of the blessing.
But stewards want to bless others.”

Think about these quotes from two different perspectives.

One, is how can you as a fund raiser communicate these truths to the listener? TG needs to be taught to the Body to overcome several misconceptions about the role of giving in the Church. The steward's giving is part of the spiritual journey and is a joy in serving God. This needs taught!

Two, think how these quotes above should change the way you ask the champion to give. They help us see we are dealing with heart issues not bank account issues. Therefore, the discipleship factor in TG is critical. So not only do we need to teach TG but we reflect these truths in our asking.

It's Really Not About Me

In Christian teaching we focus on the fact that it is not about us. The core of Christianity is self-denial. But somewhere between learning this truth and our fund-raising presentations we forget the fact that it is not about us. So our fund raising presentations are usually all about us.

This sounds harsh and you may say, “I focus on what God is doing.” This may be true but is this focus about what God is doing through YOU?

If fund raising is to get beyond just getting dollars and to become transformational, we need the focus where it belongs. Check out this entry sent to me by a fellow missionary/fund-raiser who is doing great TG research.

http://www.futurefundraisingnow.com/future-fundraising/2011/05/your-elevator-speech-doesnt-go-to-the-top-floor.html

This blog entry is great about being sure the focus is not just about us. I love the example he uses about how his group makes it possible for generous people to get involved.

As Christians we can take this lesson one step further. We can help the listener see how our ministry is not about ourselves but about the spiritual discipline we all must be a part of and that is generosity. One mark of spiritual maturity is generosity. The reason this is a mark of maturity is because it reflects our faith in God to be the Provider. When faith is big, giving gets big as well.

If our fund-raising is only focused on us, we may never get past us to them, and ultimately to the Provider.