Off the Cuff: Selling to Religious Organizations: Part 2 of 2

The recipients of your products believe not only in a Supreme Being, but in expressing the veracity and mission of their organization and its principles.  Ergo, sell quality, clarity, and permanence.  Whether the graphics you’ll execute will be light and whimsical or solemn and dignified, remember that whatever you sell is going to represent the group’s identity, its positive self-image, and its integrity.  If the buyer focuses on price, do roll with the punch, but be sure to show the differences between “cheap” and “good,” especially with regard to creating attractive graphics and demonstrating superior product quality and your superior technical execution of the graphics. 

B. Identification

Closely related to the spirit-and-pride factor is the recipient’s desire to be identified as a member of the group.  Whether the application being addressed is for a window decal or vinyl strip for a vehicle, a commemorative plate, or T-shirts for a youth retreat, the recipient wants it to look good and express what noted Israeli sociologist Amitai Etzioni calls “belongingness,” a deep-seated fundamental human need for an individual to identify himself with a group.   This powerful emotion in each of us has both intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics.  Simply put with regard to what we sell, for the recipient it means whatever the item is, he’ll be proud to own it, display it, or wear it.   Fall short on any aspect here and he won’t use it.   For anyone seeing someone using or wearing the item you sell, it should speak highly of both its owner and its group.  The “sell” here is quality and durability.   If the item is subject to degrade or fall apart from use or prolonged display, it won’t be used as intended or for long.  Once again, selling quality
and superior graphics are the antidote for a buyer who thinks price is the most important variable in his
or her decision about who’ll get the order.

C. Promotion

Whether advancing the cause or just advertising an event or program, the buyer wants to get attention and better performance.  The most important factors here in getting a sale, winning the account, or enhancing a relationship with the buyer, are that your work looks sharp and attractive and will result in creating more visibility, improved exposure, and, hopefully, a greater response to your customer’s objective.   Your pitch here is that your graphic prowess in design and superior technical execution represent enhanced value insofar as building awareness and recognition go, and that consequently your price is well worth whatever you’re charging.  

D. Required UsageRequired Usage.  

Certain decorated items are staples for the group, such as school uniforms, staff apparel, patches, emblematic jewelry (for identifying staff and members), and book bags.  Beyond the important factors listed above, selling required-use items will usually entail being more competitive than usual.  But price concessions or other value-added incentives given to obtain this business are more easily justified (and easier to swallow) if they help create a more permanent relationship for you with the group.  Getting more frequent transactions gives the seller the inside track on being tuned in and well positioned to earn other potential business — provided you stay proactive and don’t simply wait for the phone to ring for re-orders.   And your ability to provide fast re-orders, particularly on very small quantities and without charging additionally for set-up, is music to the buyer’s ear.

F. Recruitment. 

New members are the life blood of any organization, especially in the religious realm.  Successful religious groups make recruitment of new members a high priority.   Ergo, any items you can suggest that help attract new members, generate inquiries about membership, generate names for the group’s mailing list, or otherwise further the group’s goal of spreading their message, will get you — if nothing else
-- a good reception.   Should your idea actually result in getting a sale and subsequently become a staple item for the group, you’ve got a perpetual source of re-orders.  Well, except perhaps from the Shaker movement, which found sex an abomination.  (The belief, not surprisingly, resulted in the eventual demise of the Shaker movement, itself; as of 2000, only 8 sect members remained alive).

E. Fund-Raising. 

You don’t often hear about many religious organizations and institutions that have too much in the way of endowments.   Revenue-generation is oxygen for the cause.   Vows of poverty aside,
few groups can survive on doing good deeds alone.   Fund-raising chairpeople are always looking for new ideas, but few will actually come up with any good ones on their own.  That’s where you come in —becoming the idea person that makes the chairman or the committee look brilliant.  Let them take the credit, of course, but if your suggested items sell well, you’ll reel in a nice renewable account.   An insider tip: endeavor to sell a product that will be issued in subsequent annual editions.   If you’re successful in introducing the item, you’ll earn yourself a renewable annuity in the process.

I feel obliged to make a one other comment about selling to religious groups, regarding the granting of credit to religious accounts.

The New Testament’s wisdom about rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and rendering unto God what is God’s doesn’t include a specific admonition about dutifully rendering as well Unto Vendors of Decorated Apparel and Other Custom Products.  Too many entrepreneurs learn the hard way about reflexively assuming churches, synagogues, mosques and affiliated organizations pay their bills more faithfully than your other customers.  

Unless you are prepared to see your sale to a religious group become your contribution to it, observe and enforce your company’s standard credit policies.  Wander from them at your own peril.   Remember this lesson with heightened vigilance if you happen to also be a member of the group and get leaned on for easy terms and “extra consideration.”  Veteran salespeople can attest, having learned the hard way, that being in the group, yourself, is no guarantee of getting paid, getting paid on time, or not having to beg — or pray — for a check.