Ben Stroup

I’m thrilled to announce that Church Giving Matters has been revised, updated, and released on Kindle.

The second edition includes:

1. Revised and updated illustrations and examples
2. Discussion questions to help leaders incorporate the material as a staff development tool
3. Practical ideas to help leaders translate the strategies and tactics into results

I’m thrilled to breathe new life into this book with my new co-author, Joel Mikell, president of RSI Church Stewardship. Tony Morgan recently recorded a video interview with Joel about the book. You’ll want to watch that to hear how the second edition came about.

If you have a Kindle reading device and are an Amazon Prime Member, you can read this book for FREE. If not, you can purchase it for only $4.99. There are already some great reviews readers have left. Feel free to add your thoughts once you’ve read Church Giving Matters.

(More than 7,000 people paid a lot more than $4.99 to read the first edition!)

When was the last time you gave some serious thought to ministry funding?

Thank you Kyle Olund for gifting me Native Tongue by David Goetz.

I really connected with this book. I, too, spend a great deal of time helping clients speak the language of their target audience. It always starts with knowing who you want to reach before you refine what you want to say. That process is as much art as it is science.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

• “The longer you work for a company, the less you can truly think like—and thus make sense to—a prospect.”
• “Messaging strategy begins with finding out what prospects think is Truth.”
• “Perceptive questions trump even the so-called art of listening.”
• “Your prospect is a real person. Your prospect is a story. She is not merely an average of your market research. She lives. She breathes.”
• “Prospects must trust that you deliver results before they’ve experienced it.”
• “Instinctively, donors want to make good decisions about their philanthropy; they want to give competently. But the best decision doesn’t necessarily follow intent.”
• “Competition is always relative to your conference. So is the perception of your clients or constituents. Your organization does not have to be the best in the world, just the best at something in its conference.”
• “Competitors expose differences. Understanding how prospects view your competitors provides clarity on how your firm may be perceived.”
• “Create the reality. Then build your messaging on the new reality.”

What steps do you take to make sure you’re speaking the same language of the people you want to connect with and influence?

(Ah-hem.)

May I have your attention, please?

This is a professional service announcement.

Stop. Doing. Things. You. Suck. At.

NOW!

If you don’t…

You will be frustrated.

Your clients will be disappointed.

That is all.

Thank you.