You may be surprised to find that you already have more prospects than you know (or can handle). People I talk to are always looking for that “Person X” out there who they do not know to be the prospect they discover through some mass advertising campaign.But the best prospects for your church are people you already know and the people who know the people you know.
There are two ways for finding prospects in marketing.The first is the one people think of when they think of marketing, “blind prospecting”. That is prospects are people discovered through outreach advertising that are strangers to you. The second form of prospecting (also very much a part of marketing) is through referral. That is people you meet through people you know and or meet throughout your day. Every person you know knows someone who fits the description of your target audience that needs a personal touch from you.
Everybody Knows Somebody!
I once read a marketing book that talked about the “Rule of 52”. The book said that 52 is the average number of people in the average wedding or funeral. That means that everyone knows at least 52 people that love and care about them.
In a church of just ten people there are least 520 people connected to the membership. How many of those names can you get a hold of and make a personal contact with? How many of them know what faith in Christ is all about? Start working that list this week!
You don’t have to act like an annoying salesman when you contact these people, just touch base with them and see if you might have a friend connection. At the very least you can pray for them and see if there might be a way you can serve them and let God open the doors for outreach.
I’ll go out on a limb here and predict, that if you start caring about people and praying for them and helping them, you’ll find you have more prospects for your church than you can keep up with! Your members will start bringing their contacts to church and will be talking about your church to the people they know.
Steps to take to make your follow-up more personal
- Schedule more time to be with people face-to-face and worry less about outreach programming
- Make sure you follow-up with all people who visit your church for at least six months after their first visit. The average person needs 8-12 contacts before they join a church.
- Visit them and contact them using a variety of means, such as email, letters, postcards, phone calls. But make sure you also put the personal touch to each visit.
- Get to know the people who come to your church by name and learn something specific about each one that is important to them.
- When you see something (on the web, in the newspaper, a book, etc) that they would be interested in, send them a link, tear out the article, loan them the book, etc, and send it with a personal note from you.
- Find the best approach to disciple the members of your church. Study the Bible with them, but also bring them a long when you visit people. Show them how to minister to others.
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