Sell the benefits rather than the features. This maxim serves as the heartbeat for top advertising agencies. They understand that when consumers connect deeply with how a product will benefit their lives, they are more likely to make a purchase.
Take for instance Apple's iPhone. Some users are loyal to the brand and how it makes them feel, but we purchase the phone because of its benefits–the way it integrates with our other devices, and availability of apps that assist in our daily lives. There are certainly features to the phone, which might intrigue a percentage of buyers, but the large majority of users have no desire in knowing the compositional makeup of the screen coating nor the 64-bit floating point general registries of the A7 processor chip.
An understanding of the features vs. benefits approach of the advertising world can play a distinct role when tackling high-dollar, capital expenditures in your church production inventory.
Periodically, almost every church will go through a large-scale audio system. Navigating this process can be difficult. Technical directors understand enough about sound to have an idea of what their church needs, either in terms of a new system or upgrading an existing one. However, when it comes to presenting this to those controlling the financial pool, you're typically talking to people who know very little about sound and feel uncomfortable spending money on something they don't understand.
So how do we begin to navigate a complex topic yet relay the right amount and scope of information for proper decisions to be made?
What's the Goal?
Entering into a conversation regarding system replacement or upgrades will typically hinge on one factor: the bottom line. Yes, having a budget and making wise financial decisions on what your church can afford are paramount. But perhaps a good starting point is agreeing on the end goal, which usually involves bringing clear, intelligible, and uniform sound levels to every seat in your worship space. Without an agreed upon end goal, moving the discussion further is wishful thinking at best.
Tackling a solution means there is a problem that has persisted. Perhaps there have been comments or complaints regarding sound levels, clarity, or lack of coverage. This should be the starting point of why changes need to be discussed. While it may be easy to dive directly into the technical details of comb filtering, loudspeaker splay angles, acoustical treatment, and architectural surfaces, the broader goal should always remain at the forefront.
Decoding Technology
The need for upgrading or replacing an audio system is typically due to poor acoustics, outdated equipment, or growth that has exceeded system capabilities. Each area contains both practical and technical details. And when a church board or financial committee needs to be informed about the details involved, careful steps need to be taken to when it comes to what is shared and how it's presented.
Once a problem has been identified, our job as a technical director resides in explaining this problem in a way that is simple yet thorough. This is where the benefits vs. features approach will become your best asset while maintaining an optimistic and solution-oriented tone.
Share the problems. Pull in feedback from others in the church who have noticed the issues. Briefly explain some of the reasons these are happening. Propose potential solutions and outline the steps needed for resolution. But the most important step here is to talk about the benefits. What will the church congregation gain by improved coverage? Are you losing seats in the auditorium due to poor audio? How will better clarity help all attendees hear both spoken and musical content in a comfortable manner? How will these improvements better position the church to accomplish its goals in the future?
It's worth keeping in mind how people experience sound reinforcement in their everyday lives. Whether it happens to be a car stereo or home theatre system, we often assume all loudspeakers and environments behave, and therefore respond, in a similar fashion. What might seem scalable on the consumer level to your average listener is not applicable with a large system.
The Nitty Gritty
The technicalities of system aspects, acoustical treatment and space, and components are no doubt a part of the discussion. Yes, it's exciting to stand in front of a church board and shower them with graphs, charts, microphone polar patterns, and impulse response readings. This, however, is the job for you, the technical director, and an installation contractor or consultant to sort out. It's the exact info that will provide insight towards the proper solution and features needed in your new system. It's likely that no one on the board really cares about the brand of loudspeaker. No one will pay attention to the exact kind of twisted pair cabling. They will pay attention to the results, which is really what matters in the end.
Determining the budget for any project should be considered early on as well. Remember that the goal here is to resolve problems and position the church for success in the future. Although any technical director would like the Rolls-Royce system, it's not always feasible nor does it make sense in being a good steward of financial resources. Maybe this means you tackle the project in steps. Perhaps it means holding off for a few more months to raise additional funds. Regardless of the method, always focus on the desired outcome. Do it right the first time and make sure problems are being solved, not merely patched over.
Bear in mind that sharing techncial information with a board is not always wrong. But choosing what information is relayed and explained should be carefully considered. Drowning others in complex terminology and graphs will usually not sway a decision or compute in a logical way. If they understand the benefits first, the supporting data will be icing on the cake.
The Right Outcome
Imagine you are shopping for a new vehicle. The salesman helping you proceeds to dive into the cam-shaft specs, torque conversion ratings, wheel-base traction comparisons, and well, you get the idea. Many of us would walk out in a state of pure confusion pointing to the fact that none of it truly matters when it comes to our decision to purchase. We want to be sold on the benefits. The same applies to the process with your church board.
As a technical director, you were hired for your expertise and ability to stay current in our field. Along with a qualified audio contractor, your job is to inform the decision makers on the problem, propose possible solutions, make recommendations on the resources and steps needed to act, and sell the benefits which will come as a result. The process is an act of collaboration, good stewardship, and presentation.
When making a significant financial commitment, those responsible want peace of mind and assurance on the solution. Selling the benefits of any upgrade will not only resonate with more clarity, but bring focus and teamwork in attaining the best possible solution for the future.
Editor's Note: Steve Taub of Taub Sales, Silver Spring, MD contributed to this article.
