I'm involved with a new outreach effort at church. Our objective is connecting with people that have left the Catholic Church or those that have expressed an interest in joining. Another thing our pastor asked us to implement is going door-to-door throughout the parish boundaries to reach out to everyone in the area.
I know I speak for myself and the other committee members: none of us were very excited about engaging in door-to-door ministry. We don’t want to seem like people from one of THOSE churches where we ALL hide when the doorbell rings.
Researching Catholic outreach ministries, I found a prominent one with a palatable strategy for door-to-door outreach. It recommends focusing exclusively on asking people if they have anything that your church can pray about for them. Whether it's a challenge, aspiration, or nagging concern, the idea is simply to let people know that others care and want to join them in praying about what is on their minds.
Then a few weeks ago, a priest from a Catholic young adult ministry visited our parish. I was there early and helped pass out the pamphlets he brought with him. I placed them in the pews without even looking at them, figuring they solicited contributions. Only later, during his homily, did I learn that the return portion of the brochures had nothing to do with a request for money. It asked everyone to share prayer requests we had so that the young adults in the ministry could join with us in prayer.
How do you follow up within your brand's business development strategy?
Against this backdrop, I was recently working on a business development strategy for a business when the idea clicked. Rather than reaching out to prospects to talk about what the firm does, they could reach out to business decision makers interested in the company and ask them for their version of a prayer request.
For this brand, some comparable prayer request ideas might include:
- Asking what questions they have and providing an answer then or in a follow-up.
- Offering a free consultation call to solve a challenge.
- Providing access to an exclusive webpage or group with resources to help them do their jobs.
If you applied a comparable business development strategy for following up with your prospects, what would be YOUR brand’s version of a soliciting a prayer request? – Mike Brown
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