Value proposition. That is a key term in marketing. Have you heard it before? Do you know what it means? If not, no worries, it is not one of those more common terms or phrases that everyday people use when communicating.

A value proposition refers to a business or marketing statement that a company uses to summarize why a consumer should buy a product or use a service. For example, Slack, the popular productivity app’s value proposition is, “Be More Productive at Work with Less Effort.” Here we see Slack is communicating that if you want to be more productive at your workplace with less effort, use their app. That sounds very appealing, as you want an app that does more with less cumbersome features. So based on this, you are probably more likely to try their app and see if it works.

Why are we talking about value propositions? What is the point? Well, just as businesses have value propositions, your ministry should probably have one as well. This shouldn’t be confused with a mission statement. A mission statement indicates what your ministry is about in a simple phrase. A value proposition says why people should become involved in your ministry. That is why every ministry should have a value proposition where, in three minutes or less, you can effectively share with people what your ministry is about and why they should become involved in it. Another way to think of it is to think of it like an elevator pitch.

In an elevator pitch you are giving someone a two- to three-sentence explanation of what you do. It has to be short and concise because you never know when the person in the elevator that you are pitching will exit the elevator. In the same way, people will be interested in your ministry for a variety of reasons. So they will come up and inquire about what your ministry is about and why they should get involved. This is where you need to make your pitch.

What is your ministry about? Why should someone become involved in it? Do you have a two- to three-sentence pitch you can share that resonates and causes people to want to get involved? If you do, great! Does all your team members know it? Do other staff members at your church know it? If not, take some time to teach it to them so they can share it with people when they get asked about your ministry.

If you do not have a pitch, now is your time to come up with a simple one. Think through what your ministry is about and how people benefit from being involved in it. The point of having this pitch is not to have a statement that sounds polished and fake where you are trying to convince people really fast why they should get involved in your ministry. The point is to be able to effectively communicate to people who need to know what your ministry is about and why they should become involved in it. The sooner you have this together and have trained your staff and volunteers on it, the more effective they will be at sharing it—and the easier it will be for parents and students to understand, in a short time, what your ministry is all about.

Read more on this topic:

https://orangeblogs.org/orangeleaders/2018/08/07/6-ideas-making-church-welcoming-skeptical-parents/