Are you familiar with the term outreach? If you work in the worship business, especially the Christian end of this business, you will recognize the aforementioned term as a description of reaching out into the local community, professing and often demonstrating the teachings of God. This outreach can take many forms. The act of taking meals to elderly folks or helping someone in the community (regardless of their religious beliefs) with the most basic aspects of living is a popular charitable act and sponsored by many churches.
At my home church, we go Christmas caroling throughout the local neighborhood. This has always been well received over the years (as long as we restrict our caroling to the holiday season). We also put on an annual Halloween party for the neighbors. I’m almost sure it is mandatory for every Catholic church/school to have at least one carnival each year. Then there are the musical outreaches, where gospel bands, singers, preachers and the like perform in front of tens to tens of thousands of believers and nonbelievers. These are the outreaches I am most interested in and will be discussing this month.
The Outreach In-Crowd
To begin with, whenever I am bidding on a new sound system for a house of worship, or even if I am looking at an upgrade, I ask if this system will be permanently installed or if any thought had been given to using the system as an outreach tool. Most of the time, I install per-manent in-house systems. This line of questioning does open the door for considerations of a multipurpose system, or possibly a separate system dedicated to an outreach program, or just the introduction of myself as a live sound tech. At this point of my conversation, I can pitch myself as an outreach specialist. I let my client know that I have an abundance of sound gear and years of experience in the field of live wor-ship music. Now I have opened an entirely new door for my cash flow. If I happen to land the install job, it’s a good bet that I will be in for all outreach programs. If I don’t get the install, I still have a shot at providing sound and tech skills for those same programs.
In the more rare situations, I can provide a sound system that can also double as an outdoor rig. By the way, it has been my experience that very often outreach means outdoors.
Anyway, at a particular Christian event, I used the church mains and subs for its outdoor event. The mains and subs were powered, so setup was a piece of cake. I simply brought the rest of the gear (console, outboard equipment, snake, mics, etc.). I didn’t have to deliver a bunch of heavy boxes to the gig, and I gave the church a reduced price for my services. It worked out very well for both of us. As a matter of fact, we are planning another similar outreach for October.
Spreading the Good Sound
You will find that some houses of worship want an installed sanctuary system and also one dedicated to their outreach program. What could be better than selling, installing, running and maintaining two systems rather than one? I guess three would be the obvious answer, but that seems very unlikely.
However, two systems are not that unusual, and since you are not only a technician but also a salesman, here is a perfect opportunity for a larger sale. At the onset of this article, I assumed that most of you reading this not only do install work, but also produce live sound. If that is not the case, it still shouldn’t stop you from selling a live sound system. Just find somebody else to run it and accept a small commission for setting up the sound guy with the gig.
As you read these articles my friends, I don’t want you to think that it is all about money with me. I will tell you, however, that a big part of a satisfying job is the paycheck. And as a man who has a good grasp of the Bible, I can also tell you that money is the second most refer-enced subject in the book. However, no amount of cash can compare to the sweet sound of a beautifully installed or expertly erected system. Although the American dollar does hold a close second place.
Oh boy, I really got off on a tangent there. OK, back to our subject. Any house of worship that is successful will naturally want to expand, and this whole concept of reaching out into the local community is the most common evolution of this expansion. All we really have to do as sound installers and technicians is go with flow.
You probably should get some ammunition for your next bid or meeting. If you bring up the idea of a multipurpose system that is very port-able, have some brochures on hand. Your client may not even know that one system can work in their sanctuary and also work at another loca-tion. I realize that it is impractical to fly a group of boxes inside and think that you can later take them outside. There are, however, arrays avail-able that can be moved about on a small lift by one person. You will have to do some homework and see what is out there.
The important thing here is that you are introducing your client to new possibilities. The fact is, most of the outreach work I do is with my own gear. But there are some houses of worship with the budget and the desire to have multiple systems. Of course, I can always augment a church system if needed, or subcontract if I am providing for a show with more than 5,000 people, but both of those scenarios are pretty rare. I have created a comfortable niche, but I am always open to outreaching myself.
Send a letter to the Jamie at jrio@fohonline.com.
