Yesterday a potential client reached out to me on Alignable, asking to connect. I looked over his niche and existing copy and felt I could help him immensely because his online spiel about how Christ-based his service is (Cambridge English Dictionary definition of spiel: “a speech, especially one that is overly long and spoken quickly and intended to persuade the listener about something: a sales / marketing spiel) was so over the top , so I accepted the request to connect and the following happened.

Me: Great to connect. How can we help each other?

He: We really need help taking our business from Star to superstar! Words to really capture our talent and abilities. Words to capture the customer’s eye.

Me: What’s your budget to get this underway? I have some ideas.

He: I’m not sure, what are we looking at for ideas? I’m not too sure on how much something like that would cost or consist of so I don’t even know how much to budget for something like that

Me: If you’re amenable to hearing some suggestions that may be hard to hear, keep reading. I think you’re missing (and losing) a lot of possible clients right off the bat unless you only want to serve Christians, the way you’re presenting yourself now. Even Christians are wary of other Christians right now (for political reasons) and most don’t have the guts to call and quiz you on whether you’re a social justice Christian (a la Jim Wallis and Sojourners) or a far-right, white supremacist, white nationalist/ insurrectionist flavor Christian. The surest way to avoid that minefield is probably to rebrand entirely, if you want more customers, OR to state outright what flavor Christian you are (if you’re comfortable with that) so you can target your Ideal Client like a laser beam…

He:  First of all, I appreciate your input. However, we are not looking to rebrand our company at all. We stand strong in our FAITH and what we believe in. Second, We as a company offer services to anyone and everyone that asks for it. If people are so close minded to not use our services because of the name then there are plenty of other businesses that they can use. Third, When this company started, someone once told us that our company wouldn’t succeed, but so far we have had pretty good success. God will guide us in the right direction and we Trust in him because he is the only one that keeps his promises. Fourth, we are the type of Christian that loves everyone no matter what because that is what we are called to do. So we are our own people who have been called by God to represent him in every aspect of our lives. When I asked for help I was by no means saying we are not successful. People in this world need to hear the word of GOD more. Finally, we also didn’t start this company to be rich or lose site of our FAITH because all that will matter in the end is the work we did for our Lord. Chic-Fil-A is also a Christian company and they openly speak of their Faith and they’re really successful, Hobby Lobby is also a Christian company and openly expresses it and they’re VERY successful. We refuse to change the image of our company or what we stand for just to get more money. Thank you and have a very BLESSED week!

I left it right there with the following response: “I guess you’ll be better served by another provider, then. No harm, no foul. Carry on!”

I could have said so much more, but he was so defensive and defiant that he didn’t hear my complete message, which was the final bit: “Even Christians are wary of other Christians right now… The surest way to avoid that minefield is to rebrand OR to state outright what flavor Christian you are so you can target your Ideal Client like a laser beam…)

What I was suggesting was transparency. I didn’t even get a chance to mention brevity. I felt strongly that his company description (which I won’t reprint here because I don’t want to single his business out or have you google it to find out who he is; I want to keep his identity anonymous) was as over-the-top as the response you read above is… like bludgeoning his prospective customers with the cross of Jesus rather than being more subtle and less “religious” (in the same way that Hobby Lobby and Chic-fil-A are when it comes to the presentation of their faith-based corporations).

When it comes to presentation,

a little goes a long way.

A sound bite is good;

a sermon or lengthy testimonial is not.

I felt that his response was a rebuke to my candor. That’s why I ended it the way I did. Had he been more approachable and amenable to hearing more of my ideas, I would have responded with, “Your examples underscore my concerns. Millions of social justice Christians won’t enter a Hobby Lobby because its insurance policies don’t cover birth control, and a lot of employees are of child-bearing age and want to plan their families. Millions of social justice Christians won’t buy from Chic-fil-A because they spend millions of dollars supporting discriminatory anti-LGBTQIA legislators and policies.”  (They also don’t bludgeon people with their religious walk/talk online, that I know of!)

This fellow’s business was named to reveal his faith. That alone should be sufficient unto the day. And leaving a thank you note on a notepad with a cross in a lower corner or a brief scripture about having a servant’s heart or some other nice touch would be fine, too. But then, leave it there.

But to have him go into an impassioned, overly-long, almost abusive/ bludgeoning diatribe makes him sound like a fundamentalist Westboro Baptist Church type provider. And maybe he is, given the way he reacted to my insights about what might be helpful when advertising his services.

And if that’s the case, I wouldn’t elect to serve him anyway. Westboro Baptist Church parishioners are definitely not the kind of Christians that I want to help succeed.