It ’ s not unusual for elementary and middle school music teachers to remain with the same school board for their entire career , which is great for dealers because it means teachers can be loyal long-term customers . “ One of the real beauties about the classroom music print area , of course , is that this is shoppable every day of the year . This is not one those things that happens only in September or January ,” he explains .
Zwozdesky also says his relationship with teachers is a twoway street as they have a lot to offer him other than sales ; for example , he ’ ll invite teachers into the store to test and review new products . “ It ’ s been a really useful thing for me because I learn from their perspective and they will invariably come up with ideas that I would not have ever thought of ,” he reveals . “ They look at it from the perspective of , ‘ What am I going to do on Friday afternoon to keep the kids busy and learning ?’ They will see stuff in a publication that will be completely lost on me but that is very obviously appealing and useful to them .”
Zwozdesky advises print music retailers to get to know what their specific customers ’ musical backgrounds are , because most teachers will be either more vocally or instrumentally trained , which influences their teaching style and lessons . Knowing that can inform your product offerings and approach to service .
But really , serving teachers comes down to trust and good , timely service and advice . “ They ’ re a pretty sincere group of people ,” Zwozdesky says . “ If you ’ re insincere , they can tell right off the bat , obviously , so you don ’ t want to come across like a snake oil salesman … That [ relationship ] is absolutely the first thing . I mean , if they don ’ t know that you actually care about them or carry the stuff they ’ re interested in , or that you ’ re trying to develop that or trying to develop a relationship , they ’ ll go elsewhere .”
TRACK 2 : THE ART & CULTURE OF SELLING SACRED MUSIC JOEL SHOEMAKE , PINE LAKE MUSIC , COVINGTON , GA
“ There seems to be , because there are black dots and lines on white paper , a real kinship between the school market and the church market ; however , they ’ re very different when it comes to relationships with who your buyer is and who is paying the bills and that makes selling a completely different process ,” says Joel Shoemake of Pine Lake Music in Georgia , which has focused on serving the Christian market across the U . S . since 1969 .
He first clarifies that if attendees are wondering whether to “ tuck the sacred music in the back right corner or the back left corner ,” this is not that kind of presentation ; instead , he says , “ we will be talking about knowing your customer and becoming a detective who can , in the course of a conversation , especially a conversation in which the customer may not know if they can trust you because it ’ s your first cold call to them , for example , you can discover what their needs are , learn which ‘ tribe ’ they may belong to , and be knowledgeable enough to have offerings ready to provide to them so you can meet their needs using your products and services .”
Shoemake warns upfront that serving churches requires a lot of initial research before you start actively selling . “ You ’ ve got different denominations and different people with different sensibilities who vote for different political candidates and who have different ideas on culture , all within one giant bow wrapped around ‘ sacred music ,’” he says . The first step , he advises , is asking , “ Do I care enough to get to know these cultures ?”
“ It ’ s a headache ; it honestly is ,” he confesses . “ I myself am a Christian who grew up in church and has been doing this for 15 years and I still have times when it ’ s quite difficult to tell one group from another . So you have to ask yourself that question first and beyond that , you ’ re going to have to study the demographics of your sales area . Then beyond that , you ’ re going to have to learn to mine your own data , and chances are you ’ ve already had churches buying from you . So if you ’ re keeping your data and can mine your data , you can see some of the trends that your local churches are buying from . Then , last but not least , you ’ re probably going to have to reach out to them with an olive branch and introduce yourself , have that awkward conversation – that cold call – and ask what their needs are and how you can meet them .”
A major part of that detective work , as Shoemake puts it , is learning the lingo of particular churches and denominations as it applies to music , because it ’ s common for different denominations to use the same word to mean different things .
“ We joke a lot at Pine Lake Music about ‘ Christianese ’ – that Christians speak a different dialect than everyone else and the truth is , different Christians use the same small group of words to say very different things ,” Shoemake shares . “ One person may say ‘ our choir is blended ’ and the next person comes in and says ‘ our choir is blended ,’ and the first person meant that they use Bach but they may also sometimes do a little southern gospel and the other person means they do Chris Tomlin , the modern worship leader , but also Bill Gaither . So ‘ blended ’ means nothing , really , unless you ask the follow up questions and learn the culture and know a little bit about where this particular buyer came from .”
But , Shoemake says , don ’ t worry if you ’ re not of the same denomination or even religion , or even religious at all . “ In 15 years , I ’ ve never once had someone ask me my own denomination . As long as you are working to meet their needs and as long you are open , you will never have a problem , in my opinion ,” he says . “ Your place is not to tell someone how to think or what they should be buying , but rather to meet their needs using your products and services . That is the definition of sales after all .”
28 • CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE