Marketing ROI for Jehovah’s Witnesses…

The doorbell rings and two gentlemen greet me with a question.

“Do you believe we will eventually live in a world without war?” one of them asks.

(A good teaser, indeed, I am thinking.)

“Eventually?” I say. “Yes.”

“Well, you are pretty optimistic,” the man says.

At this point, I'm thinking ‘you did say ‘eventually’'”

He shows me a booklet called “A world without war.”

“Gentlemen, are you with a church or something?”

“We’re Jehovah’s Witnesses,” he replies.

“Ah, I see.”

I’m wearing a Microsoft shirt and the man asks “are you in IT?”

“I used to work for Microsoft, but now I’m a marketing consultant.”

The tone is VERY friendly, so I say to them, “you know, as a marketing consultant, I feel like I need to give you some advice. You can do with it as you please, but I am compelled to share it."

This is an area that is quite heavily populated by religiously observant Jews. From an ROI perspective, I think you are probably going to have a significantly lower than average success rate.

I love passion and commitment. That sells, so I am all in favor of you going out to sell your beliefs. More power to you. It’s just that I think you may be better off deploying your most valuable resource-your time-elsewhere in order to maximize your results.”

Yes, I said that to them exactly.

“Well, we are willing to talk to anyone."

(Not good marketing allocation, I am thinking. Poor targeting, but I can only do so much.)

"Can we leave this brochure with you?” he asks.

“You can, but odds are I will put it directly into the trash, so I think it would be a poor investment of your sales collateral.”

I don't know what the guy is thinking at this point, but my hunch is that it's not a typical interaction.

“Well, then, I will keep it with us.”

“Yes, I would agree with that conclusion."

We part ways amicably with a smile. Another client served.

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