Some of you were in the group discussion when I taught the best tip I’ve ever heard for effective small-group MTD meetings. It gives you the chance to knock out about 4 individual appointments at once. There were some follow-up emails involved in that interaction. I now have those emails to share with you. Thank you, Pat & Maya Laurent!
- Larger groups are less effective unless there is a way to reach out to individuals. So, focus your energy on how you can connect with the individual.
- The number one BEST thing you can do for a group meeting is to send out your info BEFOREHAND to the group. This would be something like an email, video, web link, etc, that quickly explains who you are, what you’re doing, who the work will impact, and that you’re looking for people to get involved financially in order for you to be able to do this work (see sample below). Ask the group leader to give you email addresses so you can send this out before the meeting. Once you have addresses, you also magically have the ability to follow up with individuals after the meeting, and it not be weird because you already contacted them once.
- If you can’t get access to a contact list beforehand, ask for access to the roster of who attended that month’s meeting. If so, you can let people know you will reach out to them individually after the meeting.
- If you don’t have access to a contact list or that meeting’s roster, individual contact cards (see attached sample below) are better than a piece of paper. This lets people write their info and any questions. Plus, it rescues your paper out of group-think mentality; if one person in the line-up doesn’t write their name on your paper, the next few people are likely to follow suit. You can also give your phone number (either verbally during the meeting or in HUUUUGE FONT at the end of your slide presentation) and ask people to get out their phones right now and text you if they're interested in learning more. *If you provide a moment during your presentation for people to perform this task, they're far more likely to do it.
- Focus the content of your talk on stories of life change. Ask others in your ministry team for stories if you don't have your own. If you have PowerPoint, show pictures. If you don’t, paint a picture with your words. Tell stories of individuals (instead of groups). If you don’t know the individual’s name, make one up for them. The point is to give people a chance to connect with the life change that is happening.
- Let people know you’ll be in the back of the room after the meeting to answer questions. Some will want to give a one-time gift. Have a laptop or tablet handy so you are prepared to receive electronic gifts. Consider this gift an “I’m interested in learning more” gift. Do not make the mistake of believing this is their only gift! If they have not been fully envisioned or asked yet, there is no reason to believe they won’t want to join you more fully. Follow up with them later with a phone call to thank them and ask for an appointment. The desire in the appointment would be to further envision them for the project and ask them to join your ongoing financial support team.
Here’s the process:
1) Set up a time/date to speak to a small group (4 -8 people max)
2) Get emails for everyone in the group from the group leader so you can send an introduction before the meeting.
3) Send an introduction email (see sample below)
4) Go to the group meeting.
- Talk through your presentation (who we are, our ministry, why we’re doing this, what we need). It’s ok to be more conversational/ question & answer in this type of presentation. You’ll have time for questions throughout because you’re not going all the way through the ask.
- Go through the “4 Ways You Can Help,” but don’t do the ask. Instead, ask people to take some time to pray about partnering with you. Then let them know you’ll follow up with them in 2 days.
- Pass around a contact card for each individual to fill out (not a sheet of paper, but individual cards). This card should include Space to list their name and contact info, a place to indicate if they’d like to receive your prayer letter and space to write prayer requests*/ comments/ questions. *Be sure to say (out loud) that you want to be praying for them as individuals and would love to know if there’s something specific you can pray for.
5) Follow-up in 2 days.
- If someone didn’t fill out a contact card, send them the email below.
- If they did fill out a contact card, call them up. Go back through a small bit of the vision (we’re going to ___ to reach ___ and would love for you to partner with us!), and then the “4 Ways You Can Help” include the full financial ask the way you would normally do it (will you partner with us in ministry at one of these amounts?).
Introduction email (sample)
Hello! We wanted to introduce ourselves before we meet you in person this weekend! Thank you for allowing us to visit your group and share our story of how God has been leading us to London.
We wanted to give you a little background about our family so you can know a bit about us. We put together a short video telling our story that you can see here. You can also jump over to our blog posts [insert link] to see our real thoughts on the whole process and how it has felt to follow God in this and trust his ways.
We look forward to meeting you!
*Notice there is no “giving” link in this email. That’s on purpose. We want the chance to envision people before empowering them to give.
Follow-up email (sample)
Pat and I wanted to thank you for our time with your group this past weekend! It was wonderful to get to know you all and hear more about your group. Thank you for allowing us to share our hearts and the story of London!
We wanted to send you our website link in which you can sign up to be part of our support team or prayer team. We will be continuing to update the blog [insert link] and our social media as our story unfolds and, of course, when we get to London.
Thank you again for your willingness to hear our story and pray for our family! We are so appreciative!
Contact cards (sample)
Sample Version:
Editable Version: