Ten Things I Hate About You: #4 - The Do's and Don'ts of Evangelism (Or: Everything I needed to know about evangelism I got from indie Mac developers)

As a Mac nerd who's hooked on interesting and innovative new software programs made by independent Mac software developers, the MacHeist promotion intrigued me. For the uninitiated, it was a fascinating exercise in "viral marketing", using a new marketing technique called the "Alternate Reality Game" (or ARG - essentially, like a role-playing game but with "real-world elements") to try to sell you software programs. In the community-driven process, you won as prizes free software programs, many of them representative of the incredible drive to innovation and creative effort of many independent Mac developers...a lot of them high school, and college/university students actually, all trying to make their dent in the universe.


In Which I Shamelessly Flog Mac Software

One of these programs was called 1passwd, a program designed to store site passwords in web browsers (i.e. passwords, login and user names, address/payment information etc.) in a far more secure, intelligent and efficient way than usual. I got my copy free through MacHeist (usually the cost would be $29.95 CDN), and despite that, the developers at Agile Web Solutions took great pains to give the 'Heisters full support for their copies of 1passwd, even though they hadn't spent a dime on their product. When minor updates and bug fixes to 1passwd were released for the paying customers, the 'Heisters got them too, even though there was no obligation to do so (again, since we got all of our copies for free).

So to recap: the people at AWS spent many man-hours attending to and supporting hundreds of customers who hadn't spent any money at all on their product. Zip. Zero. Zilch. They could have just walked away from the 'Heisters, but they didn't. They could have charged us money for the additional minor updates and bug fixes, a totally fair thing to do, since we didn't pay for our copies. They didn't. And to top it all off, when a major update (major enough that all customers would have to pay to upgrade) for 1passwd was released, the 'Heisters were offered a 20% discount.

So to, uh, recap the recap: AWS went to a hell of a lot of effort to support a relatively small amount of users who weren't paying customers. Arguably, they lost hundreds, probably thousands of dollars in direct sales in the enterprise...which is fine if you're a massive software conglomerate like Apple or Microsoft...but potentially dangerous if you're an outfit of two guys operating out of Toronto.

So why did they do it?

If you asked a 'Heister about AWS or 1passwd, they'd be falling over themselves to tell you what an incredible bunch of folks the developers at AWS were. Heck, that's what I'm doing now, isn't it? They'd tell you, "Man these guys were incredible! Look at how unbelievably well they treated their customers, customers who got their stuff free! Run, don't walk, and buy their stuff now! Oh yeah, and by the way, their product works pretty damn well too..." The clear lesson to be learned here is that in spite of the immediate loss of sales that AWS sustained by giving away their product for free...they gained something arguably far more valuable, and far more powerful: customer good will. They left a lasting impression on those who dealt with them, an impression so indelible that those people wouldn't bat an eyelash at becoming essentially a passionate volunteer sales rep for their company and their product. No persuasion or aggressive advertising involved - all they did was show the MacHeist members how much they supported them, and the rest all followed by itself: the Heisters, myself included, were no longer customers, but software evangelists.


In Which I Draw The Obtuse Connection Between Selling Mac Software And Selling Christianity

If you make a contrast with software sold through aggressive marketing (i.e. ad campaigns), it's usually stuff which is the antithesis of what AWS did. They'd never do anything as risky as jeopardize sales to incur the good will of their people they're trying to engage...no, instead they push their products as hard as they can, over and over again. It's all about making that sale, and nothing else. Would Apple give away thousands of dollars' worth of software for free to people at random, and give them full, free support, no questions asked? How about Microsoft? Or Adobe? (I don't think I can ever imagine Adobe doing that with Photoshop, which last I checked cost $1099.)

One problem with how a lot of people approach evangelism is that it's too often approached from the perspective of an Apple or a Microsoft, or an Adobe when they try to sell software. People, when trying to share their Christianity with others, end up more often than not figuratively bashing them over the head with scripture, giving them both barrels with John 3:16 (and what is it with people and John 3:16, anyway? What about Matthew 5?), expecting them to magically convert to Christianity; that given enough verbal and scriptural lambasting (which can of course take on many forms aside from the usual stereotypical "Fire-And-Brimstone" crowd), they'll "see the light". And in the rush to push God and Jesus and scripture on other people, they completely forget about the people they're pushing it on...what about their needs? Their hurts, fears, pain and needs? Those are things that can be satisfied only through meaningful engagement on a truly human level, instead of just merely shoving a Bible in their hands and singing "I'll Fly Away".

All too often I've seen people try to evangelize to someone by doing just that. Getting so caught up in spreading the message they they forget the meaning of what it is they're trying to push in the first place. It becomes empty and hollow, and it only leaves the person you're trying to evangelize to, disillusioned and angry and bitter when things get rough. But it's of no concern, in the grand scheme of things - as long as they made that sale, that's what matters. I saw that back at U of T...people sharply dressed in business attire, prowling the crowded sidewalks along St. George Street, Bible in hand, hunting for someone to preach to. Christianity becomes something you sell to someone, in the hopes that in the process you'll get your own heavenly commission. The human element - the most important element - becomes totally irrelevant. Instead of truly being there, for someone in pain, you simply pat them on the head and say "Oh, I'll pray for you...", while you go on happily on your way, satisfied that you just made a new convert.

I think there's a valuable lesson to be learned from AWS and how they treated their MacHeist customers. AWS made an enormous profit by not making a single original sale to those people, because those people raved about them and their product, getting their friends to buy 1passwd, flogging it on their blogs or in forum posts to acquaintances, getting them to buy...and when the opportunity came for the 'Heisters themselves to buy in, they were more than willing to open up their wallets for them.

Likewise, I argue that Christians need to focus less on shoving scripture down people's throats and engaging people as, well, people, regardless of who or what they are. Like AWS forgoing their immediate sales, you're not going to turn them into Christians right off the bat - but what you will do is foster good will with those people, fostering a true image that Christians are more than just mindless Bible-selling automatons and people who genuinely care about them as real people, scripture-pushing aside. It leaves them with an idea of Christians and Christianity not as people and a religion to be reviled, feared or hated, but as people, and a religion that can earn and are deserving of their respect, acceptance and yes, even adoption. And that is something which is truly priceless.