The Missing Link…The Follow Up and Character Cultivation Part 2
The follow up is certainly an art, to package and tailor the Vedic siddanta according to the individual, to provide a user friendly medium where one can feel comfortable to approach Krsna Consciousness at a personal pace. People will become inspired by the individual and in the right atmosphere they will be the ones to mark the necessary changes in their life. The main encouraging theme is to just add Krsna.
Interestingly enough in order to develop these skills we come back to book distribution, to say just enough and not too much so they engage. When exchange of the book and laxmi is complete one can then certainly elaborate. They have become attracted by a person. This setting prepares the stage for the future cultivation arts. Suddenly we have a natural progression of events where the blueprint days of hoofing it up on the distribution grounds transforms into the cultivation rounds. One follows the other.
Character attracts character. After the initial book distribution contact is made the follow up by an individual or group should lean towards quality cultivation. In turn such persons whose have been touched by the new alternative will then bring 'their own' into the clan. How many times have we experienced when one person becomes a devotee, others will follow whether it is friends or relatives? Like minded intimates draw one another.
In the present times(at least in the LA area) the mood and need for community designs are becoming an attraction. People are looking for the collective scene. After giving the book…then what is next? I remember after one program in Dunedin, New Zealand , a town which is to say the least is off the main path, one gentlemen remarked after a home program "Well this is all well and good but where do we go from here?". This certainly etched within the mind this point of why be satisfied with the taste of the initial contact and just leave it at that? Do we have plans to accommodate those that we meet(at least in some way) or are we satisfied with the routine hit and run? The topmost luxury is to witness the group settings that develop in response to the book distribution where the varied personnel have a space to come to in order to assimilate the books. In such a scenario one can delightfully observe individual growth, personal stages and progress. Real communal attraction will come when we care for the others which will instill a long term vision for the distributor. Sankirtan would then become a natural lifetime affair.
Someone may say well we don't have such a program as of yet…what to do? One idea thought of by Balarama das at New Dwaraka is a contact card. He works at a main Nissan car dealership which makes direct sales to 35% of the customers that visit their lot and from the 65% that come and go 50% of that group will come back to buy because people completed a fill out a form where they could be kept 'informed'. By this additional effort over 30% of the walk outs were transformed into sales.
Could you imagine if our devotees in the field would make that little extra effort and have the 'sweeties' fill out their details on the spot and initiate a follow up program? Details for more books or temple visits, available seminars, home programs etc. could be listed on the sheet and each person from their response would fall into particular category. If only 3 cards were filled out a day by each devotee and then placed into a computer data base after 1 year one could have made around 1000 contacts. Then year after year the names add up. Let's say only 1% respond to the mail out invitation or news letters, you will still have a minimum of 10 persons per devotee each year. Depending on the size of your sankirtan outreach team, you will be able to stay in touch with many persons and capitalize on valuable nurturing without the expense.
Balarama das is a retired 12 year bds man and he figures if he had recorded his past contact history in this way he would have between 7,000-14,000 names what to speak of the list that the existing 20-30 sankirtaneers could have gotten in that period. Just ask the congregational preaching coordinator at your temple how many names of people are on the data base and then take a deep breath and you will then realize the importance future follow up.
If the materialists can value this long term enterprise instead of watching potential dollars being lost then what about our position as Lord Caitanya's prospective gardeners? How many interesting exchanges have you had over the years on the front lines? Could you imagine what would happen if after receiving the seed of the book they could have a future connection or lively invite that would act as the watering process? Here is the beginning to the 'ultimate sale', the making of a devotee, through the medium of transcendental horticulture.
