Beyond the Price Tag – How do we make buying decisions

Posted on Aug 20, 2011

Recently I posted a comment on a forum to church administrators asking how they make buying decisions.  I was trying to see what kind of processes and thinking they went through when exploring various products and service.  In particular I was trying to understand if it was more prudent to pay less up front and more ongoing or vice versa.  I learned so much from many of the contributors of the forum…thanks all.

One of the contributors was Matt Branaugh, Director of Editorial, Church Management Team Christianity Today International (thanks buddy).  He pointed me to an article that  actually ran on September 1, 2008 but is no less applicable today than it was then.

One section of the article really grabbed me and goes hand-in-hand with the blog I posted a couple weeks ago about the REAL cost of ownership (Read More). Here is the quote from the article:

“Good stewardship is not about getting the lowest price possible for a product or service. Nor is it about buying the highest quality available. Rather, it’s about getting the most effective use from ministry funds. There are right ways and wrong ways to evaluate a potential purchase. Unfortunately, many ministry dollars are wasted on “good deals.”

As consumers, we are ingrained with the importance of purchase price. Retail businesses understand the shopper’s fixation with price, and they work hard to create the reputation of offering the lowest purchase price. Quality, value, and the true costs of purchasing and owning the product are often secondary thoughts.”

That first section really nails it down for me…and yet we far too often are so shortsighted and only look at the immediate “price” and not the long term “cost”.  Much of what I have heard from church leaders in the name of  “good stewardship” is foolishness and actually POOR stewardship.  I believe that the Luke 14:28 passage about “Counting the Cost” before one builds a tower actually applies to more than just the initial price, but rather the total cost of ownership.

How do you evaluate your purchasing decisions?

To see the rest of the YOUR CHURCH/Christianity Today article, click HERE