Client Background & Challenge
Concordia Publishing House (CPH) and its SaaS arm, Concordia Technology Solutions (CTS), serve the church software and services market—a sector under mounting pressure from donor fatigue, declining giving, and heightened competition.
By late 2024, eGiving-related revenue was slipping. CTS had a partnership with Vanco, a leader in digital giving, but the existing agreement wasn’t delivering sufficient growth. Leadership faced a pressing challenge: stabilize revenue in a shrinking market while maintaining customer trust.
The risk was clear: without new revenue streams and better leverage in its partnerships, CPH’s SaaS division could miss critical growth goals.
Approach & Solution
Rob Davidson led the charge to reframe CPH’s relationship with Vanco—not as a vendor agreement, but as a strategic growth partnership.
Problem Clarification
Rob identified the root constraint: CPH’s eGiving penetration was too shallow with its existing customer base, and contract interpretation excluded latent Shepherd’s Staff customers who still actively used the Vanco integration.
Relationship Anchoring
He worked with counterparts level to strengthen trust with Vanco, ensuring the partnership wasn’t just transactional but strategically aligned with both parties’ growth objectives.
Reputation Strengthening
Negotiations were framed to reinforce CPH’s standing as a trusted, credible partner in church technology—not simply a reseller.
Impact Modeling
Rob modeled the financial upside of deeper integration: revenue-share increases and consistent rev-share customer list updates. This made the negotiation not just about percentages, but about measurable business impact.
Negotiation Levers
He structured levers around:
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Revenue-share increases tied to monthly adoption.
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Profit-sharing mechanisms that benefited both firms.
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Reinterpretation of contract terms to include dormant Shepherd’s Staff users as revenue-eligible customers.
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Monthly contact cadence instead of annual—keeping pipeline growth active.
Results & Impact
The partnership pivot yielded tangible gains:
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Recurring revenue growth: Negotiated terms drove a 30% increase in recurring revenue.
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Profit impact: Delivered a +3.9% uplift to company-wide profit margin, not just within software.
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Revenue recognition: Secured backpay from Vanco for months of previously excluded Shepherd’s Staff customers.
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Performance far above goal: CPH exceeded its 2025 eGiving revenue growth target by 278%.
Why It Matters
Most partnerships stall because they’re treated as static contracts. Rob Davidson showed how asking sharper questions and reframing terms could turn a pressured market into a growth engine.
The CPH–Vanco case highlights three lessons:
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Partnerships are leverage points. The right structure can unlock far more than incremental gains.
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Relationships anchor deals. Mid-management trust ensures agreements carry through.
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Definitions matter. By reframing who counted as a “customer,” Rob unlocked revenue that was hiding in plain sight.
When markets contract, survival isn’t about more effort—it’s about smarter structures. With the right negotiation strategy, even declining revenue environments can become profitable growth opportunities.
Ready to Unlock Hidden Revenue in Your Partnerships?
CPH didn’t need a new product—it needed sharper questions and smarter structures. By reframing terms, resolving backlogs, and aligning incentives, the Vanco partnership drove a 30% recurring revenue lift and a +3.9% margin gain—far outpacing growth targets.
That’s the kind of leverage our Revenue Bottleneck Audit is built to uncover.
If you’re a founder or leader doing $500K–$25M, and your partnerships or contracts feel static, we’ll pinpoint the hidden revenue opportunities and show you how to bring them forward.
No fluff. No generic playbooks. Just clarity you can act on.
➤ Email me for your free audit and let’s turn partnerships into profit engines.
