Last week the Consumer Electronics Show was held in Las Vegas and the big buzz was for tablet computers. It seems every tech company is jumping on the craze created by Apple’s iPad. What I found fascinating was comparing the sales pitch for these new tablets with the one given by Apple CEO Steve Jobs last year when he announced the iPad.

• When Jobs was talking about the iPad, he spoke about it being “magical” and how it is a great way to experience the Internet. He gave practical examples of using the iPad and emphasized its ease of use and how fun it is to use.

• When the various CEOs this past week introduced their tablets, they talked about how they had dual-processors, included so many gigs of memory, and ran the latest Android OS. They reiterated the great tech specs their tablet had compared to the iPad and other tablet devices.

Which do you think is the more effective sales technique? The non-Apple CEOs were selling toothpaste; Steve Jobs was selling white teeth. Instead of focusing on the details of his product, Jobs instead focuses on how his product will change people’s lives.

So why am I discussing selling tablets on this blog? Because I am, down-deep, a tech geek? Perhaps, but I think this topic tells us something about how to effectively evangelize. Although it can be crude to compare evangelization to sales, in both cases you are trying to influence the decision-making of another person.

If you look at the early Church, especially in New Testament times, you see that the first apostles took the “white teeth” approach to evangelization. They proclaimed that they had seen the risen Lord and that he had transformed their lives. Again and again St. Paul speaks of the transformation his experience with Christ had on his life – and that others can have the same transformation. He did not get into the details of exactly how Christ is God or things of that nature; he spoke of the power of Christ to change lives.

When evangelizing, eventually one will need to discuss the details of the Faith: exactly what the Church teaches and why. But that is not the “lead” in effective evangelization; instead we must proclaim that Christ has changed our lives and that he can change yours as well. Those who are in most need of Christ will be drawn to our experience and it will lead them to want to know more about this Jesus Christ and his Church that have so radically changed our lives.