Unless you are seriously sailing around the world, or in a cabin that is disconnected from any touch of civilization, you know that the US is going to have an election in November.
Presumably our choices are Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and a few minor candidates that may garner 10,000 votes at best.
Since I try not to write anything about my political leanings here, I’m not going to start today, but I am going to point out a sales lesson that you may find useful from my watching of the Presidential campaigns:
Be sure of what you are selling.
If you try to inject your political leanings into this, you may get angry with me, but like I said earlier, I don’t write anything partisan here.
With that qualification, know what you are selling. By that I mean, you have a product you are selling and you want to present that in the best light. And, in Mitt Romney’s case, he wants to sell his experience in business and his ability to manage money as his reason for being President.
Unfortunately, Mr. Romney seems to not be clear on how to sell that to the American people. In just the last few days, Mr. Romney’s campaign has been kneecapped by attacks on his tax returns and his business experience.
If you are selling yourself as a businessman and manager, you should know how to sell those strengths. But Romney and his campaign haven’t.
How does this apply to you? When I was selling tickets, I was often confronted with needing to unload inventory at the last minute. So knowing that, I wouldn’t approach the sale with the idea that I am selling the hottest show in town. Instead, I would approach with the idea that I was selling a last minute indulgence. Or, I would sell someone on the idea of being able to see a Broadway production at a budget price.
Whatever angle I took, I knew that I was selling something that was about to be completely worthless to me.
So when you are thinking about selling your service or product, look at it from all angles and make sure that what you are selling is what you are selling and have answers based on that.
Since the 2012 election cycle seems pretty filled with material, I’ll see what good lessons I can share from the Obama campaign.
What lessons have you learned so far?