Primary Sales

Do you sell like a politician? How about someone running for the job? I have been watching the Republican Presidential candidates fight for the chance to run for the office and I wondered what would happen if you tried to sell that way?

If we were instructing the candidates to sell themselves, we would never allow them to do what they do while campaigning, and isn’t it the same? I prefer to sell using a consultative sales process. I don’t think there is any way you could call what they do, consultative.

They bluster, they exaggerate, they hide, they obscure, they misrepresent, they lie, then they start talking about their opponents. OK, maybe I’m exaggerating a little, and this is not a party politics thing either, all of them do it.

So there are obvious differences between a sale and an election, but there is a lot the same.

You need people to:

• Like you
• Agree with you
• Understand you
• Want you
• Believe you
• Trust you
• Vote for you

So you should be selling like you are campaigning, just without the mudslinging.