Why Republicans Sell Better than Democrats
There's no question that the Republican party has made an incredible come-back from a low point two years ago. I've posted on this before, in a satirical vein, but this is a more serious effort. Here are four specific strategies that come right out of the Republican playbook, which I believe can help ANY sales organization to become more effective:
- Strategy #1: Let your customers lead the way. The most striking thing about the recent election was the way that the Republican party co-opted the Tea Party. Originally, the Tea Party was angry about both parties, but rather than fighting against it, the Republican party embraced the movement and directed it towards a Republican victory. This is an incredibly important concept in business. I often see companies try to convince their customers that they are "wrong" about something and try to "re-educate" them. It never works.
- Strategy #2: Promote sales pros to top management. The new House Majority leader John Boehner is famously a small businessman, but he's much more than that. He worked in retail sales (a family restaurant) throughout his youth, and then took over the sales function of a small firm. He is (as the New Yorker recently put it) a "born salesman." And, by that, I don't mean the kind of cartoonish salesman that Hollywood depicts. I mean the kind of "salt of the earth" sales guys in the B2B world who GET THINGS DONE. I meet these guys all the time. They're all about trying to create business opportunities, help their customers, with no flash and no nonsense.
- Strategy #3: Stick to simple messages. Regardless of what you think about the content of the Republican messages, there's no question that they're easily understood and easily articulated. By contrast, I don't know any Democrats who can express what the Democratic party stands for. That's absolutely fatal in business, because buyers (like voters) are really only giving you about 5 percent of their mental bandwidth. If your message is too complicated, abstract or (worse) non-existent, nobody is going to remember it.
- Strategy #4: Ignore the strategic marketing fad. One of the byproducts of having a simple message, and sticking with it, is that you don't have to be constantly "triangulating." You don't need a bunch of useless marketing drones running around telling you what to say and not say. Sarah Palin, for instance, doesn't even have a PR consultant, but just tweets her own thoughts and ideas. It doesn't matter if some people think she's a twit. Her messages are simple and clear, and they resonate with her customers. Seriously, I have seen business after business get all mired up in complexity because they let the marketing group drive "strategy." That's always a huge mistake.
READERS: Any strategies that I missed?
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