Sales & leadership lessons from the Democratic party

Lesson #1: Customers don’t buy features and functions. Whenever Obama or the Democratic leadership talked about their accomplishments, they get all wonky about weird little details. That’s the equivalent of a beginning sales rep going into an account and waxing eloquent about the superior widgetness of his firms offering. Dumb!
Lesson #2: Never promise more than you can deliver. Obama swept into office on a wave of enthusiasm that was practically messianic. He set expectations so high for a “transformative” experience that there was no way that the reality of a dysfunctional government could possible fulfill even a fraction of what the “true believers” thought would happen. Disappointing!
Lesson #3: Never sell against your brand. If you’re going to position yourself as the champion of the individual citizen against the excesses big business, it’s madness to kowtow to Wall Street and let them get away with gigantic bonuses after defrauding the American public. It would have been wiser to fix the blame firmly on Wall Street, even if it meant a worse Recession.
Lesson #4: Sell what you’ve got, not what you’ll have. Third rate sales reps sell features that the product will have “in the next release.” In the case of the Democrats, they kept on trotting out promises and possibilities, rather than touting the huge middle-class tax cut they already gave the country, and the changes in healthcare that protect average citizens from predatory insurance companies.
Lesson #5: Be clear on why you won last time. Nothing is more important, when you want to make a future sale, than understanding why you won (or lost) a deal. The Democrats won in 2008 because voters were angry and scared at a collapsing economy. If Obama had fixed that problem (rather than getting tied up in Afghanistan, healthcare and other assorted issues), I wouldn’t be writing this post.