Watching people in the news allows us to evaluate individuals on the merits of how they present themselves, what they say, and what they are “selling”. People may not be selling a product or a service to an end user, some may actually be selling themselves.
Because of this, we can garner important lessons for how we should, or should not, portray ourselves to clients in our own industry. Here are five people that are selling themselves, either in a good way or…well, not so good.
- Barack Obama– Senator Obama is, as they say, selling the dream. Substance–unimportant. Experience–unimportant. When you sell the dream to your clients, you are taking the focus away from yourself, away from the reality, and asking them to see the castles in their mind…and then buy those castles. Whipping clients into a frothy furor can be extremely effective. You are selling on top of someone’s already lofty expectations and simply helping them to believe it. Effective? It can be. Dangerous? Probably. Here’s why- let’s take selling a home, for instance. No one would say no to the house that is twice as large as the one they are getting, in a better neighborhood, has more amenities. So when you sell the dream, you take the risk of putting them out of their price range because no longer is your client dealing in reality, but rather they are dealing on hope. At best, your client’s chances of improving their financial situation to afford the “hope” are 50/50–a risky bet for you as a sales person.
- John McCain– Senator McCain is selling experience. Diametrically opposed to the previous sales strategy, this focuses completely on YOU. The intent of showing a client your experience is to remove all necessity of worry, concern, or fear about your decision. It is to say, “I have seen this before…follow me, and I can show you the right road to travel.” This is effective when you have the ability to back up your experience with fact and example. Selling insurance? Show your client examples of past clients that were worried or had trepidation about choosing whole vs term life and how your expert guidance paid off. This is a sales strategy that is high in risk/reward. If you can show your experience and communicate it effectively, the reward will be great. If you can’t, then there is no differentiation strategy and the sale is probably lost.
- Hillary Clinton– Senator Clinton is selling fear. While the Senator from New York is no longer in the race (maybe…not sure–I guess we have to wait for the convention), her campaign was focused on besmirching the competition and in some cases, fear-mongering. The purpose of a technique such as this is to drive the client away from the competitor, not necessarily to drive the client to YOU. While this can be effective when legitimate (”look–our competitor is struggling financially–I don’t want you to end up without long term support”), it is a risky gamble because it makes you look bitter without the ability to stand on the merits of your product. Not a recommended method if it isn’t coupled with a solid product differentiated on your part.
- John Edwards– Senator Edwards is (was) selling the lie. By far the riskiest move outlined because, as we know, it is a complete career ender. You may sell one, two, even a lot of deals based on a lie, but all it takes is one slip, one misstep, and your credibility is gone. There is no repeat business, there is only massive amounts of vitriol, anger, and mistrust. Find another profession once this happens to you because it is quite doubtful anyone will put you in the same position again. Ask some recently unemployed hedge fund managers.
- Bob Barr– Congressman Barr is selling the outsider. As a Libertarian, Barr is using a position of “outside the norm” to drive his sales. This can be effective when your product is significantly different than the typical choices (think Coke vs Pepsi). however, selling a product from this vantage point usually means you are in an underdog position and can be very difficult to carve out a slice of the market. In place of this strategy, it may sometimes be better to just sell the dream! (see Obama)
How you represent your product needs to align with your strategy in the market. Make sure it’s the right strategy so you don’t end up on the outside looking in. Later this week we will look at 5 people in sports and what we can learn from the way they sell themselves.
