The Toughest Sales Job on the Planet: Convincing Voters to Cross Party Lines

I have marketed a lot of products in my time, some harder to sell than others.  But never have I run into the challenges presented by a political campaign. Wow.

My brother, Dean Scontras, is running for the United States Congress and I've been working with him off and on over the last year.

As the campaign has progressed, his approach has evolved. Like with any great sales or marketing professional, you need to progress, maintaining your company’s core strengths, while at the same time keeping your thoughts and ideas fresh and in line with current customer demand – those experienced in the trenches day in and day out. 

Of course, when you’re a politician you need votes to win, and no matter what the circumstance, the more votes you can take from the opposite party, the higher the likelihood you will seal the deal.

I’m not sure what campaigning was like in the old days, pre-24 hour-in-your-face-cable-news-networks, but I can tell you that today, it's nuts.  I’ve learned that selling and marketing software is nothing compared to this stuff.

The closest analogy I can draw for you is that it’s like trying to convince a Microsoft user to join the Apple movement (or vice-versa); and even then, at least those platforms can co-exist!

But I digress, this isn’t a political blog (is it?), it’s about Sales and Marketing, so let me get back to the point: I think in all of this Sales 2.0 talk, tools, and rhetoric, we have forgotten some basic principles, present company included.  So here are 5 killer sales tips which I have re-discovered along the campaign trail this year. I hope some of this will jar a few thoughts lose from you, and possibly a comment or two:

1. Kool Aid Can Make You Deaf: I worked for Microsoft once.  It was a cool experience, but to “fit in” you needed to drink the Kool-Aid. Internally any suggestion to propose heterogeneous solutions, even though they best met the customer’s need, were frowned upon. That’s why I believe that sales leaders who are willing to fore go “all or nothing” scripted answers in exchange for consultative, integrated solutions are the ones who are best at building brand loyalty, and along with it, a massive stream of predictable, repeatable revenue.  
2. Run Respectable Campaigns: It is appropriate to point out your exceptional value, e.g., “here are the 4 unique innovations that our solution offers to your specific problems, which in your evaluation we hope you will challenge and discuss with us.”  Not: “Let me tell you why you don’t want to go with our competitor (insert random, unproven, invalid bashing here).  It only takes one small discovery of inaccurate data from your client and you will immediately be discredited.  No one likes mud-slinging, so don’t do it. 
3. Be Genuinely Professional:  When presenting solutions and or interacting with clients remember to be yourself; human, compassionate, answer questions directly with credible solutions, backed by fact and when you don’t know the answer, just say so.  Remember when first engaging clients, you are an unknown; establishing trust and credibility takes time.  Before engaging, do your homework, and if possible, know your clients personality type (DISC) and interact accordingly; be genuine, but don’t be insensitive to who they are, and where they are coming from. In the end, you may not come to agreement on every issue, but showing appreciation and understanding of their world will go a long way. 
4. Don’t Let the Ignorant Bigot Get You Down: They exist everywhere, so know one thing -- you simply are not going to get them to open their minds to other solutions. As incredibly valuable as your solution could be, the ignorant bigot is not someone to focus your selling efforts on. Instead, find influencers with whom they socialize, and work outside in. 
5. Have a Firm Handshake: We forget sometimes that all of the people we meet outside of work are potential leads, or referrals.  So the next time you leave your cube, don’t just pack your laptop, remember to include your firm handshake and a well practiced, powerful elevator pitch; because you never know who you’ll meet along the trail.

-- Tom Scontras, VP, Sales & Marketing, Glance Networks

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