I was recently talking to Terri Sjodin, author of the bestseller New Sales Speak: The 9 Biggest Sales Presentation Mistakes and How to Avoid Them (Wiley 2006). Smart lady.
She pointed out that a B2B sales presentation isn’t persuasive (meaning it won’t drive buying behavior) unless it answers the three questions that are uppermost in the customer’s mind, which are:
- Why should they work with you?
- Why should they work with your company?
- Why should they do it now?
Now, it occurs to me that the exact same thing is true in politics. In political contests, the questions uppermost in the voter’s mind are:
- Why should I vote for you?
- Why should I vote for your party?
- Why should I actually go out and vote on this particular voting day?
Since B2B selling and politics are so similar, it’s not surprising to find the different types of B2B selling methodologies represented by the different candidates:
- Hillary Clinton. The “features and functions” approach. She fills her speeches with wonky policy statements and delves into the details.
- Mike Huckabee. The “God is my witness” approach. In the southern U.S., B2B pitches often crutch on “we’re both Christians so buy from me.”
- John McCain. The “trusted advisor” approach. He promises to give you the straight talk, even if you don’t like what he’s telling you.
- Barack Obama. The “vision of the the future” approach. He’s all about the possibilities and opportunities, much like Steve Jobs introducing a new iPod.
From a sales standpoint, what’s interesting about presidential primaries is that you generally don’t know exactly what you’re buying, because you don’t know who’s going to be the vice presidential candidate. It’s kinda like buying a computer system from a software vendor, when you’re not exactly sure what other vendor is going to supply a big piece of the required functionality.
In these particular primaries, this dynamic is even more interesting because one candidate, Hillary Clinton, has an “automatic” vice president, Bill Clinton. While she’ll no doubt have a different running mate, everybody (including the patsy on the ticket) will know who’s the real Veep. Similarly since Mike Huckabee is attributing his candidacy to divine intervention, he probably intends, at least in a conceptual sense, to have Jesus as his co-pilot (regardless of who’s actually on the ticket.)
So that leaves Obama and McCain. Obama will select somebody older (to add gravitas) and with a military background (to add “war on terror” credibility). I’m willing to bet it will be General Wesley Clark. As for McCain, he’s crazy if he doesn’t ask Condi Rice to be his running mate, since she would completely steal the “identity politics” thunder from either a Clinton or Obama candidacy.
So, assuming that my logic is correct, here’s my question:
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