This whole bail out plan amuses me. The market tumbles today (Tuesday) because MSNBC says, “There weren’t enough details in the plan sold so investors unloaded stocks.”
Which reminds me of “how to sell a concept.”
When you a sell an idea or a concept (bail out package), you actually don’t need a lot of details. What you need are two things: PAIN and VISION.
Pain is easy in this case. Everyone’s feeling it. Vision is something else.
How to Sell The Vision
First, don’t confuse this with the network marketer’s mantra, “Sell the dream.” The vision is the picture of how things will work once the work has been done.
Most people are NOT visionary, so you have to spell it out (or draw it) for them.
In the government’s case, much work should be spent on “envisioning” what life will look like after the bailout program works (if it does work). But in fact, very little time is spent on communicating that vision.
So what you have is unrest, disbelief that it will work, and dashed hopes for certainty. What Obama (and Treasure Secy, Tim Geithner) should have said when talking to Wall Street is this:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve created this plan and I have a vision for it. (Sometimes you just have to tell people you have a vision.) I see a day in the not too distant future when credit markets will be freed up. Credit will be eased. People will be able to invest again. Small businesses will be able to expand. And the economy will be humming along like it was 10 years ago. This will take a lot of work on all of our parts. But we WILL make it happen. That’s what I see.”
But No, we didn’t get any of that. We always get from our bureaucrats the same old bureaucratese we’ve always gotten.
So this should be a lesson to sales people far and wide. Find the pain. And sell the vision. It makes life so much easier.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Secy. Geithner doesn’t strike me as being highly experienced in on-air interviews. I could be wrong and that’s just his style. Even though I’m more generous to the opposition party, I find his 1) economic theory to be fatally flawed from the get go, and 2) his delivery(s) in the last few days to be below average. Consequently, I also find the president’s politics to be less than attractive. However I find his delivery to be utterly remarkable and frequently find myself musing that maybe there is something to this. Which brings me back to your point. The president is doing exactly two things very well, with respect to his selling: 1) He’s “salting the wound” as it is sometimes called and he’s 2) painting a very clear – almost Utopian (albeit some would argue Marxist) picture.
Todd,
Thanks for popping by again. Your words are powerful. BHO is quite a good communicator. BC
Bill,
I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for your posts on how to sell in a recession. I was trained via the Sandler system a long time ago and I really like how you break down the pain and also the importance of the economic equation. I have been battling with stubborn reps , getting them to switch to this approach, and it is working. One thing I can tell you that is very important to your approach is you have to bring the pain or dreams up in two major places. When you ask the questions to find pain during the exploration and bonding process it is great but alot of reps forget to bring it up again during closing. They go on to their presentation and hit the customer with the price which the customer tends to latch on to. The customer will easily forget their problems and dreams when hit with a number so it is vital to bring the pain and dreams back up during objection handling and closing to solitify your solutuion and get the price back into perspective.
Thanks again
Loren Kofsky
Loren, Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Yes, I agree. The pain/dreams have to be a part of your process all the way through..not just when it’s convenient. If reps forget to bring it up, it means they really haven’t bought into it fully. Just keep workin at it!