You Are Your Top Sales Person

Now that you’ve decided to run for public office, next comes turning yourself into a skilled candidate who promotes yourself well. You do it by adopting behaviors shared by top sales professionals.

For many the word salesperson is synonymous with smooth talk and high pressure, but a positive side exists as well: To provide honest, useful facts that assist a potential buyer to make an informed purchasing decision. Please concentrate on that definition for now.

By focusing on problems first and then outlining solutions that benefit buyers, successful sales people lead them to act. The same applies to you the candidate. Your job is to convince voters to act, to vote for you, and you do it by making the benefits you offer clear. Social psychologist, H. A. Overstreet (1875 – 1970) said it best:

“Selling, to be a great art, must involve a genuine interest in the other person’s needs.”

Top Sales People Believe

In his book, Success Principles, Jack Canfield writes that,

“. . . our brain expects something will happen a certain way,

[so] we often achieve what we anticipate.”

In preparing to write Success Principles, Canfield interviewed hundreds of what he calls, “super-successful people,” and found a common thread. According to Canfield, it went like this: “I was not the most gifted or talented person in my field, but I chose to believe anything was possible. I studied, practiced, and worked harder than the others, and that’s how I got to where I am.”

Political candidates must not only believe that they will win, they must take it as fact. When you believe it, you act the part and do what it takes to achieve the goal. When you doubt it, you do less and miss the goal. Henry Ford put it this way: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.”

Top Sales People Stretch

Training and experience over time inspire top sales people to hone new skills, expand existing ones, and change approaches. They believe that life rewards action, so they stretch themselves. They’re not afraid to ask for the sale. They ask, ask, ask, and then ask again. When you compare where you are today with where you’d like to be on Election Day, what can top sales people teach you?

Top Sales People Practice Self-discipline

Frank Bettger, in his book, How I Multiplied My Income in Selling, writes, “I firmly believe that comparatively few people fail in selling because they cannot sell. Our failure comes because we lack self-direction and self-discipline.” Simply put, to become a skilled candidate, you must develop self-discipline and drive to realize goals.

Top Sales People Stay Enthused

Dale Carnegie saw enthusiasm as key to success in everything, especially sales, because enthusiasm is contagious. He saw it as the spirit from within that spurs leadership. So follow what Dale Carnegie suggested in his self-improvement classes:

“Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic”

(The 5 Great Rules of Selling, by Percy H. Whiting, Managing Director, Dale Carnegie Sales Courses)

Highly successful sales people are enthusiastic about themselves, their abilities, their products or services. Enthusiasm is spirit, not animation. It is expressed by animation. When you are enthusiastic, you are excited about something. If you are enthused about your candidacy, you display it through animation. Even if you’re not an enthusiastic person by nature, you can cultivate it.

Life’s master key to success lies in enthusiasm. Boldness, courage, and confidence spring from it. Enthusiasm kindles energy to overcome doubts. With enthusiasm you gain self-assuredness to canvass door to door and ask others to contribute time and/or money to your campaign. Your enthusiasm motivates your campaign team which puts you ahead of the game.

Top Sales People Know Their Subject

True sales professionals acquire an edge through hard work, persistence, and a strong desire to succeed. In his book, Dale Carnegie: The Man Who Influenced Millions, Mr. Carnegie advises that sales people should, “. . . know one hundred times as much about your subject as you can use.” Top sales people know their product(s) inside and out which enhances self-assurance.

For a local political candidate, product knowledge means the district, its issues, concerns of local residents and businesses, local movers and shakers, and anything else that can affect quality of life there. When you demonstrate that you know them inside and out, you cannot help but feel self-assured.

Top Sales People Prepare

While few sales people will deny that practice makes perfect, many believe that rehearsing a presentation means going solo before a mirror. Not so. Real pros practice presentations before people, again and again and again. Practice in a low-stress, no-risk environment allows for improvising and experimenting with alternatives to improve the overall delivery. If you, the candidate, rehearse well and often, you cannot help but face your opponent(s) and the media with a confidence that gets noticed by voters.

In addition to practicing presentations, top sales people anticipate objections just like trial attorneys prepare for objections from opposing counsel. They strengthen their positions by studying the merits of the case as if they were representing the other side. You too strengthen your position as a candidate and attain confidence that shows when you:

• Memorize each issue’s pertinent facts.

• Compile a list of possible questions you may face.

• Practice to make your responses come off as natural and unrehearsed.

• Demonstrate command of the issues by rehearsing succinct responses.

• Practice your opponent’s positions, in private, as if you were that person.

• Conduct a Q and A with a group of key supporters and ask them to critique you.

Top Sales People Sell Benefits

"People don’t buy things. They buy what the thing will do for them,”

said William E. Robbins, manager of field training for Firestone Tire. As he spoke to his sales team, he instructed them to, “Keep coming back to the question ‘Do you know what Firestone tires will do for you?’” What was he doing? He was emphasizing benefits. Not features!

Robbins’ advice endures whenever wise sales people present benefits in ways buyers understand and highlight features only to the extent that they support the benefits. As a candidate it is your job to learn what voters need and want and tell them how you will address those needs and wants once in office. Make it clear that with you in office, they benefit more than with your opponent. Again, emphasize benefits.

For smart sales people, meetings with prospective buyers mean show time. They know that when a delivery comes off as dull, apathetic, insincere, uncertain, or disinterested, prospective buyers find ways to leave. But bright and engaged presenters with a good message draw in buyers. So remember that it’s show time whenever you stand before voters at a forum or meet them at their front doors.

Top Sales People Take the High Ground

When a competitor spreads false rumors about them or their products or services, top sales people refuse to take the bait. They avoid offending prospective buyer vested in a competitor’s product or service. Now apply that to voters. Would they appreciate a candidate whose claim to fame is spreading falsehoods about his or her opponent?

The Take Away

Top sales people believe in themselves and the benefits offered by their products or services. Adopt their strategies, and voters know how they will benefit with you in office. That makes you their clear choice on Election Day.