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Recovering backpacker, Cornwallite at heart, political enthusiast, catalyst, writer, husband, father, community volunteer, unabashedly proud Canadian. Every hyperlink connects to something related directly or thematically to that which is highlighted.

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Political Sales is Still Sales



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Let's do this for Justin -- and for Canada.




On a flight home recently, I watched 12 Years a Slave and The Wolf of Wall Street back-to-back.  It was an interesting experience.  You could look at them as different ends of the same spectrum, really; one one end, a dehumanized man nearly looses himself as he becomes a pawn in a money game by messed-up wealthy folk; in the other, a wealthy man becomes enslaved by drugs and money, losing himself at the same time as he dehumanizes the others he manipulates.

Sales is about profit - getting more money.  You can save the spotted owl if you have enough money.  

Politics is about power - getting more influence.  You can save the spotted owl if you have enough political power - but to get that takes money.

Sales is catalyzing behaviour - convincing people to give you something - their money, their vote - with some kind of exchange being implied.  But it's the convincing part that matters most.  That's why both sales and politics attracts such aggressive, combative personalities.  They don't care what they're selling so much as that they are winning.

To make a sale you need to catalyze a choice.  You want your mark to strip away everything else that's in their thought frame and feel a sense of comfort with you and urgency not to lose the opportunity before them.  In politics, added this mix is a great deal of negative influencers like "if you don't donate/vote, the bad guys will make rainbows and sunshine illegal."

It's a lot easier to sell a person - a brand - than it is to sell an idea.  It's far harder to try and build a relationship.

Whatever Party you're getting an email from, expand beyond the message you're meant to focus on and think about the context and intent being conveyed.

In this case - your donation will change the world and by donating, you'll get to talk with the one person who will make that happen.  Canada gets mentioned after.

It's good sales - create demand, imply competition and the potential for exclusivity.  What it isn't, though, is good community-building.

Leaders don't dictate from the top - they lead from the front.  

By the same token, communities must be build collaboratively, beginning neither at the top nor at the bottom, but from the centre, from common ground.

To many "leaders" are missing this right now.

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