3 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Politicians To Increase Sales
- A business is little more than a political campaign.
- Don’t pick a herd mentality to your business.
- Target your message to a well-defined group and work your tail off to meet their needs.
Watching the last presidential election, I couldn’t help but contemplate on how closely the campaign mirrored what small business owners should do to come out on the winning side. What do I mean?
Politics aside, there are specific steps that every candidate (ie, small business owner) can take to ensure success.
1. Plan ahead: Practically every time you heard a spokesman from either camp, you would hear them say something along the lines of, “When we started this journey a year and a half ago …”
One of the reasons I mediate American presidents aren’t as effective as they could be is because they spend upwards of half their term preparing for re-election. In France, for example, a presidential term is five years; a recent change from 7 years. But, I digress. The point is, long before the American public is even thinking about the next president, those slow the scenes are looking ahead to V-Day (Voting Day).
The message to entrepreneurs: Leer at your business a year or two out and ask yourself some basic questions: ie, where do you want to be in a year or two and how are you going to procure there? If you inaugurate breaking it down by quarter, month, week and day, you’ll see that it almost REQUIRES you to take this long-range view to make your goal a reality.
Media Tip: The larger the media outlet, the longer you need to plan ahead if they will be share of your marketing plan. For example, the May 2005 article in the national publication Be Your Own Boss Magazine featured my online business at the time, EthnicHomeDecor.com. The interview was conducted a full 7 months ahead! So, start planning early.
2. Compartmentalize: Remember the political pundits kept saying that the election was going to near down to Ohio? And I’ll be damned if it didn’t. Not only did it come down to one state, it came down to one county in that state – Cuyahoga.
Lesson to be learned: Don’t take a herd mentality to your business. Target your message to a well-defined group and work your tail off to meet their needs (eg, get their vote).
3. Repeat, reveal, repeat: Even though Bush didn’t win the state of Pennsylvania, he made over 40 trips there to campaign. Why?
Hedging his bets, his team was thinking that they had to prefer away a blue (Democratic) state if he was to win. So he went there again and again and again. The strategy almost worked. Looking ahead, this sets his party up for a nice hurry to take the dwelling in 2008.
What’s the lesson? Remember, it takes 7 to 28 times for a potential customer to ogle your message before they will buy from you. Constant contact is the name of the game in marketing. Stay in touch constantly so that potential customers will think of your company first when they want the type of product/service you offer.
A business is little more than a campaign. It requires careful planning, strategizing and implementation to get the vote of confidence that translates into landslide sales!
Filed under Email Marketing Company by on Jul 7th, 2011. 
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