Politics and Business Decisions, Not Too Different

Written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Greta Schulz

After watching the two political conventions over the last few weeks I naturally asked people what they thought. “Oh I am definitely voting for Obama” I heard a lot yet several people I talked to said Romney was their man. I am so intrigued by how people make decisions. Maybe not all people mind you, but surely the majority of people make their decisions differently then you would probably think.

The interesting part came after that question because my next question is always why do you like Obama or Why is Romney your man?, and the answers were so telling. “I really like Obama, he seems like he is a great guy. He’d be a good leader.” Or Mitt Romney has experience and seems to love our country. “I really love Paul Ryan, she is really down to earth, and smart”. What really floored me was when I asked about their platform I got lots of blank stares. No one really knew what they stood for in particular and really didn’t seem to be concerned with it either.

I am not here to say that either candidate is better or worse then the other, nor do I profess to know politics better then anyone else, but I am amazed at the way the average person makes their decisions. Years ago in Florida there was an amendment that would, if passed, allow one particular industry to decrease taxes for themselves. Their industry only. Do you know they actually had an ad campaign that said “if we pass this amendment, we will have lower taxes”. The only ones getting lower taxes were them but the public bought it and the amendment passed! Crazy but true.

Now let’s look at selling and how this becomes relevant. Since you are typically selling to the average American, it is important to keep in mind that people make their decisions on things different then what you may think. If you believe your “platform” (features and benefits) are what is important you will often share them when a prospect asks about how you are different, often sharing one and two things in particular that you believe are most important again, to you.

Keep in mind, no one cares what you think, only what they themselves think and to uncover what they think is all that matters. We are all so caught up in telling people the important things about our product or service we forget to actually check to see if they think that is important to the person potentially looking to buy. You know what they say about assuming…

So do you think our politicians will heed this advise? It probably doesn’t matter much as long as Obama keeps asking for more time while smiling that gleaming smile and Romney keeps touting his morality.

Greta Schulz is president of Schulz Business SELLutions in West Palm Beach, Florida. She is the best selling author of “To Sell is Not to Sell”. Greta does corporate training for fortune 1000 companies and she has an on-line training course for entrepreneurs. For more tips go to: www.schulzbusiness.com