Here in the UK where I live, there will be a general election this year to determine who will lead the next government and be prime minister.  The debates between candidates are heating up with the usual accusations meant to demean the opponent in the public’s eye.  Recently, the current prime minster, Gordon Brown, accused his main opponent, David Cameron, of being a “shallow salesman” and using an “airbrush” to make his image look better in billboard posters.  At a Conservative party event, Mr. Cameron retorted that he is proud to be a salesman, and if elected, wants to sell his country’s business opportunities to the world.  So what’s wrong with being a salesman?  Is there a danger in politicians selling themselves too hard?

Sales and marketing skills are very important for politicians today.  These techniques can be very effective in getting the target audience to act.  Looking to my home country USA, the recent presidential campaign of Barack Obama used sales and marketing techniques extensively.  He tuned his message and slogan using polls and focus groups.  He took his message to large audiences, holding his party nomination acceptance speech in a 50,000 set stadium in front of 38 million viewers on television.   He raised $600 million in donations much from the 1.5 million people who contributed online.   He used his website to provide tools for organisers of local events who ran 150,000 grassroots activities.  Barack Obama used techniques like segmenting and targeting the audience, bringing a compelling message, providing sales tools to the channel partners, and making it easy to close the sale and donate.  His use of new media tools created a momentum and campaign fund that was hard for the opponent to match and won an election.

In the UK, sales and marketing techniques are slowly working their way into the campaign.  It is long overdue as voter apathy is prevalent here.  During a recent television broadcast for a popular soap opera called EastEnders, over 16 million people tuned in to watch a special live show, more than voted in the most recent election for local and European candidates.  Only 1% of the 46 million British citizens registered to vote actually join a political party.  The population has a deep mistrust of politics with only 16% believing that politicians tell the truth and can be trusted according to a recent survey.  For the coming election, all the candidates have taken lessons from the Obama campaign, run extensive research, fine tuned their message, spruced up their websites, and become far more media savvy on how they sell their message to the public.  Want to learn about the Conservatives or Labour party?  There is even an iPhone app for that. 

But the candidates must remember that being a salesman is more than just telling good sound bites or using fancy technology.  Effective salespeople are authentic.  They build trust by listening to the customer, telling the honest truth, and offering the best solution to fix the problem.  Voters, like customers, are not foolish and false promises only erode the value of the sale or the election.  It is time for the hard sell.