There are a lot of 'salescraft' ideas and books, tapes, videos galore to push them.
But some things about salescraft are more like principles and laws of (human) nature.
And I think that much of campaigning is like selling, except that the candidate is selling him/her/self. A unique human being, as individual as a snowflake, shaped by genes and nurture, the choices, opportunities, facts of life and fate.
We vote for a leader based on a lot of things, both 'reasons' and 'feelings'. And many times we will invent 'reasons' to back up our 'feelings'.
But I'd like to say that the 'netroots' or 'grassroots' net-based campaign has some benefits over the top down campaign of the past in that you can find the most valuable political treasure quickest using the net.
That political treasure is: FEEDBACK Think about the value of FEEDBACK as you click to read about two of those salescraft rules.
Here are two rules of salescraft to think about concerning political campaigning.
Now I am a Dean backer and contributor and so I am going to use Dean for examples here. However, I believe that Clark does well in this area, too. Everybody knows I don't much consider the others anymore.
1) Listen to your 'customer' they will tell you what will 'close the sale'.
The General Election voters will have their own things that will close the sale. Security and Pocketbook issues are going to be big. Polling provides a form of feedback, and I am sure there is going to be lots of it during this election. But the Dem Nom is going to be getting feedback from KOS and other popular blogs, if they are smart. They should be cultivating the Dem/Green/Lefty blogs by posting to them and reading the feedback, too.
The Nomination voters/caucus'ers have their agenda, I think that the Dem party is pretty well setting it's sights on a Dem with spine and not a blatant beltway banana slug and hypocrite. Here we can definitely see the value of feedback from party activists and bloggers.
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I have my personal nomination 'close the sale' desires, and the thing that I have settled on is: 'What is your 'Recipe for CHICKEN-hawk'? I have posted about my desire to see the rough outlines of my candidate's strategic plan. I used the net to ask for what would sell me. I posted it to KOS as well. So far the candidate who answers that best for me is Howard Dean. I am sold on the Dean/Trippi answer.
The other is personality and I like Dean on that too. The country needs a doctor and one has risen to the call. Don't get me wrong. Clark has charm to spare and I really enjoy watching his videos on C-SPAN. So this is my secondary 'seller' and both of them have it.
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2) Ask for the order. One of the small things that I liked reading about Dean was that he asked for support and endorsements from the unions he visited early and often. Other candidates assumed they had the order, Dean asked for the order.
Both Dean and Clark ask for the order on the stump. How do I know? Their speeches conclude with various ways of 'asking for the order'. They ask for people's support, help, and votes as they shake hands with people at the venue.
These two sales (vs. marketing) principles are universal. Billions of dollars have been made on them and billions more will be made. Careers will be made and broken by following these rules and others. In our case America may be saved or destroyed by how well we Dems apply these principles.
I'd really appreciate your feedback on this post, Kossacks!