Selling plays a massive role in politics. When hopeful politicians campaign for office they are selling on several levels. They are selling their platform to voters and they are selling their own vote to donors.
Many of the characteristics required for a salesperson overlap with politicians. Politicians must be winsome, charismatic, and convincing just like salespeople. Politicians work to build a relationship of trust with their base. Similarly, salespeople build trust with their customers.
Politicians must also sell specific policies and decisions to other politicians in order to make good on their promises to their base. Voters experience a form of “Buyer’s remorse” when their candidate doesn’t fulfill the promises made during the campaign. Therefore, voters should be just as careful if not more so when choosing a politician than when they spend their money.
BoweryJE22
This is so true. Politics is all about selling and as voters we need to think about what that means for us. As you stated we need to be even more careful with who we vote for that with where we spend our money. Politicians have been knw to manipulate people as much or more than even old style salespeople. So we have to be purposeful when we vote (or buy into a certain candidate. Good stuff here!
Hope you have a great day!
-Collier
Even though the political side of selling is selling, I do believe that it differs greatly from business selling since when you are in politics you are doing almost all of the talking and the other side is not heard until the very end and their votes are counted. In business, it is very different since you want the customer to do most of the talking instead of yourself.
I never really thought about the fact that politics is selling, but it is! I do think that there’s a different between political and business selling, Politics is about selling people on how they will change things and make things better for the people. They are doing all of the talking and very little listening. In business, you make sure that the customer is heard and focus on building a relationship with them. You want to do less talking and more listening. Overall, this was really interesting to read!!
I never really thought about the sales aspect of politics but after reading this it has opened my eyes a little bit to the different potential possibilities for sales in politics. I think one distinction that is different is that politics is a lot of talking, more forced than an easy conversation that involves a sale.
Great post! To be honest I never really thought of political people as sales persons but now I totally get it! I think this just goes to prove that even if you are not a sales person for a job you are selling all the time and it is all around you.