Sell Like Obama

Campaigning for office is sales.

And the office of President is perhaps the ultimate sale. Regardless of your personal political view, you gotta admit, Barack Obama can flat out sell.

He had Invesco field rocking last night louder than after a Bronco’s

touchdown.

Perhaps the biggest cheer, and one of his more brilliant points came when he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “The naysayers have it all wrong. This election isn’t about me. It’s about YOU!”

That brought the house down.

Of course it did.

In sales, it’s always about the buyer.

Obama and his handlers understand that and communicate it well. As a result he has reached rock star status.

He’s charismatic, and in our mass-media and Internet society knows how to deliver for the electronic masses. He reads a teleprompter better than anyone in the media. (But like most media people who rely on reading their presentations, he uses more “uhhs” than David Letterman when speaking impromptu. I’m not going to argue with anyone on this. Just notice.)

Back to the point: you too can use this “you” technique. You might not get 80,000 people roaring and weeping and wetting themselves, but you can touch emotions and create visuals.

Simple suggestion: any time in a presentation/recommendation you are tempted to use “I,” “me,” “my,” or “we,” try to use “you” or “your” instead.

For example,

“What YOU will get is…”

“YOU will notice…”

“Here’s how YOU will profit…”

“YOUR people will…”

“YOUR sales will jump because…”

Zig Ziglar says we don’t buy the product or service; we buy a picture of the end result with ourselves in the picture. So put them in the picture.

How can, or do you do this?