Election Lessons

Being someone who has an extensive background in politics, I would be remiss if I didn't write an article on the lessons learned from this past Tuesday's election.

Here's a few lessons/reminders that apply to politics, and certainly apply to business.

First, for professionals, election night signifies the beginning of the next election cycle. There is little time to rest because there is another election right around the corner. Isn't that the same in your business? When you make a sale, you don't sit around and celebrate and stop working. A sale signifies that it's time to move on to fulfillment with your new client and time to get back out and start selling again (and actually you should be prospecting continuously). The point is, celebrate your sale, but get back to work.

Second, emotion. It's always interesting to watch the emotional roller coaster that staff, volunteers and supporters go through leading up to and through the actual election. The more emotionally attached to a candidate someone is, the more they will do for that candidate. People don't buy because something makes sense, they buy because of emotion - in the case of this election, something historic, feeling comfortable with a candidate, fear of losing something, etc. It's no different for any other business. People buy based on emotion. How can you tap into that?

Third, expectations. Politics is a huge expectations game. It is dangerous for a candidate to raise their own expectations too high because the likelihood is that they will fail. Our governmental system is designed to resist change, promote gridlock, and be inefficient. When it comes to government, that's a good thing - as I always say, the most efficient form of government is a dictatorship - and who wants that? Is this any different for your business? What are you expectations? Are they realistic? What expectations are you promoting to your clients and prospects? Are you raising expectations too high or lowering expectations too low?

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