SalesHQ

Yesterday Barack Obama was faced with his most difficult part of his sales presentation to date. His speech was far more than a speech. His goal wasn’t to rally the troops, although he went in that direction toward the end of the speech. It wasn’t to sooth a few disgruntled potential supports, although he surely recognized there were probably a few he had to bring back into the fold. It wasn’t even an attempt to quash the debate about his former minister.

Yesterday Obama had to begin the process of addressing objections. He had gone for months ignoring the somewhat minor objections from some accusing him of being a closet Muslim and from others who were insinuating he would be a ‘black’ president. Those he tossed off as objections from a small minority of rightwing extremists. But when his association with Jeremiah Wright brought his judgment, which he had spent a year touting, into question, all objections were brought to a head.

Yesterday Obama had to become one thing and one thing only—a salesperson. Yesterday he wasn’t a Senator, aloof and above it all. He wasn’t a presidential candidate sparring over policy or voting records. Yesterday he was just a salesman facing a purchasing committee, many of whose members had serious objections to his “product.” Certainly, the committee he faced was larger and more diverse than any purchasing or executive committee any of us have ever faced. Yet he faced the same task we face—identify and trying to overcome their objections.

He could have chosen to anticipate and address those objections on his terms within his larger presentation. He didn’t. Instead, he made the mistake many of us in sales make—hoping the objections would never surface or if they did, he could ignore them and they’d just fade away. But they did surface and they didn’t just fade away. So, in crisis mode, he had to shift his presentation from seeking to meet wants and needs (hope and change) to handling serious and potentially sale killing objections.

Yesterday was just the beginning. He addressed the objections by trying to get his prospects to acknowledge a further, deeper need, to recognize a serious pain that needs to be resolved and tying that larger pain to the basis of their objections. In the months to come he will have to expand on his presentation and ultimately give some idea of a solution. As we salespeople know, you can’t simply seek to prick a pain or gain recognition of a need—you have to offer a solution if you want to the prospect to buy.

So, politics aside, from a strictly sales presentation perspective—in your opinion, how did he do? I’d love to hear your opinions.

I admit I did not see the entire pitch, but from my perspective...he effectively steered the topic back to the "customer pain" as you said. Identifying the true pain we have as consumers is far off from a ranty minister. Once he helped us find our pain again...he did sell me on his key product...hope. I truly believe though he needed to clear those objections out of the way to refocus the campaign. The worst mistake a politician can make is ignoring the elephant in the room. I am actually very impressed with the admission of infidelity by the new NY governor. I'm sure it was a humbling move to make, but one that will ultimately help him retain his integrity and ability to sell ideas.

From a sales pitch perspective, I think the speech was risky, but appropriately so because of the sensitive topic that it dealt with. I agree with Mr. McCord that he will have to expand on his presentation in the weeks and months ahead if he hopes to sell the idea of real racial reconciliation to the American people. He could have chosen to seek short-term solutions and be safe by simply addressing the Jeremiah Wright issue, but instead he chose to make the sales pitch for something grander and in the long run far more important to the nation as a whole.

He plans a series of speeches, including a major speech on Iraq today in North Carolina (marking the war's fifth anniversary) and one tomorrow in West Virginia conflating the issues of Iraq and the deepening economic crisis. My feeling is that the series of speeches are a way for Senator Obama to sell himself as the commander-in-chief on a variety of issues. If these three speeches combined are able to successfully sell that proposal to the American public, he will be able to trump the serious doubts raised by Sen. Clinton over the past few weeks regarding his judgment and crisis-handling abilities.

Objections are inevitable.  Don't get caught up in the back and forth game of objections.  Deal with them.  As the salesperson, you should bring them up before they do. 

Did anyone watch his specch last night at the DNC? F-ing amazing! He is a great orator and the words in the speech itself were incredible (so a pat on the back to his speech writer.)