Stabbing the Lifeboat: Trump Sales 101

 

In the past many people wondered how our country would be if a business person would be the president. Maybe even some of them wondered back in the 1980s and 1990s what it would be like if Donald Trump ran the country. Well now he is home and no longer president so we can speak about what we learned...about sales! I bet you weren't expecting that statement or perspective! 

If you take the politics out of it, and pretend it does not matter what party he was from, but rather think of him as a salesman, and through that view is how he sees his strategy the policies that he put forward, it makes perfect sense when you look at it from a sales perspective. Whether you like his politics or not, or whether you like his personality or not, all he did was provide perfect examples of sales 101 good and bad lessons.

Let’s look specifically at the issue of building a border wall. 

In the case of the border wall President Trump is the sales person and Nancy Pelosi is the client.

President Trump is a wall salesman. He wants this country to build a wall.
When he was a candidate President Trump sold the idea of a border wall to the American people. In this case the American people are the equivalent of the first gatekeeper a salesperson person might meet in the company. The gatekeeper either passed the information to the boss or throws it away.  The gatekeeper may pass on the information to a decision maker, but they themselves do not have the final decision. In this case, the American people said we like the border wall so it was good enough to pass along to the next level. 

The next person that President Trump saw was the Republican Congress and the leader Paul Ryan. The Republican Congress wanted a wall but they were more the middle manager. They could not decide exactly what they wanted and before they could make the ultimate decision, they were replaced by different manager. This is similar to the contact that leaves the company after you give them the sales pitch and now you have to get back in to see the new decision maker, which is now Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats. 

So President Trump the sales person came to his client, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrat Congress, and said I would like a wall.

Anyone who has ever done sales knows that when you are sitting in front of the decision-maker and you understand what they want, you pitch them the biggest package for the most money that you can get, knowing the client will either take the package as is, ask for changes to lower the amount, or reject it.  
Trump wanted a large wall and have Congress enforce the bill that was passed several years ago to build the wall. Nancy Pelosi said no.

Salesman Trump changed it to say instead of a wall, I'm asking for a slotted fence.
Nancy Pelosi wasn't biting.

So President Trump the salesman changed it to say I don’t need the whole wall just certain amount of money to build a part of the wall. Nancy Pelosi still said no.
Then President Trump said I will give you one of the programs that you were most interested in, in this case DACA, I’ll make it a slotted fence, it won’t be as long as I originally tended to be, and it won’t be for as much money as I intended it to be. Nancy Pelosi said no.

Normally a client will give you feedback as to what they like or don’t like about the product or package you are offering. Pelosi didn't do that. So when Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats said there is no way they were going to buy a wall, Trump got up and left. As a salesperson you can do the same. As a salesperson if you aren't getting feedback, or the client keeps saying no, at some point it is time to stop selling and leave otherwise you are just wasting your time. If there is no compromise or chance of agreement there is no sense wasting the clients time.
If you can't win stab the lifeboat and try something. You're drowning in "NO" anyway, be different and try something that might set you apart.

If you agree in good spirits to end the negotiations the client will probably respect you for it and appreciate you for it. Leaving you the possibility that the client might call in the future.

I've had meetings where the prospect really didn't seem interested in answering questions or talking, so I asked if they really had any interest in talking or my products and if they didn't that was okay and we could save the time. One customer took me up on it. The other customer said they were a little distracted and apologized and we had a good meeting afterwards. The customer that apologized never called back. The prospect that did end the meeting called me back several months later and I had another chance. They didn't buy at that time, however they always called me back whenever I called in the future, I'll take that result.

A Heck of A Nice Guy

Ev