Sales Psychology - REPUBLICANS vs DEMOCRATS

There’s a very important lesson for both salespeople and marketeers to learn from the healthcare debate and these charts below are at the center of it. On the left is the Republican chart of healthcare reform and on the right is the Democrat’s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

According to the New American, “The GOP chart reflects the complexity of at least 31 new federal programs, agencies, commissions and mandates that accompany the unprecedented government takeover of health care in America. Lesser known aspects of the Democrats’ plan are revealed by the chart, exposing big government’s burning desire to micromanage and impose its will. Federal mandates for website design will be imposed on the states, and cultural & linguistic competence training will be given to healthcare providers.”

 

Frankly, their chart accomplishes the goal of creating fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Everything about this chart causes chaos in the mind: the layout, color selection, different shapes, and massive amount of information.

 

The Republican chart was so effective that the Democrats were forced to respond. They created their own chart in order to provide a more ordered, reassuring view of the healthcare universe. They simplified the layout and used soothing pastel colors to "assuage the public’s fears."

 

Is the Democrat’s chart effective? The answer depends upon who they are trying to persuade. Maybe a graphic artist would appreciate the Democrat’s chart, but to the average American it means very little. It’s just a bunch of planets, crop circles, or bubbles. It evokes a different kind of reaction in the mind. It’s too nebulous and doesn’t explain how the program would actually work.  As a result, it won’t change anyone’s mind. In reality, it may even hurt their cause by validating their proposed program can’t be simply explained.

 

Here’s the main point... After reviewing hundreds of corporate presentations I can tell you that almost all include slides that are overly complicated are so simplistic they’re meaningless. Take a moment and open your corporate sales presentation. How many slides resemble the Republican or Democrat charts? Both types cause you to lose mental momentum with prospective customers. So while you think you are communicating something profound and persuasive, you are actually causing chaos and exacerbating the customer’s fear, uncertainty, and doubt. 

 

Other Articles That Might Interest You

 

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Comments

[Michael Lovas]

Several years ago, we worked with a team of financial advisors. They asked us to help them convert more prospects into clients. When we looked at their process we were stunned. They used a 27-step process that all prospects needed to follow in order to do business with these advisors. The psychology is pretty simple - only half the population can follow a procedure of any length. And, not all of them can follow a 27-step program!

So, we categorized the steps into groups. The 27 remained the same, but they were orded into seven categories, which we called "steps" in the big poster that illustrated how simple the process was. The result was great. The hole in their bucket was plugged up and they wrote a lot more business.

The simple point - yes, all selling is just an application of psychology.

-- Michael Lovas
www.aboutpeople.com

[James Kilpatrick]

One of our competitors in the apartment sales market often has a pie chart of how many one bedrooms and two bedrooms a building has. For instance you might have a 24 unit building with 12 1/1s and 12 2/1s. An entire page would be devoted to a visual representation that the building is half 1 bedrooms and half two bedrooms. You make an extremely relevant and often ignored point Steve--and it applies to live presentations as well as printed materials. The flavor and method often far outweighs the actual facts, data and words.