Last night, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney dueled off in the first Presidential debate of 2012 election. Regardless of which side of the aisle you represent, last night’s debate included several sales tactics that you can take to your next meeting today. After watching the debate, listening to hours of pundit analysis, it is clear Mitt Romney was the victor of the first presidential debate. Below we look at 5 sales tactics Romney used to outsell President Obama.
1. Romney became like-able last night. Here’s how:
Within the first few minutes, Romney humored the crowd with a response to Obama about the 20th wedding anniversary Obama and Michelle had that evening.
Watch below as Romney draws the only laugh from the crowd of the night.
Buyers buy from people they like and Romney entertained the crowd with a humble joke at himself.
2. Romney Listened Better Than Obama.
When Obama spoke, Romney stayed engaged and listened. When Romney spoke, Obama hid in his notes and looked down the majority of the time.
Look below at the typical position Obama held while he listened during the debate:
It was clear last night, Romney adapted to Obama’s comments because he listened better. Like a great sales rep combating rejections, Romney knew what to say at the right time because he listened.
3. Romney leveraged his marketing.
Every great sales rep knows how to leverage their marketing resources best to their advantage. Last night, 5 minutes into the debate, if you typed the words “bigger flag” into Twitter, you’d have noticed thousands upon thousands of people across the world mentioning and promoting Romney’s decision to wear a bigger American flag lapel pins. View the size of the flag lapel pins below:
Even though it may have been a small physical part of the debate, it was a very talked and tweeted about part of the debate. Every great sales rep knows how to leverage their marketing at the right time. Mitt showed how to do it in politics.
4. Romney was the challenger.
In the clip that continuously gets replayed on the prime time networks, Romney challenges Obama’s decision to focus on Obamacare rather than the crisis in the “kitchen” (the family household). Watch below how Romney challenges the President and look at how the president responds non-verbally.
Conclusion on the sales tactics used to win the debate:
Every great sales training course claims emotion has to be won over before logic comes into play. Last night’s Presidential debate was a clear indication of that fact and other valuable sales tactics. The moment the debates were over, political pundits weren’t talking about what each debater said, but focused more on how they said it. Tone, eye-contact, body language, and overall confidence superseded any of the logic, numbers, and fact-checks either candidate exclaimed. In Mike Bosworth’s best selling sales book, What Great Salespeople Do, two major takeaways are validated from last night’s debate: “Lead with belief and emotion and save the facts for later” [Tweet This] and “words alone make up only 7% of human communication [Tweet This].”
Last night’s debates included phenomenal sales tactics to study and implement in your daily sales activities.
