By Rafe Gomez
When selling products or services, sales professionals know that a close is made possible by proving that what you offer will deliver the promised results.
Documentation that a product/service can successfully address a potential buyer’s needs, goals, and challenges can include statistics, testimonials, and case studies. Sales pros who don’t bolster their pitches with such substantiation will find it impossible to get buyers to open their wallets.
I view the electoral process as a sales proposition: Candidates communicate the outcomes they’ll provide to voters (their prospective buyers) if they win office. The candidate who best presents their sales message while adhering to time-tested selling principles will close the deal.
In the case of Donald Trump’s candidacy, his sell had a massive flaw: None of his guarantees were backed up with evidence that he could bring them to fruition. These implausible, detail-free pledges included his assurances that, if elected, inflation would vanish completely, federal taxes would be eliminated, gas prices would be cut in half, wars would end in Ukraine and the Middle East, illegal immigration would be terminated, etc.
With such a porous sales pitch, why did 75,000,000 people — a surprising number of whom weren’t die-hard MAGAs — “buy” his candidacy? In their everyday lives, these same folks would demand verified proof of performance when shopping for professional services, consumer products, and large-ticket items (cars, household appliances, etc.). So what would inspire them to make this presidential “purchase” without the same proof?
The answer is threefold: the seller was Trump, his promises were emotional pitches addressing hot topics that much of the country cared about, and, as stated in the Washington Post by Aaron Blake, “Americans tend to balk more when you dig into the details”.
While Trump’s proposals were weak on validation, they followed what I call the Three C’s of effective pitching: They were clear, concise, and convincing. Trump’s confident delivery and brand of being a capable leader was more important than the absence of substance and credulity. This allowed his platform to land wide and resonate deeply with “buyers” seeking crucial fixes from someone they perceived as a skilled problem-solver.
This phenomenon of indisputable authority reminded me of when I took a family trip to Disney World in the 70s. While driving from our home in New Jersey through the southern states towards Orlando, I noticed a particular bumper sticker on cars we passed on I-95. It read “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it.” It’s a message that also appeared on t-shirts and wall hangings in the restaurant gift shops we stopped into when pulling over for meal breaks. This conviction aligns with some Trump’s voters' unquestioning trust in his ability to achieve his vows (“Trump said it, I believe it, and that settles it”).
Another factor that compensated for the unverifiability of Trump’s sell was that he impeccably addressed the acute pain points of his “customers.”
According to the CRM software Zendesk, “addressing [a buyer’s] pain points will improve your product or service while giving you a competitive edge. By understanding customer issues, you’ll gain an understanding of what customers need and expect from the companies they buy from.”
Trump wasn’t selling solutions to the concerns that he thought voters needed, or that he wanted voters to embrace, or that he thought it best for voters to have. Whether because of meticulous campaign research or his innate ability to intuit what motivated his target “shoppers,” Trump was in sync with the issues that inspired the majority of them to push the “buy” button and cast their ballots for him.
While Trump’s datum-free pitch got a pass from his “customers,” Kamala Harris wasn’t as fortunate. In a CNN article, undecided “tire kickers” said she didn’t provide them with the specifics they needed to support her (this criticism of Harris was amplified across many influential media outlets). However, if Blake’s above assertion is accurate, no amount of comprehensive elaboration from Harris could have been converted into a winning tally: Voters’ preferences were likely decided long before the election, and the receptiveness to Trump’s persuasive FUD-driven messaging was too powerful for Harris or any other Democratic candidate to overcome.
Candidates from both parties may be tempted to decode and imitate Trump’s victorious sales template, but it won’t work for them. Even if they can identify the correct pain points that might inspire voters to become buyers of their candidacies, none could convincingly replicate Trump’s entertaining delivery, unwavering certitude, or brazen swagger. They also wouldn’t possess his superpower to effortlessly convert voter anxiety, resentment, and frustration into impassioned and unconditional zeal.
His was an inimitable and unbeatable sell from a one-of-a-kind, market-dominating candidate.
Rafe Gomez is the co-owner of VC Inc. Marketing, an award-winning provider of sales support services for CEOs and startups. His POVs on branding, innovation, and messaging have been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur, Startups Magazine, Marketing Profs, Fast Company, CNBC, Inc., and Under 30 CEO.