The true task of the politician, like the salesperson, is to persuade people to agree with them
In an interview with CBS the weekend following his final appearance as host of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart was asked if he enjoyed talking to politicians.
“I despise it,” he replied. “They’re salespeople. They live in a world of conjuring and denial. It’s very strange to talk to people who have lost their awareness that that’s what they’re doing.”
Jon Stewart is hardly alone in his disdain for sales and in rejecting its influence on politics, he joins the growing ranks seeking a ‘better’, more substantive discourse. None are doing so as loudly as the left, and nowhere has this had more impact than in the recent Labour leadership contest.
It makes sense, of course. More than most, lefties like to see themselves as purveyors of principle. Their raison d’etre is to solve problems, to help communities, to change lives.
That’s why they lose.
At every turn the true task of the politician, as of the salesperson, is to persuade people to agree with them, and then to act on that agreement. A salesperson knows that to achieve this they must convince the customer to believe not just in the product, but also in them, their company and their pitch. Ultimately in their ability to meet the customer’s needs.
In calling for more substance Stewart and the rest are saying we should concentrate almost exclusively on policy (ie. ‘the product’). This approach also forms the basis for Jeremy Corbyn’s ‘new politics’. As appealing as this might sound, it represents a massive misunderstanding of how most ordinary people interact with politics.
Throughout the leadership race the charge against Corbyn was that his policy prescriptions rendered him ‘unelectable’. It appears that the only conclusion his opponents drew from the general election result was that the electorate was put off by Labour’s policies. The reality was more complex.
While the policies surely played a part in Labour’s defeat, other factors – their leader, the message, and the party’s overall reputation in the eyes of the average voter – were at least as significant. In their desperation to be rid of every last trace of the Blair era, what Labour forgets is that It wasn’t Blair’s centrist policies that won them elections, but Blair himself.
For the fact is that Labour’s electoral difficulties will lie less in products that are difficult to push, than in a salesman with no appetite to push them. Jeremy Corbyn stood for the Labour leadership not because he wanted to do the job, or thought he’d be good at it, but to ensure ‘a broader range of candidates and a thorough debate’.
A salesman likes the sound of his own voice, welcoming any opportunity to speak to the customer. Since his coronation, Corbyn, cancelling interviews, running from reporters, in his conference speech that spoke only to the choir, has shown that he does not care for the business of pitching his case.
In thirty-two years as a rebellious MP, he has shown neither the willingness nor the ability to persuade anyone of anything they didn’t already agree with.
In his favour he has sincerity, authenticity and a reputation for caring about his constituents – all valuable attributes. However, if he can’t – or won’t – communicate, these qualities will do little to help establish his own image and rehabilitate his party’s.
Which is crucial. Because since the financial crisis Labour’s is a tainted brand. That they didn’t cause the crisis is pretty much irrelevant. They were the ones in charge at the time and as far as most people are concerned, that’s what matters. It was on Labour’s watch that 3.7 million jobs were lost.
However, that this belief in Labour’s culpability is so deeply ingrained can be attributed to the the party’s weak, incoherent pitch to the contrary. In the end the Conservatives, with their own messaging, didn’t have to do much more than remind the voter of what they already believed to be true. They had simple attack lines, that were easy to understand and delivered well.
The idea of reducing complex policy to a fifteen-second sales pitch may seem anathema, but it doesn’t change the fact that that might be all the time you get. It’s not about embracing Blair’s centrist policies but some of his other talents, which were so crucial in giving Labour thirteen years in government.
The Tories, although they didn’t understand this for a while, do now seem to grasp it.
David Cameron wasn’t chosen to lead the Conservative party because of his own ideas and principles but because he, better than anyone else they had, could sell the ideas, principles and vision for governing of the party he represents. The left needs to remember how to do the same. Because like it or not, sales is a feature of politics, not a flaw.
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14 Responses to “Comment: The left needs to understand the power of sales”
Cole
But Attlee was in many ways pretty conservative – a monarchist, a founder of NATO etc – as well as a radical. He understood traditional British values. Corbyn clearly doesn’t, as the God Save the Queen incident clearly demonstrated – and he’s not very bright. He just preaches to the choir.
David Davies
A good product sells itself. The subterfuge to which you refer the black art of `marketing’ – the art of persuading the gullible that they `need’ some bawbee of which they were previously oblivious.
johnm55
A good product doesn’t sell itself. For a product to sell the target consumers must first of all be made aware that the product exists, then they must be made aware of the benefits that the product can bring them and that it is better than the opposing products that are being promoted, and finally the need to be convinced that the price they are being asked to pay is acceptable. All of this is called salesmanship. It doesn’t have to be lying to the consumer but it does mean persuading the consumer. Unless of course the target market does not extend beyond the quarter million or so who voted for Jeremy Corbyn
Even on the left there is a long way to go to persuade the Six Million plus Trades Union members who did not vote at all in the Leadership election.
DemSoc93
You’re right Attlee was not a natural rebel but he was a convicted (at the least) social democrat. I take issue with the idea that NATO or the monarchy represent “traditional British values” (this phrase is meaningless anyway). What about Thomas Paine? What about the Levellers and the Diggers? All British, all very much in the same tradition as Corbyn. I think he should have sang the national anthem, just to humour the kind of people that think that sort of thing matters one jot. He said early on that he wasn’t going to fight for republican policies in the Labour Party, but the papers have decided to go after him on that issue. I think he gave them a free shot by not singing it and I can only assume that he is genuinely too busy to attend the Privy Council because they’ve gone for him on that too.
I don’t think he preaches to the crowd at all, he released a series of policy documents that were far clever and politically savvy than “preaching to the crowd”. For instance, he’s been talking about small businesses and how we need fairer business practices so that tax-dodging, corrupt multinationals don’t just walk all over honest small businessmen and women. He’s also been talking about home ownership (in fact one of his earliest policies was a Right to Buy for private tenants). Again one of his early leadership pitches was a call to bring down welfare spending but using the living wage, fairer rents and rent controls. Practical policies aimed at bringing down welfare spending, sorting out the housing crisis and promoting *fair* business.
Cole
I don’t know about Diggers and Levellers, but I do know about Labour history, and Attlee – and other Labour PMs – would have been appalled by Corbyn. Labour under Attlee was involved in the creation of NATO, participated in the Korean War and wanted Britain to have its own nuclear deterrent. His government of course also created the NHS and welfare state.
Of course some of Corbyn’s policies are correct, but others – like reopening coal mines and the right to buy rental properties – are daft. And Corbyn’s personal baggage, in the form of relationships with terrorists and dodgy regimes, make him a liability as Labour leader, as does his long history of making foolish statements. He is a gift to the Tories.