Are You A Closer, Or Not?

[Rspaight]

Birth of a Salesman: Pitching Social Security

By Mark Leibovich
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 6, 2005; Page D01

FARGO, N.D. -- George Bush wants to retool Social Security badly enough to visit Fargo in February. He comes in on a roll -- fresh from his inauguration, an election in Iraq and a well-received State of the Union speech. It's even sunny and warm here, like the president himself, who is in a hot sales mode.

"As you can tell, I'm upbeat," the president says from a stage in front of 7,000 screaming fans. He no longer has to run for reelection or sell himself. But Bush is still selling, pitching the unsexy policy widgets of "personal retirement accounts," "thrift savings accounts" and "an ownership society."

The president is also touting: "courage" (to act), "responsibility" (to our young people) and "freedom" (whether from tyrants or government-imposed financial burdens). Social Security is Bush's signature product rollout this year. It is a tough sale, even to the rent-a-choir audiences of ticketed supporters the president addressed last week. The issues are complex and the here-and-now is comfortable.

But some of the country's most celebrated hawkers marvel at Bush's gift for selling. They rave about how he connects and inspires. With exclamation points!

"You can tell he has God within him!" says Zig Ziglar, the sales guru and motivational speaker, in a phone interview from Montgomery, Ala., where he is hosting a seminar.

"The president walks with his shoulders erect!" lauds Tom Hopkins, a professional trainer and author of "How to Master the Art of Selling" and "Selling for Dummies." "He makes great eye contact! He is buoyant! He walks at a fast pace! You can tell he's a great listener!" These are all the marks of successful salespeople, Hopkins says. Great salespeople like Tom Hopkins, he keeps telling us. "I have had so much success in real estate! I've set so many sales records!"

President Bush paraded his gifts as he stumped for his Social Security plan over 36 hard-selling hours beginning in Fargo on Thursday and ending in Tampa late Friday afternoon. In each city, he hosted a "Conversation on Strengthening Social Security," although the spectacles more resembled pep rallies or massive sales seminars.

Bush won all five states he visited -- North Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, Arkansas and Florida. Each is represented by potentially vulnerable Democratic senators, three of whom face reelection next year. If the president can excite his potential "buyers," it will set in motion what is known in sales circles as "the word-of-mouth train." Ideally, the train will make a stop at a persuadable senator's office.

Here are some of the fundamental sales tenets that Bush adheres to in his presidential pitch:

Sell urgency!

Crisis looms for Social Security, Bush says. By 2042, the system would go "flat bust" if no action is taken. "And if we wait, it gets worse," he says in Omaha on Friday. In 13 years, the system will begin paying out more money in benefits than it's reaping in taxes.

Bush conveys passion and resolve, in keeping with a golden rule of Zig Ziglar. "The depth of your conviction," he says, "is more persuasive than the eloquence of the words you use."

He shows up on time (because lateness says "I don't respect your time," according to Jeffrey Gitomer's bestseller "The Sales Bible"), and will stay focused without seeming scripted, and sell hard without looking like he's selling hard. Bush conveys a sense that he is being natural, not presenting or performing. In "How to Win Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnegie wrote that people are most persuasive within the context of being themselves. Potential buyers, Carnegie wrote, should never feel manipulated or lectured to.

Good salespeople and politicians are repetitive. Bush hammers home three themes in each presentation: Social Security has a problem and it needs fixing (but people over 55 have nothing to worry about). He is open to ideas. He has a few of his own.

Build rapport, be polite!

Politeness doesn't necessarily sell, but the lack of it can kill a deal. The president is a prodigious thanker. In Fargo on Thursday, he thanks everyone at the Bison Center for comin' (droppin' more g's than he does in Washington). He thanks his hosts at North Dakota State University, thanks the governor, congratulates North Dakota State's women's basketball team for bein' unbeaten. Wherever he goes, Laura sends her best.

Like many politicians, the president loves to speak plainly about how plainspoken he is, reiterating that he is speaking "as bluntly and frankly as I can" about "the perils we face." Also, like many politicians based in Washington, Bush loves to talk about how "invigorating" it is to get out of Washington. It is a nod to the audience, granting himself another dash of he's-one-of-us credibility. Bush mentions crop reports in North Dakota, cowboy hats in Montana, college football in Nebraska and beef in all three states.

"If you find common subjects or interests with a prospect," Gitomer writes, "you can establish a business friendship." In an interview, he adds, "You never start your pitch until you're friends with someone."

Gitomer calls himself the "best sales trainer in the world" and, more to the point, someone who has "hundreds of thousands of friends."

Use visuals (including yourself)!

At each event, Bush stands in front of a big chart describing the "Demographics of Social Security." In 1950, there were 16 workers paying for one beneficiary, the chart says. Today there are 3.3. It displays in stark terms what Bush calls "the math," or "the problem." He used to call it a "crisis," but he rarely uses the term anymore.

But a seller's most important visual tool is his own body. According to research by UCLA psychologist and body language expert Albert Mehrabian, verbal cues convey only 7 percent of a message while vocal tones convey 38 percent. Visual cues convey 55 percent.

Bush dresses professionally in a pressed gray suit and bright red tie (eschewing the open collars and jeans of his campaign). The president walks briskly onstage, which sends an energetic message. "I want to do business with people who move fast," says Hopkins (who adds that he himself walks faster than anyone he knows).

Bush needs to work on his verbal cues, some experts say. He mispronounces words and smiles at odd times. "It can make him seem a little unsure of himself, or that he's covering something up," says Dave Lahkani, author of the forthcoming book "Persuasion -- the Art of Getting What You Want."

Bush's fast-moving manner can make his listening skills appear suspect, Lahkani says. This point is bolstered during Bush's onstage "conversations."

In Omaha on Friday, a divorced single mother named Mary Mornin tells the president, "I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters."

"Fantastic," the president exclaims, and he tells her she has "the hardest job in America, being a single mom."

Later, the 57-year old Mornin tells Bush that she works three jobs, which the president deems "uniquely American" and "fantastic." He asks her if she gets any sleep.

Use humor!

"If you can get the prospect or customer to laugh, you can get him to buy," according to "The Sales Bible." "The earlier you get a customer to laugh, the better. Laughter is a form of approval."

Bush is eager to crack wise. While the president might be warning of a grave national crisis, he's being a laugh-riot about it. Bush loves joking about how he "married up," how he's "gettin' all gray" and how he goofed off in college. In Little Rock Friday, Bush was joined onstage by Gloria Bennett, a part-time food inspector from DeQueen, Ark.

To which Bush says, "That's right next to DeKing."

Silence is followed by friendly groans that evolve into laughter and applause. And a message endures: Reforming Social Security can be fun.

Stay positive!

The president keeps mentioning "the problem" that awaits Social Security. But he rarely addresses it in terms of sacrifices and costs. Only "challenges," "opportunities" and "confronting problems," all staples of the sales parlance.

Likewise, the word "privatization" is verboten at the social security rallies. It is used by critics of the Bush plan (such as the protesters holding "Don't Privatize Social Security" signs outside each event). In Great Falls, Mont., when an eager Bush supporter in the audience innocently says "privatization" when asking a question, the president promptly corrects her. "'Personal retirement accounts' is the proper terminology," he says.

"Don't tell me negative things," Gitomer writes. "I want everything to be great." By staying upbeat, the president keeps the optimistic high ground. "I believe that the role of the Congress and the role of the president is to confront problems, not pass them on," Bush says. He speaks about courage -- implicitly his own, and the audience's.

He reassures, reassures, reassures. "Those of you who are fixin' to retire -- that's Texan for getting ready to retire -- have nothing to worry about."

Use your audience!

Bush is, in campaign-speak, playing to his base, which also applies to sales. "I would rather have 100 satisfied customers to do business with than 1,000 prospects," Gitomer says in "The Sales Bible." They provide the valuable currency of testimonials.

At each event, Bush hold his "conversations" with four handpicked panelists. They are props for Bush to exhibit rapport and illustrate how his ideas on Social Security affect their demographic.

Bush asks questions of his panelists, keeping things interactive, proving his empathy. "Great questions can help build you a sense of urgency," says Hopkins and co-author Laura Laaman in "The Certifiable Salesman."

"Jeff, do you have a problem with personal retirement accounts?" the president asks Jeffrey Brown, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Illinois who appeared with Bush in Fargo and Great Falls.

"Absolutely not," Brown says.

"That's what I hoped would be your answer," Bush says.

"What do you think of the personal retirement account?" the president asks Tricia Traynor of Devils Lake, N.D.

"It gives us hope that somebody is willing to address this issue," she replies.

"What do you think of thrift savings accounts?" the president asks.

Traynor likes those, too.

In Tampa late Friday, an adorable little girl asks Bush if his Social Security plan "will help me when I grow up," and the audience goes "ahhh."

"Yes," the president says, a sweet ending to his grueling, or "challenging," sales call.

Somebody get this girl a personal savings account.

[CitizenDan]

Give that man a set of steak knives. Preferably in the ribs.