Selling OBAMA

I started typing this post as I watched the inauguration of the 44^th US President – Barack Obama. And like thousands of other people who have been writing about him for the past few months, I too am going to write about this event, this person and this outcome.

As I write this, I remember all that I have seen, heard or read about the great marketing campaign to catapult Obama to the presidency of the US. There have been enough and more articles about his great positioning, his terrific virals, his e-mail campaigns, of Obama's Twitter presence, his digital marketing, his websites, his TV campaigns…. and much more. For those who are interested, his social media statistics are mentioned at the end of this post, duly acknowledged.

But importantly and finally, Obama had to be "SOLD", and not just "Marketed". So as you can guess, this post is about "Selling" the product Obama, and not just "Marketing" it. I was privileged to hear and read highly respected marketing "Gurus" speak about marketing brand Obama. And all through, I kept on trying to get the answer – how did the Obama "Sale" finally happen? I am sharing here how I have perceived this whole process as an ever learning "Salesman". Readers will have to pardon me if I refer to Obama as "Product". I use this phrase only because I am looking at a purely "Sales" perspective here.

Once posed with this question, I began digging more, and came out with not only the social media statistics, but also importantly, the on-ground statistics of the two campaigns. Of the many statistics, I am presenting 2 interesting ones:

1. The table below shows the number of campaign offices opened by the 2 candidates in certain states:

State	Barack Obama	John McCain
AK	4	0
MI	40	No Data
MO	30	10
MT	6	No Data
OH	18	8
PA	18	No Data
VA	20	6

2. The second table below is even more interesting. It lists the number of events within 100 miles of specific US zip codes:

courtesy: www.thedailypage.com

US Zip Code	Obama Events	McCain Events
45416 (Dayton, OH),	492	22
43963 (Tiltonsville, OH)	231	21
48701 (Akron, MI)	205	22
45203 (Cincinnati, OH)	435	23
6607 (Topeka, KS)	54	6
75968 (Pineland, TX)	3	3
44127 (Cleveland, OH)	243	33
95903 (Beale AFB, CA)	320	23
12985 (Schuyler Falls, NY)	55	4
73503 (OK)	21	6
73105 (Oklahoma City, OK)	30	7
62205 (Centreville, IL)	84	4
12979 (Rouses Point, NY)	41	3
81152 (San Luis, CO)	22	1
29105 (Monetta, SC)	84	1
50660 (New Hartford, IA)	103	0
76105 (Fort Worth, TX)	67	12
84314 (Honeyville, UT)	389	1
61605 (Peoria, IL)	30	0

CONCLUSIONS: What do the statistics above suggest? Obama clearly had more Effort going in. Whether it was on the ground or on social media. Obama was clearly OUT-SELLING McCain. On election day, more Obama followers were voting than McCain voters. Obama garnered support of more volunteers than McCain. He was more visible to customers – not just through TV or print campaigns, but importantly through his volunteers, meeting people one-to-one, braving the heat, the cold the rain.

They were his SALES TEAM. Meeting more customers. Generating a larger pipeline. Improving his chances of conversion because of sheer numbers.

Brand OBAMA was as much created through a great strategy, great positioning (Yes We Can), as through Superior Execution, a focused, more coordinated effort, more calls being made, more sms messages being sent, creating more followers ..... everything was more.

Well, tell me what you think about this, if you are not already bored with reading the reams and reams of articles already written about OBAMA.

Annexure : Social Media Statistics for US Presidential Campaign.

Courtesy: www.web-strategist.com

Internet Usage in United States
United States Population: 303,824,646
Internet Usage: 220,141,969
Penetration rate: 72.5%
Growth from 2000-2008: 130.9%
Stats from Internet WorldStats (Census, Nielson)

Facebook
Obama: 2,379,102 supporters  McCain: 620,359 supporters

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

MySpace
Obama: Friends: 833,161   McCain: Friends: 217,811

Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

YouTube
Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 (uploads about 4 a day), Channel Views: 18,413,110
McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 (uploads about 2 a day), Subscribers: 28,419, Channel Views: 2,032,993

Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCain
Obama has 905% more viewers than McCain

Twitter
Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603

Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain

1,000: The number of phone banks organized by volunteers using MyBO in the final week of the campaign.

150,000: The number of other campaign-related events organized on MyBO over the course of the campaign.

1 million: The number of phone calls supporters made using MyBO on election day alone.

35,000: The number of groups created by supporters on MyBO. These were clumped by geographic proximity and shared interests.

1.5 million: The number of MyBO accounts created by election day.

$650 million and counting: The amount of money Obama raised, more than half of it through his website.

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Making Your customers Win and Battling a Slowdown while you do it

Sales training programs regularly teach us about Making Customers Win. It is all about Thinking Win - Win. But how do you really do it? I saw a wonderful example of really making your customers win.

I recently read a blog http://sacramentorealestategal.blogspot.com/

CC - Getty Images

The author is a real-estate broker called Purva Brown from Sacramento - somewhere in the United States I think. At the moment, US real-estate market is under pressure with foreclosures, the subprime crisis, falling prices and the works. Probably the worst time to be in the real estate broking business. You will see most people resorting to signs like the one on the right.

But not Purva.

Being a property broker, she is really a medium of exchange between the buyer and the seller (remember my first post on BRIDGE?). So in effect, both the buyer and the seller are her customers. Conventional wisdom would have us think, if the seller wins then the buyer looses and vice versa. So then, which of her customers does she focus on? The one which approaches her first? Or the one who is paying her the commission?

I found that she makes both of them win!!! Don't believe me? Then check out her URL.

She has worked out a beautiful way of making both her customers win. On her blog, she often writes about "Adding Value to your real estate". She regularly shares tips on home improvement, green homes, water conservation, landscaping tips, interiors etc. She is helping customers about finance options. She writes about ways of saving property taxes. She updates her readers (future customers) about local property legislations, property facts and much more.

Now this lady is no expert on any of these topics. So how does she offer these tips? By painstakingly researching articles and stories on the internet and elsewhere which her customers will like and benefit from. This is her homework to prepare for her business.

So how does this make both the sellers and buyers successful?

The Seller can get a better price for his home by implementing many of the tips which Purva passes on. So he is thankful to Purva and would like to consider selling his home through her since she "helped him improve the value" of his home.

The Buyer on the other hand looks at Purva as an expert, and expects that Purva will show him the homes with the best amenities, design, decor etc. So they too would like to approach her, and buy the most valuable property she recommends.

Now that's what I call really making your customers successful and winning more business!!!

Importantly, at a time when many real estate brokers are probably morose and witless, Purva is investing in building hope, value and confidence in her customers. As the market begins to recover, she will be the first person prospects will reach out to.

You can check out Purva Brown's blog on http://sacramentorealestategal.blogspot.com/

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