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Barack Obama’s 5 Pitch-Winning Secrets

So how did this skinny guy fromNebraska with a strange name win the ultimate pitch to rule the mightiest nation in the free world? Yes, he did have some traits that set him apart, such as his coolness under pressure resulting in the ‘No-drama Obama’ label from his associates. But that personal quality, amongst many other admirable ones, was never clear to most of those who did what he wanted them to do – to vote for him. What did get them to vote his way, were these five traits to his pitch:

Be specific

When he started out as a civic organizer, he arranged a community meeting to deal with growing gang violence. Three people arrived (one of whom was drunk). The topic of gang violence, he was told by a more seasoned worker, was the problem – it was far too general. People need specifics if you want to move them.
Fast forward to today, and his campaign left very little to interpretation: ‘Change we can believe in’, was his mantra – and if that was a little too complicated, he offered a more concise ‘Yes we can’.

It’s personal

Barry Libert and Rick Faulk in Barack Inc, describe a condition that modern business suffers from called CSD – Corporate Social Dysfunction. It infects its victims with the false impression that business is not personal. We feel it on a daily basis when we are told that ‘Your call is important to us’ while hanging on to speak to a person after navigating through ‘press 1 for this and 2 for that’ until we find a real human being – who answers the phone totally oblivious to the telephonic journey we’ve been on.
The Obama campaign made no such mistake. Even Barack Obama was available to all his customers 24 hours a day via social media such as Twitter, albeit mostly a one way conversation. And you weren’t just asked to vote – you were asked to get others to do the same. The result was an army as strong as any: the Obamateers. People took it personally.

Leverage circumstance

Social networking was the new force. Voters were now connected. Enter Chris Hughes the co-founder of Facebook, who now worked for the Obama campaign and designed an application that attracted a million regular supporters. And if that wasn’t enough, owners of an iPhone could download an application that converted your address book into an electioneering tool. So, say the campaign needed more support in a certain area, the application looked through your address book, chose the area codes you should call and delivered those numbers. You called, and dear old Aunt Edna was that much happier when she got a call from her long lost nephew to remind her to vote.

Decide on your vocabulary – what’s you and what’s not you

Politics can get personal – the messy kind of potshot personal. Obama was attacked many times, and when his staffers responded with an insult to Hilary Clinton, he laid some ground rules – no more cheap shots. Just as we have done for years in South Africa – comparative advertising was out – he would run his campaign on the merits of his message – not the demerits of the competition. Perhaps that’s why our advertising industry appears so much better than our political industry (however that is total conjecture).
Boundaries are important to any pitch team – if we all know what the rules of the game are – what we will and will not do – we can build a stronger bond with our constituency. Relationships then become healthier as each party understands what to expect from the other.

Be ruthless in gauging your own performance

Obama practiced a lot – not to create a flawless theatrical performance, but to ensure that his intended message was the one conveyed. For example, in one instance, he looked petulant when asked a (probably ridiculous) question during rehearsal. He looked like the cranky Mr Wilson from Dennis the Menace – something he definitely did not want to be. He promptly corrected his response.
After a pitch you will seldom get accurate feedback on your performance from the client. Most frequently, if you did not win, the feedback to you (and the 4 other teams) will be: Thank you, we liked what you did, it was a difficult decision, you came a close second, goodbye.’
In the same way that our own voice sounds ‘funny’ to us when played back on a recorder, we tend to shy away from seeing ourselves on video (there are the odd exceptions). If you pitch often there can be no stronger advice than to see yourself doing it. The camera does not lie – and once you have a clear idea of how your message is received, you become more adept at delivery. It’s not pleasant seeing yourself make mistakes – but be ruthless about it – it worked for Barack Obama.

References
1. Barry Lipert & Rick Faulk. Barack, Inc. Wining Business Lessons from the Obama Campaign. FT Press, Pearson Education Inc.
2. Barack Obama. Dreams from my Father. Canongate Books.

About the author
Sid Peimer is the elected President of the Republic of Stratplanning. He is also the strategic director of the full service agency behp. He is working hard on his own campaign for the next election and has already convinced his wife to vote for him, which she may very well do.