Welcome first time visitor. If you like what you see, you can receive free twice weekly posts by email or RSS feed. See the right side of the screen for instructions; it only takes 10 seconds. You will receive a verification email if you choose to receive by email. If you don't immediately receive this, please check your spam folder. We will never sell or misuse your email address.

The following post is not intended as a political commentary about any candidate, but rather a sales analysis that uses a public figure as an example.

On January 7 while campaigning in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton was asked the following question by Marianne Young, “My question is very personal. How do you do it?” She was referring to the challenges that Hillary faces in campaigning for public office and managing her personal life. During her answer Hillary became emotional and began to cry.

Senator Clinton admits that this tear-up may have helped her win the New Hampshire election. Was it contrived or was it real emotion?

In January of 1993 her husband, Bill Clinton, became President of the United States and served until 2001. She undoubtedly had to deal with a lot of stress regarding her husband’s “extracurricular” activities before and during this period.

Since her husband has left office she has been very visible as a New York Senator and has been vigorously campaigning for the Presidency over the last year. In this entire time and through all of these events, is there any record of her crying or even showing any significant emotion in public before January 7 of this year?

On February 4 in New Haven, Connecticut Hillary welled up a second time while speaking to a small group of women at Yale. For at least 15 years Hillary has been in the global spotlight and we had never seen her cry, yet in a one month period she teared up twice in front of the cameras.

I feel confident in assuming that the crying was orchestrated. That kind of craftiness can get you in trouble with your customers and it may ultimately cause problems for Hillary. When we do things in sales that are not consistent with who we are, it ultimately turns our prospects and customers off. People resent being manipulated in any way.

What are some examples of ways we try to manipulate customers that almost always backfire?

1. Trying to exude a personality that is not our own, but one that we think the customer will prefer.
2. Pretending to deeply care about a customer’s personal life when we really don’t.
3. Acting like we are really having a bad month, when we’re not, in order to get a mercy order.

While Hillary won the New Hampshire primary she hasn’t done so well since. I can’t help but believe that one of the reasons is the lack of emotional authenticity that she has recently demonstrated.

Ironically - or maybe not - Marianne Young did not vote for Hillary in the primaries.

You’ve got to be real with your customers. Any time we are less than genuine or authentic our customers can tell and we lose credibility. Sales is a relationship game and the foundation of relationships is honesty.

To receive this sales tips blog by email <click here> to receive by RSS <click here>. © 2008 Scott R. Sheaffer

Tags: personality, public

We'd like to hear your feedback on this post - feel free to comment below!