Understanding Features and Benefits of Competing Political Messages

Understanding Features and Benefits of Competing Political Messages 

Any sales pro worth a Mexican Peso will tell you the best products or services to sell are those with attractive features and benefits. When competing for business, the successful sales pro's job is made easier when they can show how the features of their product or service can benefit their prospective client. Since political campaigns are no different, we thought it a good idea to examine the features of the Clinton and Sanders campaigns to see which offers the best benefits. 

When looking at the Bernie Sanders pitch, the features may be few, but the benefits are many. Free College Tuition. Free Healthcare. Addressing Income Inequality and making Wall Street cover a large part of the cost. Once the features are fully understood, only a dummy wouldn't recognize the benefits. If free tuition means all Americans can attend college, even people in their 30's and 40's can return to school and retrain themselves with 18-22 year olds. That feature is a real benefit.

The free healthcare feature means small, medium and large businesses would no longer be saddled with providing health benefits to employees. After adjusting for any tax increases, (and there will be) they could reinvest the savings into business expansion. Lifting the healthcare burden off the backs of employers is a tremendous benefit.

If addressing the income inequality gap will lead to a living wage, the average American's quality of life could improve exponentially. More money in the pocket, means more money to spend. That feature is a great benefit.

Since economic growth is an inevitable benefit of Sanders' primary features, any sales and marketing pro in their right mind would want a part of this product. The only objection to overcome is the cost. But that's the easiest point of the sale. Once the features are sold as investments and not cost, the benefits will again become visible, even to the blind. Investing in education, healthcare and ensuring a living wage, will yield a far better return than leaving legions of unhealthy, poorly educated Americans scrapping for minimum wage jobs.  

While all of the above sounds good, the seasoned sales pro will always know the competition's pitch as well as their own. So we gave the Clinton pitch its due attention. Looking at it carefully, the Clinton features are huge, but the benefits are unclear. Experience. Affordable College With Low Interest Loans. Affordable Healthcare. And of course, The First Woman President. Once these features and benefits are understood, only a dummy wouldn't recognize the stark differences between the two competing pitches.  

Let's start with the experience feature. If experience means Hillary Clinton is such a skilled politician, she's been able to swim with the sharks and slither with the snakes, while appearing scum-free is a feature, it's difficult to see how that's a benefit. Next up is affordable college. If the affordable college feature is financed by low interest loans, the debt attached to that affordability is no benefit at all. So, how about affordable healthcare? If "Affordable" healthcare is the feature, if it's not free, there will always be some Americans who won't receive any benefits from it at all. 

While being the first woman president is a huge Clinton feature, considering she's having a hard time selling women on her candidacy, it's difficult to see how her being the first women president is a benefit to men. Sure, a lot of little White girls might benefit, but little Black boys will still be on the outside of life looking in, if they're not on the inside of jails looking out.  

Bottom line: After reviewing both the Sanders and Clinton campaign pitches through the lens of a sales and marketing professional, the Sanders message, if properly pitched, is the most appealing and therefore easiest to sell. Since it remains unclear how Clinton's features would benefit Americans or impact economic growth, any sales pro pitching the Clinton message will have to be exceedingly clever, crafty and conniving to close the deal. And that's not selling, that's lying cheating and stealing. Podcast Below!