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Aug. 31, 2022

574: 4 EFFECTIVE Sales Pitches from 4 Former Presidents

In today's episode, I'm walking through 4 speeches/ads from 4 past presidents and outlining why they worked and what we can learn from them.

In today's episode, I'm walking through 4 speeches/ads from 4 past presidents and outlining why they worked and what we can learn from them.

 

I want to start by saying that when you're trying to sell something, there's a lot of different ways you could go about it: You could be like Ronald Reagan's 1984 "Morning in America" ad that was so effective at selling America on Reagan's vision that it helped him win reelection in an absolute landslide. You could be like Bill Clinton in 1992 and appeal to their sense of patriotism and vision. Or you could be like Barack Obama in 2008 and use a personal narrative to draw people in and a sense of a unifying message. Or one like Donald Trump in 2016 who helped draw contrast to the pain the customer already knows versus a better future. (And if you want to see all four of these things done well, check out my video "4 EFFECTIVE Sales Pitches From 4 Former Presidents.")

 

But the thing that makes these speeches/ads so effective isn't just their delivery—it's also the way they frame their messages in terms of deeper themes or values that resonate with people across demographics.

 

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Transcript

Brian Nichols  0:00  
focusing on winning arguments. We're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and marketing and how we can use them to win in the world of politics teaching you how to meet people where they're at on the issues they care about. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show. Well, you're on the Brian. Have a fun filled episode. I am as always your humble host and happy to have you are you sales folks out there, hopefully you hit your quota, and hate hopefully you have a great end of the month. And by the way, today, we're gonna be talking more specifically about some state sales stuff. And we're going to look at actually four good examples of effective sales pitches from four former presidents. But before we get there, we're gonna go ahead and give a shout out to today's sponsor. And that is The Brian Nichols Show shop over at proud libertarian, and you can check out today over on our YouTube channel right here. The magic money tree. Yes, that is one of our new shirts over at the collection. At The Brian Nichols Show shop. You can see there we have of course the magic money tree dead center, that is the Fed and around that we have our unicorn and leprechauns, because it is, in fact magical. So if you go ahead and get your magical money tree shirt over at The Brian Nichols Show shop and the Brian Nichols show.com forward slash shop. And also be sure you use code TBS at checkout 10% off your order. So yeah, folks, thank you for joining us today on today's episode, looking forward to digging into for examples of some effective messaging from past presidents. And we're going to talk specifically, from a sales perspective of why they're effective and why it works. So I'm gonna go ahead, if you're over on the podcast version, make sure you head over to the Brian Nichols show.com, where you check out not only all the other episodes, but also you check out our YouTube version of the show where you can check out the videos from today's episode. Let me pull this up here. So I have four different videos I want to go ahead and share today. The first of which we're going to start off with this is going back to the 1980s. I know all the way back to the 1980s is Ronald Reagan's. It's morning in America morning again in America add, go ahead and share that and take a listen.

Narrator  2:07  
It's morning again, in America. Today, more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 99. Nearly 2000 families today will buy new home more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon, 6500 young men and women will be married. And with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago. They can look forward with confidence to the future. It's morning again in America. So this works under the leadership of President rates.

Brian Nichols  2:47  
Effectively, I'm gonna pause really quick here this this is working effectively, because thus far what's it doing? It's playing on emotions. We talked about this all the time in sales, what sells emotions, people will make the emotional decisions and then rationalize with, with logic and reason after the fact. So what this is doing is it's playing to the emotional appeal the the safety and security of knowing that their families are comfortable for the future, but also from where they were in the past. So that's something that is really doing a great job at hitting up

Unknown Speaker  3:14  
and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago.

Brian Nichols  3:27  
So there's our first and now Ronald Reagan, obviously a Hollywood actor well known for taking on his role both in in movies, but also in the White House. So I thought that was a really good one to look at. And then the next one I wanted to go ahead and focus on is going to be let me pull this one up. This is an ad or not an ad, excuse me, this is a speech from the Democratic Convention back in the early 90s. This is going to be Bill Clinton back when he was doing his acceptance speech at the DNC. Let's go ahead and take a listen to this one.

Bill Clinton  4:02  
In the name of all those who do the work, pay the taxes, raise the kids and play by the rules. In the name of the hard working Americans who make up our forgotten middle class. I proudly accept your nomination for president of the United States. I hope nobody in this great hall tonight or in our beloved country has to go through tomorrow without a nation. I hope no one ever tries to raise a child without I hope nobody ever starts a business or plants a crop in the ground without a vision or where there is no vision. The people perish.

Brian Nichols  4:46  
Now now how impactful was that line that about vision right? And we talked about this, the need to have a cohesive, coherent message that you're articulating. And in this case It has to be the point that you're going to. And this is something that Bill Clinton did a fantastic job at is being able to effectively communicate what it is that he believed what it is that he was looking to get across to your average person. In this case, he's trying to set the vision. He's trying to help paint the better future for the country. And he's doing that. And by talking about the forward vision, using that as a recurring theme.

Unknown Speaker  5:23  
We can seize this moment, make it exciting and energizing and heroic to be American again, we can renew our faith in each other. And in ourselves, we can restore our sense of unity and community. As the Scripture says, Our eyes have not yet seen or our ears heard nor our minds, imagined what we can build in tonight, where it all began for me, I still believe in a place called hope. God bless you, and God bless America.

Brian Nichols  6:09  
Now, what you're gonna see here is a recurring theme. There's Hillary and Chelsea, recurring theme of this idea of hope, right, and who better articulated the idea of hope than the next president? Will not the next president, the next Democratic President, that is one Barack Hussein Obama, who in one of the most famous and impactful speeches was his Yes, we can speech so we're gonna go ahead and take a listen to that now. This is the last three

Unknown Speaker  6:42  
minutes or when we have phased out and possible us when we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't cry, or that we can't. Generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed. That sums up the spirit of a people. Yes, we can.

Unknown Speaker  7:03  
Yes, we can. Yes. It was a creed written into the founding documents that declare the destiny of a nation.

Brian Nichols  7:30  
The vision

Barack Obama  7:33  
was whispered by slaves and abolitionists, as they blazed a trail for experience through the darkest of nice. Yes, we can. It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness. Yes, we can. It was the call of workers who organized women who reached for the ballot, a president who chose the moon as our new frontier and a king who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land. Yes, we can to justice and equality. Yes, we can do opportunity, and prosperity. Yes, we can kill this nation. Yes, we can repair this world. Yes, we can. And so tomorrow, as we take the campaign, south and west, as we learned that the struggles of the textile workers in Spartanburg We're not so different than the plight of the dishwasher in Las Vegas, that the hopes of the little girl who goes to the corporate school in villain are the same as the dreams and the boy who learns on the streets of LA. We will remember that there is something happening in America that we are not as divided as our politics suggests that we are one people. We are one nation. And together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story. What three words that will work from coast to coast from thing to signing, saying, Yes, we can.

Brian Nichols  9:41  
Now see, I've always found Obama in 2002 or 2008, to be a much more effective salesperson and communicator than he was in 2012. Because again, going back to what we just saw there he was addressing not just this collective idea of Yes, we can, but also one collective vision. And in doing so he was really formulating this idea. And he summarized this more of a uniting approach. And that's where he had a lot of success was going to be a different type of President right. That's how Obama presented himself and in 2012 took a much different approach. The approach was more focused on building more radicalized coalition's of different in this case groups of people, you know whether it was based on socioeconomic status or demographics, whatever it may be skin color he was going through, and trying to play that game versus playing the true unifying game and said, pitting those groups against each other. So I would say that's why we actually almost lost someone like Mitt Romney of all people back in 2012. Because he did take such a different approach. Now, did it have success? It did. But did it have a long term success that Obama thought it was going to have. And I think this was really, the playbook that a lot of Democrats took going into 2016 was that they had this new coalition, they had this new approach to winning votes, or winning elections, that is by a new electorate that they had brought brought forth. And it really was taking the piggy back of the Obama administration and the success of the Obama campaigns. However, there was another guy who ran for president who had a pretty darn good sales pitch as well, in terms of why folks not should or rather should not vote for the Democratic candidate in one, Hillary Clinton but specifically why they should put their trust in him. Let's listen to Donald Trump's circle 2016. Here when he was on the campaign trail,

Donald Trump  11:40  
I will never ever put the special interests before the national interests. I will never put a donor before a voting or a lobbyist before a citizen. So while sometimes, I can be too honest, Hillary Clinton is the exact opposite. She never tells me the truth. The American people are still waiting for Hillary Clinton to apologize for all of the many lies she's told to them. And the many times she has betrayed the American people at great danger to them. Hillary Clinton owes the state of North Carolina a very big apology. And I think you'll get that apology. Around the same time, you'll get to see her 33,000 deleted emails and other words, you'll never see the apology. Sometimes, in the heat of debate, and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words, or you say the wrong thing. I have done that. Those who believe in oppressing women, gays, Hispanics, African Americans, and people of different faiths are not welcome to join our great country.

Brian Nichols  13:36  
So we had four very, very, very different presidents, four very different approaches to sales, and yet four very successful approaches to sales and got them to be presidents of the United States. And when that helps cement, I would say if you were to look at all four of those presidents, with maybe Bill Clinton being the one exception, based on the fact he tried to take a backseat after he got out of the White House in 2000, based on the scandals that took place behind the scenes during his presidency, but of those other three presidents being Reagan, Obama and Trump. Those are probably the most noted political figures that have built more of a cultural tide behind them than any other presidents I can really think of in modern history. Look at the Ronald Reagan. I mean, I think to my dad's generation, looking at Ronald Reagan as the epitome of the 80s the success of the GOP back in the 80s, taking on the Soviet Union, that's kind of the personification of Reagan. And with that the love of Reagan still to this day, you look at Obama and there's still that love, maybe not so much of the Democratic Party but still have him and then likewise with Trump, you have his greatest defenders who will stick with him to the very end for better or for worse, but there's a reason that they have done so is because these three in particular done a great job and said owing to their base and to help build that relationship to build that trust. So do you have to agree with Visa for different gentlemen as they approach politics? Absolutely not. Do I expect you to? For sure, of course not. But what I would expect you to do is to learn from the sales approaches that work even though they are four very, very different approaches. So with that being said, Folks, I hope you got some value from today's episode a little bit different. And don't worry tomorrow we're going to have a great episode, the one and only Carla Garrick is going to be returning to the program. And by the way, did you check out our episode yesterday? Yesterday, I had Morgan Barnwell. She joins us from right strategies Candidate School 101. And we talked about some of the main areas that candidates that she works with are lacking. If you're a candidate or if you're considering running for office, definitely an episode, you should go ahead and check out I'll make sure I include that right here below for you. And by the way, folks, if you enjoy the episode, please do me a favor, go ahead and give us some love. If you want to become a supporting listener $5 A month or you can go ahead make that one time Pay Pal donation, whatever is easiest for you. But every bit goes right back into the show so we can keep on promoting content that you love and content that will definitely leave you educated, enlightened and informed. So with that being said, Folks, thank you for joining me on today's episode. With that being said, it's Brian Nichols signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show.

Unknown Speaker  16:17  
We'll see you tomorrow for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at the Brian Nichols show.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai