“CloserQ: I’m a sales guy that reports to a bunch of democrats. How do I survive?” RF
RF what a timely question, with the election only six days away I moved your question to the top of the queue. There is a popular saying, “In sales, never discuss religion or politics.” I 100% agree with this saying when it comes to clients and prospects, and I love talking politics, including listening to other people opinions on the candidates and sharing my thoughts on the issues, but I resist the temptation when talking with client and prospects. I don’t debate politics with them because some people are so rooted in their political beliefs they will think negative of you if you disagree with them or they will become too focus on trying to change your opinion, versus evaluating your business solutions. Also, if you stereotype your client or prospect and think they will agree with your political opinions, often you and the prospect will disagree and what will do then? Again, not worth the risks.
At larger companies and government institutions there are often policies that restrict discussing politics and displaying political paraphernalia. But where I work we don’t have these policies, plus I like having fun and talking politics. At a recent managers meeting, I had fun wearing the pin of my presidential candidate on my jacket. Our sales team culture is working hard and having fun including joking on the latest campaign news: ‘Joe the Plumber’, ‘Acorn’, ‘How many houses the candidates own’, ‘Scranton’, ‘Enthusiasm vs. Experience’, ‘Seeing Russia from your house’, ‘SNL Skits’ and on and on. I respect the opinions of other employees, however, I recently had a political conversation with a fellow associate who was so deeply entrenched in the political beliefs of their party they got emotional when I was for the opposing candidate. This was not going to be fun, so I changed the topic as quickly as I could, made a mental note not to talk politics with this person, and moved on. Even in a open internal environment, it is still risky to talk politics and the safer choice is to not discuss the potentially emotional topic, but I have hard time not discussing internally because I like politics and understanding why people like or dislike the presidential candidates.
Now for my advice to you, if your sales managers are emotional or too opinionated about their candidates and get negative when employees oppose them, don’t bring up politics and when they do just listen because it sounds like you couldn’t change their opinion with your best efforts. If you personally are emotional about your candidate and get easily frustrated with people who support the opposing party, again try and change the topic immediately and don’t let other people bait you into talking about your candidate. But, if you have an open culture, respect differing opinions, and like to have fun, I recommend teasing your managers by promoting your candidate by wearing pins, t-shirts, name tags, powerpoints, and joking about your candidate.
One last note, because this is a business / sales blog, you may have noticed, I discussed my love for talking politics but I didn’t express my personally opinions on the candidates nor my party.
Good Politicing. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give ‘RF’ additional information and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun Priest aka CloserQ.
RF what a timely question, with the election only six days away I moved your question to the top of the queue. There is a popular saying, “In sales, never discuss religion or politics.” I 100% agree with this saying when it comes to clients and prospects, and I love talking politics, including listening to other people opinions on the candidates and sharing my thoughts on the issues, but I resist the temptation when talking with client and prospects. I don’t debate politics with them because some people are so rooted in their political beliefs they will think negative of you if you disagree with them or they will become too focus on trying to change your opinion, versus evaluating your business solutions. Also, if you stereotype your client or prospect and think they will agree with your political opinions, often you and the prospect will disagree and what will do then? Again, not worth the risks.
At larger companies and government institutions there are often policies that restrict discussing politics and displaying political paraphernalia. But where I work we don’t have these policies, plus I like having fun and talking politics. At a recent managers meeting, I had fun wearing the pin of my presidential candidate on my jacket. Our sales team culture is working hard and having fun including joking on the latest campaign news: ‘Joe the Plumber’, ‘Acorn’, ‘How many houses the candidates own’, ‘Scranton’, ‘Enthusiasm vs. Experience’, ‘Seeing Russia from your house’, ‘SNL Skits’ and on and on. I respect the opinions of other employees, however, I recently had a political conversation with a fellow associate who was so deeply entrenched in the political beliefs of their party they got emotional when I was for the opposing candidate. This was not going to be fun, so I changed the topic as quickly as I could, made a mental note not to talk politics with this person, and moved on. Even in a open internal environment, it is still risky to talk politics and the safer choice is to not discuss the potentially emotional topic, but I have hard time not discussing internally because I like politics and understanding why people like or dislike the presidential candidates.
Now for my advice to you, if your sales managers are emotional or too opinionated about their candidates and get negative when employees oppose them, don’t bring up politics and when they do just listen because it sounds like you couldn’t change their opinion with your best efforts. If you personally are emotional about your candidate and get easily frustrated with people who support the opposing party, again try and change the topic immediately and don’t let other people bait you into talking about your candidate. But, if you have an open culture, respect differing opinions, and like to have fun, I recommend teasing your managers by promoting your candidate by wearing pins, t-shirts, name tags, powerpoints, and joking about your candidate.
One last note, because this is a business / sales blog, you may have noticed, I discussed my love for talking politics but I didn’t express my personally opinions on the candidates nor my party.
Good Politicing. Reader Feedback, please click the comments below to give ‘RF’ additional information and I want your feedback on my response. Shaun Priest aka CloserQ.
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