Effective marketing and salesmanship are a lot like a running a political campaign. You must frame the debate, stick to your talking points, and make the decision come down to your core message. This is the power position that great politicians, companies, and salesmen use to influence the market.

So, are you framing the marketing and sales debate? Do you know your core business strengths and how they relate to customer values? Do you aggressively frame the context for customer buying decisions around your core strengths? If not, your marketing and sales campaign may be leaking sorely needed votes (sales).

Framing the Debate

We have heard the term Framing the Debate thrown around on political talks shows, buts lets define it clearly, so we can begin to master it.

Framing the Debate is a question of

1. Context and
2. Aggressive attention to keep that context

What do we mean by context? Context is the value or core issue that your entire argument or pitch is based on. In a salesmen case context may be the low cost of his/her products; for the politician it may be experience and leadership; for a mother dealing with her kids it may be presenting values about hard work. In each case the message or context is precise, one sided, and about one core issue. Marketers traditionally call this your position.

Our presidential election was a great example of how to use context. McCain’s context was security and experience. He wanted the American people to vote on these values, because he believed he had strength in these areas. Obama’s campaign was about change and economic growth, his perceived strengths. These were contexts for their campaigns message; the core values they wanted to espouse and drive voters to believe were most important.

Now ask yourself, what about all the other issues we are facing? Global warming, environment, rising gas prices, erosion of the educational system, trade deficits, etc, where do they fit in? How could our next commander and chief get away with speaking on such a narrow range of topics? They got away with it, like all great and influential communicators by following rule number two of framing the debate. They aggressively worked to keep the original context.

When our political brethren field questions and concerns outside of their frames, they cleverly back track, re-engage, and maneuver the conversation back to their original frame. This is aggressively working to keep the original context; rule number two of framing the debate. This is a very important point, because you do not have much of a frame if you are constantly being opened up to outside opinions or concerns.

A picture frame is solid, connected at each corner, and locked into its position. This is analogous to being firm in your stance and why aggression plays a critical role in framing the debate. Aggressiveness does not imply being rude, barbaric, and over bearing, but is more about constantly fighting for position, your position. Being calm, tactful, and graceful with your aggression is sign of mastery, and something we see as the hallmark of great influencers.

Obama’s candidacy exemplified this point to perfection, because he had the uncanny ability to artfully pull the conversation back to his context of ‘economics and change’, without seeming pushy and bullish. No amount of conversation about other topics swayed his message; it remained solid and true to its original context. That’s aggressive attention to keep the original context.

How to Frame the Debate in Your Business

The context in business is all about competitive advantages and how they tie into customer core values. Meaning, that if your products and services strength is low cost compared to your competitors, you always speak to customers about low cost and the value it has to them.

The aggressive side comes in because inevitably competitors, customers, or even your own staff will try to change the context of the frame. A new competitor will try to frame the debate around features. A customer will come in and value convenience. Your employees will try to make your products fit numerous frames, missing the point altogether.

In all cases you must be aggressive in bringing the conversation back to low cost; If that is what you have strength in. Next you should devalue other contexts (e.g. features, convenience, etc.) and show how cost savings has more value. Show how other frames like features cost more, now and later. For example make your audience aware of the fact that features break and have to be replaced, usually out of warranty. Competition will have to answer to your frame of reference. They will stay busy trying to convince the market that it is not about low cost. In this scenario you have taken the wind out of the competitions wings, because they are focusing on your core strengths.

If your context is low cost and a customer context is features, stick to your guns, don’t waver. Show customers how saving money now will allow them to get the features they want. The conversation might go something like this.

“Mr. Smith I know you want more features, but with all the money you save on our car, you can put in aftermarket products. You can get the leather you want, not the one that came with the car. You can get the stereo and GPS system you want, not the default factory model. Saving with us Mr. Smith frees you to get the features YOU WANT. In fact I have the top After Market shop on speed dial, let’s call them so we can talk about decking out your new car.”

You have aggressively brought the conversation back to your fame, low cost, while speaking in terms your prospect values. This is a win:win situation. If your frame doesn’t fit the customer’s values, you have worked with integrity and spoken with authority about what you can in fact provide. This will build customer loyalty and keep complaints down. However, if you flip flop in the wind and say you have all the features of the competitors when you in fact do not, you are opening a whole new can of worms. Just like the political arena flip flopping is a No, No…ask John Kerry.

Dealing with employees is an often overlooked part of framing the marketing and sales debate. They can wreck a well oiled marketing and sales message by switching the frame depending on circumstance. With one customer they talk all about features; with another they emphasize convenience, and so on. Employees need to be aligned to the same frame that got the customer in the store or on the phone in the first place. This means you will have to train your staff on a regular basis; including mock scenario drilling on how to deal with objection. Leave nothing to chance; make sure your staff frames the customer interaction in accord with your marketing message (context). Could you imagine Obama making it up as he went along? No, he was trained on what to say and how to say it, so should your people.

Real World Business Example

Good examples of these tactics can be found in the cell phone company wars. Each carrier has tried to frame the debate. Verizon says ‘it is the network’. AT&T says ‘more bars in more places’. When you break it down both Verizon and At&t are saying the same thing. As a result of not framing the debate around core strengths, customers flip flop to whoever has the lowest cost plan. In this case both Verizon and At&t are having the debate framed by customers. Luckily there are so few carriers in the market they can do this and stay solvent.

Nextel on the other hand before it was bought by Sprint framed the debate around functionality and business. Advertisements like “I do therefore I am”, “If you want a fashion accessory, get a poodle”, all pointing to functionality and productivity. For many years Nextel had productivity for business as a core strength. They framed the debate in the market place around what they had advantage in. This locked out major carriers from penetrating business markets, and gave Nextel a loyal customer base. This is impressive because customer loyalty and cell phone carrier are like oil and water, they do not go together.

One major caveat; framing the debate only works if you have a core strength that you can point to. Without having an actual core strength or advantage customers will jump ship because of unrealized promises. For example Nextel was purchased by Sprint because in recent years other carriers have created similar functional products that businesses can use. The strength they once relied on had evaporated. No amount of framing the debate can hold off the competition when there is no strength to back it.

It’s Your Turn to Frame the Marketing & Sales Debate

Now is the time for you to Frame the debate in your marketing. Find your core strengths. Find out how customers value them and promote them heavily. When competition, customers, or even your staff try to change the context, aggressively maneuver them back to the original context. When votes are tallied you will find you have out campaigned the competition and won another term in office.