The More Seductive Referendum Phrase Pushed Instead Of Change
Change. Arh. Everybody loves progress, but nobody wants change.
As every successful solution sales person knows. And has probably mentioned to many a prospect.
By definition, we sell change. Yet at times wonder how we ever came down from the trees. Or ventured out a cave. Let alone signed an order form.
The UK’s Leave the EU campaign director for the imminent referendum also knows this.
Which is why he’s swapped their slogan around. As widely reported a week before the big day;
Get Change Take Control
I was naturally fascinated. Only time will tell what impact, if any, this switch will have. Yet warm applause for seeing the angle.
In my early days I was privy to one major salesteam refocus. Out went Process Change, in came Value. Not the ideal evolution seen through two decades of business development, but a notable movement away from the perhaps doomed ‘change’ direction nonetheless.
What struck me for Sales, was that there wasn’t an obvious thesaurus entry pasted in here.
In fact, I searched for synonyms. Google offers up (at least) 56;
adapt, adjust, alter, alternate, amend, barter, convert, commute, customise, evolve, exchange, improve, interchange, metamorphose, modify, mutate, permute, rearrange, rebuild, recast, reconstruct, redesign, redo, refashion, refine, reform, rejig, remake, renew, renovate, reorder, reorganise, reorient, reorientate, replace, reshape, reshuffle, restyle, revamp, revise, rework, rotate, substitute, swap, switch, trade, transfigure, transform, translate, transmogrificate, transmute, transpose, turn, tailor, tweak, vary
Who knew there were so many re- options? Shameful American tech ignores the simple extract “morph” though note.
New to me, the apparently humourous transmogrificate, and the technical, in this context from the mathematical permutation, permute. I must use both these as soon as possible to see how they go. After all, what sales meeting could not be lifted from you uttering, “so what must we transmogrify today?”(!) Mind you, today’s textspeak generation would no doubt more likely tune in should you shorten this to just transmog.
Control is what the Change will unleash. Object, rather than subject.
Yes, we’re all selling change – or as the experienced suggest, selling the perception of the impact of such change – but what is it precisely that our wonderful change will lead to? The progress that will be enjoyed?
Tap into that with a similar catchphrase of your own, and you too could lead the polls and cause panic among your opponents.