Beating Status Quo

Reflections on the Scot #indyref make you realise just how tricky reversion point reversal is for anyone selling ‘change’.

Social media belonged overwhelmingly to Yeswits.

A trio of lines gained retweet-repost fuel throughout;

(the Mandela quote) may your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears

stop worrying about what can go wrong, and get excited about what can go right

great things never came from comfort zones

Funny though how I never saw the famous Obama ‘hope’ retro style poster with the Yes campaign chief on it, hey.

Pretty much all the No camp could muster were;

just say no, &

keep calm, we’re better together

Then there was the incredulous No sloganeering changes. The status quo side went through a triple re-brand; Better Together, No Thanks, Love Scotland Vote No. And it wasn’t restricted to straplines. By polling day they seemed to have amassed a hydraheaded leadership too.

I was fascinated to hear one reporter suggest there were two clear competing plinths of the campaign; risk & opportunity. The outcome, he felt, would be how people assessed the plausibility and impact of each argument.

Many commentators attempting balanced analysis posit that the Yes campaign was about hope whereas the No pushed fear.

Yet the ‘silent majority’ of No still prevailed.

Risk Fear – Opportunity Hope

I’ve meet countless hardened solution sellers who believe people only buy when they must solve a knotty problem. The thornier the better. They will tell you that a scared prospect is the best type. Old school IBMers will regale you with tales of FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) as the only sales process in town.

Do you sell on Hope or Fear?

Or, to mine the web meme, which “fear”…?

Forget Everything And Run (or)

Face Everything And Rise

I’m a pretty positive person myself.

Then there’s the competition. In whichever form it takes (and remember the ‘do nothing’ option is a real killer) you may well be able to gauge what you do in relation to their chosen path.

I’ve heard psychologists say that whenever you’re faced with a tortuous head-or-heart decision, you should go with your heart every time. The reason is that even if it goes wrong, you’ll still always feel better about it.

So perhaps it’s about tugging at those heartstrings. The classic ‘buying emotion’. After all, have you ever had even one bean counter that bought your RoI on just the figures alone?