Spotted Your Bid's Core, Tactical, Swing Or Low-Information Voters?

The UK general election no longer exhibits such a stark left-right binary choice.

Multi-party politics has somehow taken hold in the very first-past-the-post system specifically designed to avert the supposed euro-chaos thrown up by proportional representation.

This reminds me that what we may often judge as a plain go/no-go decision about our proposal is rarely so tame.

When is such a shout ever made in blissful isolation?

The potential list of ‘political’ switch options is long. And beyond our sight, a flank opens up with ‘voters’ peeling off to another cause.

So I got to thinking about the four types of voter I’ve heard most on this past month or so.

Core voters are committed. They have long-held beliefs that are firmly in the camp of a specific colour.

Swing voters are up for grabs. They change allegiance, without loyalty to any previous preference.

Tactical voters are partial to a particular side, yet are happy to ‘lend’ their choice to another for various reasons, positive or negative.

Low Information voters aren’t really engaged in exercising their prerogative. They may decide by any manner of supposedly minor or incorrect factors.

Such a ‘vote intention’ prism could well be a useful one through which to have a quick sanity-check of your forecast.

There are several models you can apply to the task of categorising buyers.

I’ve always loved a touch of political mapping.

Spice things up a bit and reference the race for control of Westminster.

Can you firstly label all the buyer personnel by how definite you feel their cross is destined for your box?

That should give you a Core/Non-Core split.

In the good tradition of sales analysis, the Cores will likely need to be mobilised to influence the rest.

Then of the Non-Cores, separate out the Low Informations next.

The disengaged through to the hard-to-reach must be ‘encouraged’ to listen.

From the remainder, you could deploy a cluster of bombs from the spin surgeon. Are they heart when they should be head? Do they stand for something or against it? Must they fix or will they break?

The split between Tactical or Swing may hinge on other projects in the offing prospect-side.

Again opening up an intriguing avenue for your questioning.

Seldom is any buy decision as straighfroward, standalone or simple as you think.

At the very least, find those Core voters. Don’t neglect them. Help them deduce which neighbour’s door they must knock and the message to deliver.