I’m Olusola Liadi. I’m not a “hailer or wailer”. And I’m not a politician but I’m a business person. The interesting thing is that politics and business have lots of similarities. These similarities can be found in their “sales and marketing” playbook. The way a business will not be able to bring in enough profits to fuel its growth; in politics, elections are hardly won without effective sales and marketing.
Politicians are great sales people. They can turn almost anything from non-existent into gold and sell it to you. I don’t trust politicians but I love to listen to what they say, watch what they do and decode why they do it especially when they are trying to sell their ambitions.
There are lots of sales and marketing lessons you can’t learn in business schools but you can freely learn from just watching what politicians do closely from a business point of view. This can help you build Business Empire worth millions if not billions of Naira or Dollars. After all, you’re better off with powerful insights to grow your own business or career than just watching promises of politicians that are hardly fulfilled.
Since the process of transition from formal President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, there has been uproar amidst Nigerians about who’s better to rule Nigeria. This has created several groups on social media and off the WEB with several mantras. The popular ones being “the wailers and the hailers”.
There are lots of business and career lessons you and I could learn from these events but instead, we keep doing the marketing for Buhari and Jonathan even after the elections. It’s hard to understand the intensity of the marketing as if it actually puts food on some peoples’ table.
After the demise of late President Umaru Musa Yaradua and GEJ rise from Acting-President to President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Most people forgot about the loss of Yaradua soul to the cold hand of death but became fascinated in the rise of GEJ. And they began tagging him a man with lots of “good lucks” as his name goes.
Nigerians began to tell the story of his life from secondary school. They talked about how he became class captain, the senior prefect and the life after school on how he rose from deputy Governor to the Governor of Bayelsa state. And then, from Vice-President to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
People were so fascinated that they tend to believe that anybody that bears the name “Goodluck” will always have some good fortune with him. Then, lots of parents began to name their children Goodluck. Also, I knew people that named themselves “Goodluck” and even edited their names on Facebook to include it.
This was the beginning of marketing of the name “Goodluck Ebele Jonathan”, GEJ, towards Nigeria 2011 presidential election. And the powerful marketing tool that was being used here is “story”. The story was about Goodluck who will bring good luck to Nigeria.
By the time the real campaign for the 2011 election started proper, an additional little line crept into the story which was “I had no shoes”. This line was to portray the president as a person with humble beginning who got lucky to become the president and that really understand the conditions of the common people.
People got excited, accepted the idea and believed that a messiah has come. And that was the message that sold GEJ to Nigerians. It was nothing but just a simple story. No major promise, Nigerians just relate and believed the story and that’s all.
That’s the power of selling using the “one thing” called story. Human beings are irrational. Most times we make decisions based on emotion and try to justify it logically. Stories speak to our emotion and that’s why stories always work when it comes to selling anything.
Although, there are still other factors that contributed to the success of the story which I’m going to write about in coming series of this article but the fact is “story played a leading role for formal PGEJ in 2011.
What of President Muhammadu Buhari, PMB?
The people at APC employed powerful marketing and branding strategies for their party campaign but they never failed to tell a fantastic story to sell the candidacy of General Muhammadu Buhari, GMB.
Can you guess what the story was all about?
Like the saying goes thus; if you have integrity, nothing else matters and if you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.
The only story GMB has been telling Nigerians for years is all about his integrity. He told the story in different forms. Here is one of the popular lines he used personally. He said:
I have served Nigeria with everything I have without taking anything I do not earn. If anybody has any evidence that proves otherwise, I challenge him to present it.
He used this story to tell Nigerians he’s not corrupt and that he can tackle corruption which is one of the major problems Nigeria has. With this, even his opponents began to call him “Mr Integrity”. Whether they like it or not, the oppositions now popularly known as “wailers” are also selling him with their wailings.
Don’t you believe me?
You will know how in the coming series of this post.
But now, let’s go off politics a little bit.
Coca-cola is worth over US$166 Billion. Have you ever heard the story about the secret formulation of Coke?
What of the story of Bill Gates, the richest man, how he dropped out of College to start Microsoft?
What of Facebook which is worth over US$200Billion?
You’ve heard the story of how it was started in a dorm room in Havard University by Mark Zuckerberg and others as college students?
What of the Google story?
The story is that it was also started in a dorm room but that of Stanford University.
What of the Dangote’s story of how he borrowed money from his grandfather to start his business?
If you think all these stories are just mere stories or “stories for the gods” as they always say in a common slang.
Think again…
You and I know these stories even we don’t know how we got to know them. The major reason we know them is because the people behind these stories narrate them often whenever they have the opportunity.
Because human brain easily associates stories with things, the more they tell these stories the more they’re instilled into the human brain and go deeper into the subconscious mind of people. These stories have built million dollar brands worldwide.
A story is a powerful persuasion and selling tool. Go to the religions’ books, you will see how stories are used to convey powerful messages in order to persuade man. Whatever business you own or whatever idea you want to sell, learn how to communicate it in powerful stories.
Then tell the same story, over and over again in a different form, medium and platform. With this, you will get attentions that could create a great breakthrough for your idea, business or ambition.
Even if you’re not a business person, you can use a story for anything that has to do with human communication or negotiation.
Parents can use it to communicate so their children listen.
In another instance, let’s say you go for a job interview, if you are able to “storify” your responses, you will be highly welcomed and get better attention than when you just give direct answers.
The “one thing” is Story. Learn to tell stories that catch human imaginations and you will reap the benefits in millions if not billions.
Nollywood, Hollywood, Bollywood and all film industries across the world are billion dollar industries. The only thing they sell is “story”.
I’m not that of a great story teller. I’m learning every day so as to get better at it. I’ve just told you stories about “story” and I hope you’ve got my story.
Thanks for reading and….
Take Control, it’s the only thing that pays.
Olusola
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