No matter what side you were on, here are a few observations, affirmations and truths, post-election, with respect to selling:

1. Strategy and tactics are equally important. The purpose of executing tactics in a sales campaign is to drive a well-founded strategy. Tactics without a strategy is like playing darts with your eyes closed.
2. Message! Not messages, messages, messages. Decide what you are going to count on to win based upon research - a focused, objective assessment of the sales opportunity.
3. You can successfully change the ground rules even if you temporarily lose ground.
4. The understanding and leverage of political influence is crucial.
5. Messages must be clear, concise and compelling and paint the vision of a better situation for the buyer. One fumbled message can dilute the impact of a hundred perfect ones.
6. Logic and the facts aren’t the only things buyers consider.
7. Discipline rules. Seat-of-the-pants doesn’t.
8. Knowledge of your opponent’s plan to win is vital for devising and refining your own plan.
9. Direct and blatant “bad-mouthing-the-competition” doesn’t generally work.
10. Never underestimate the underdog.
11. Want to win? Look the part.
12. Tell the truth before your opponent exaggerates it.
13. Choose the right team. The salesperson is CEO of their own virtual sales corporation. Whom they choose to stand next to them and to advise them can make a big difference.
14. Whomever has momentum at the time of close generally wins. Its very difficult to build momentum just at the right time without a plan.
15. Embrace technology. It permeates pretty much everything most of us do.
16. Go broad and deep into the customer’s organization as appropriate. (Ideally effective marketing will have blazed the trail in advance.

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Business is and always has been a man’s world. To some extent that is largely still true because more men are occupying Chief Executive roles within companies all over the world. This is not to say that there are not powerful women out there who could serve as a fantastic example for other women to follow. In fact, there are many powerful women running huge multinational companies and corporations.

The top 20 most powerful women in the world in 2008 are as follows:

1. Angela Merkel – The most powerful woman in the world in 2008 is the German Chancellor. Merkel has been at the helm of Germany since 2005. She is extremely well respected in her home country and is a key player in the European Union. As a result, her position as the most powerful woman in the world is well deserved.
2. Sheila C Blair – Blair is the highest ranked American on the list. The Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. In simple terms, she runs the company that guarantees Americans a certain sum of money back should the bank they save with goes bust. As we are in a credit crunch at the moment, her ranking has increased.
3. Indra K Nooyi – The Chairman and Chief Executive of PepsiCo, which is the fourth largest food and drink company in the world. She is considered to be one of the best corporate leaders in the world and earns $14.7 million a year as a result.
4. Angela Braly – Braly is the Chief Executive and President of WellPoint and earns $14.9 million in salary.

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In America, the small business owner has been used to sitting on the sidelines and watching whilst the large corporations dominate all areas of industry. Many small business owners have gone out of business whilst others often struggle to survive. One of the reasons behind this was that the Bush administration tended to offer very little support, instead making tax cuts for the corporate world. With the election campaigns now in full swing, Barack Obama has pledged to help small businesses survive and enable to thrive in the coming years.

Obama has put a number of measures in his manifesto that could help small businesses to take root and grow in the world of business because he fully recognizes that they are the heart of the American economy. Small businesses provide valuable jobs and income to millions of Americans up and down the country and, were they to go out of business, could actually make the economic situation worse. In fact, in some quarters, financial experts are touting the possibility of a recession on the scale of the 1929 Depression. By keeping small businesses alive and healthy, it can strengthen the economy and give Americans everywhere a little security of peace of mind.

Tax Issues

Obama has pledged to help small businesses by putting a series of measures that may help them into place. For example, he has pledged to reduce the burden on the owners of small businesses that may struggle to make ends meet by providing them with a little tax relief. Every small business owner has to pay both employee and business owner taxes, but with the $500 tax credit per worker that Barack Obama is proposing the burden of those payments will lift somewhat. This in turn leaves a little in the coffers to fun expenses like health care, gas prices and energy bills, all of which have risen in the past few years.

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John McCain, the Republican candidate for the 2008 Presidential Election, is a man on a mission. He has extremely strong views about all sorts of areas of American life, and the economy is no different. However, unlike his opponent in the election Barack Obama, very few people have any idea what measures he will put in place to boost the business economy, and the American economy in general, should he be elected in November. The business economy is an extremely important area of policy for whoever the next President is to be because recovery from the impact of the credit crunch and Bush’s economic policy is going to be extremely difficult.

McCain’s Business Economy History

McCain’s business economy history is a little ambivalent to say the very least. This is because he freely admits that his economic knowledge is not as good as it could be, and should be considering his election campaign is not in full swing. This has the potential to leave him open to the influence of his cabinet, which has the potential to take care of the corporate world over the small business owners that are already struggling.

However, McCain does seem to have very strong views on the subject, even if they do change over time. McCain initially fought to prevent President Bush’s tax cuts but has now proposed to cement them, thus cutting corporate taxes from 35% to 25%. This may be a direct result of the fact that a number of corporations have supported him throughout his campaign.

Economic Stance

What McCain lacks in business economy knowledge, he makes up for in conviction. He describes himself as a free-enterprise capitalist and appears to be committed to reviving the business economy for the good of the country.

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