Finding Three Pain Points — How to Sell Progress
My brief stint selling window replacements did garner me some insight on the process that, as I look out into our divided country, I can’t help but wonder if the technique used to get people to spend $30,000 to replace their windows might have some value in selling our most untenable ideas to one another.
Cutting Off Your Nose
There are thousand ways to sell your idea in the marketplace of them.
Every NFP org out there (and there are a LOT of them) has the schtick to get you to part with a few of your dollars so they can continue to operate. Lots of causes know how to use Kickstarter and IndieGo. Public radio shills to you by reminding you three or four times a year how you listen to them and need to pony up a couple ducets to keep listening. Hell, even the multitudes of homeless are trying get a few ounces of silver and ask you as you pass the Starbucks for it with a hopeful but determined look.
The techniques range from
You Can't Live Without This Thing
You Can Assuage Your Guilt By Giving Money to This Thing
Without This Thing Society Will Collapse
TRUMP Hates This Thing So Pay Me For It!
And then there is this:
identity politics
Our ideas (and actions) have to stand on their own. While our individual and collective identities aren't irrelevant, they are mere garnish to what we actually have to say for ourselves.
Anxiety is the thing that’s ripped our country apart. It has divided us, caused us to fear and hate those who think and live differently than us, and even caused us to hate those who only slightly disagree with us. It has led to panic and overreaction. And I worry that American Anxiety is only going to exacerbate the social and political divide in this country to the point that there is no coming back.