If they die, they die.
Stop trying to persuade vaccine-refusers with information, prizes, and pleas.
Be a smarter salesperson. Back off.
Biden wouldn't be "giving up" on his fellow Americans. He would be doing what any competent salesperson knows to do. Notice the cues.
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Sitting across my desk at my brokerage firm, if I saw a potential new client cross their arms or purse lips, I got an unmistakable cue. They felt pressured. They were defending themselves from me. The worst thing I could do would be to repeat the advantages to my helping them invest, i.e. "keep selling." In their eyes, I was a predator, themselves the prey.
What did I do? I leaned back in my chair.
I communicated that I gave up and they should probably go elsewhere, and they would probably be all right, and in any case, happier. They inferred a powerful message: I would now be taking care of other people. Not them. The polarity of the relationship changed. I wasn't the needy one. They wondered what other people would be getting.
Trump voters get signals from Trump and Fox News that vaccines are possibly good, but that Democrats are trying to force them. Guest after guest on Fox complains about the tyranny of potential vaccine mandates and passports, and of the right of freedom-loving Americans to say no.
What to do? Sell smarter. Announce publicly that Biden and the CDC understands that one size does not fit all, and that they will now re-focus resources to where they are wanted. Publicly--visibly--close under-used vaccine centers in areas of concentrated vaccine-hesitant Trump voters, and move those resources to areas of Blacks, Hispanics, and groups where low vaccination rates are due to access and information, not political opposition. Step up use of trusted Black leaders to do outreach to Blacks and recruit more youth celebrities to target young people. Make a show increasing resources to places where it will do good, but not wasting them on people who don't want them, i.e. dug-in Trump voters.
I am suggesting Biden lean back in the chair. Empathize. Say openly that Biden understands that hesitant White conservatives trust other sources of news. Say Biden understands that many of them dislike and distrust Anthony Fauci. The GOP won't buy it. Republican officeholders and their media will complain loudly that Biden is no longer begging us! Biden wants Trump voters to die! Why look, he is ceding responsibility to Trump and Fox News to persuade people.
Acknowledge openly that a great many people trust Trump and Fox, and that people have a right to choose whom to trust. GOP leaders will voice suspicion and resentment that Black and other communities will be getting the attention and vaccines once urged on Trump-supporting Whites. Blacks may like the attention; White Trump voters will resent it and wonder why they aren't being begged. This response is not a bug. It is a feature.
Stick to the story: Biden is just accepting reality that some Americans don't want the vaccine. He is letting people do it their way, out of respect. Some Democrats harbor secret feelings of pleasure at the disproportionate COVID illness among Trump voters. They are doing it to themselves, so let them stew in their own juices, some think and some say. It is an unkind sentiment and best kept unvoiced.
Good government and morality require that Biden govern for the benefit of all Americans, including ones who didn't vote for him and never will. My sales advice for Biden will not serve the purpose of killing off Trump voters, although that will be the accusation. The current approach of pleading with Trump voters is what is killing them. They have dug in.
Biden needs to be a better salesman. Change direction. Let the customer come to you.
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8 comments:
The delta variant is the best selling point. More people they know getting sick, a few deaths of former people who viewed it as a hoax. Climate change is also getting harder to disavow. Reality has a way of teaching. As the deaths pile up, it seems like more and more a poor stance. As you said Peter, let them die.
Yes, backing off at the right moment is a good sales and negotiation technique.
However, I think the Biden administration and health officials do not want to equivocate or be inconsistent with the message and I think this is the right course.
There are times when you have to make the message absolutely clear and it's a critical national security issue to get people vaccinated. Full stop. It's also right on brand for President Biden, who knows he risks being criticized as diminished if he flip flops. They are also letting the CDC take the lead and the heat on the moving target of mitigation strategies which is already politicized.
Besides, I don't believe it would work. For an anti-vaxer to change their mind would require cracking open the door to the possibility they may be mistaken on other issues. Ain't gonna happen until they face the ventilator.
Republicans are changing course, which has got to be confusing to the cult. They calculated that the "freedom" nonsense would see them through, but now their constituents are now filling ICUs.
The time for "culling" the herd is now. Instead of pleading with the knuckleheads on the right fringe of the political system to protect themselves
Biden should expend his efforts to insure the availability of a vaccine that will protect us against the lethal mutations of the virus now developing as a
natural result of the millions who eschew the vaccines developed to protect the general public. So stop the "hard sell" and let them reap the whirlwind of death and destruction. I for one will not for a moment be saddened by their
totally ignorant protestations.
Bob Warren
As a marketer, you are right no. The more resistance you find in a selling something, the more restraint you need to show. Your advice is solid.
I 98% agree with you, Peter, as is often the case. Rather than “Publicly--visibly--close under-used vaccine centers in areas of concentrated vaccine-hesitant Trump voters”, why not simply reduce the numbers of covid clinics and staff in these looney areas? That way, the loonies can’t accuse us of “letting them die.” We’d simply be matching supply to demand.
Incidentally, I would not doubt that vaccine hesitant individuals would begin to start flocking to covid centers when they realize that the vaccines at becoming more difficult to obtain.
Peter, I get the psychology, but isn't there a difference between government's duty to society and a private business that provides a service with a value proposition? If your potential brokerage client doesn't want to take your advice, their decision impacts just themselves. But the broader societal impact from those who refuse to vaccinate extends far beyond any person's individual life. As we now know, it stresses the nation's healthcare system (which most people expect will be available to them when they need it), drives up overall costs which will ultimately be shared by all of us either through higher premiums or taxes. Back in 2020 Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/10/30/the-hidden-costs-of-coronavirus-hospitalizations/?sh=38b3bc1170e4) calculated the average cost of each hospitalization was $73K. Someone is paying for that.
Then there are the long term costs of potential early-stage dementia care for Covid long-haulers https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/07/26/1019875347/doctors-worry-that-memory-problems-after-covid-19-may-set-stage-for-alzheimers. Btw the Alzheimer's Association International Conference -https://www.alz.org/aaic/overview.asp which is studying this - starts today.
Requiring a license to sell securities, practice law and medicine, or drive a car are examples of what a government mandates to protect the public. I don't understand the need for a "sell".
You bet many people don’t trust Fauci, with his call for new mask mandates to include the vaccinated only the latest ample justification. But the greater subject is Biden. Those with middling memories recall Biden and Harris both calling the vaccines—and by extension, Fauci’s endorsement thereof—into question as recently as November, as a partisan political tactic. “People don’t have enough information to trust them”, both prated, when there were fewer reasons to be cautious and skeptical than there are now.
Just Send to FOX : a beltway insider reports that "Biden/ Harris admit vaccine push was to create resistance amongst the opposition voting block believing that the Delta variant tidal wave may be enough to offset new voting restrictions being put in place."
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