Greetings Young Inklings:
It’s 4:30 am Saturday morning, so it’s time to rant! But first things first, what should I be drinking this morning?
Is it a beer morning, or is it a coffee morning?
Is it a tea morning, or is it a whiskey morning?
Man, these retiree decisions are TOUGH!!
I think beer is out. That stuff is only good after a workout. And tea is just too British. (smile)
That leaves my two favorite vices: coffee and whiskey. Well, gotta go with the coffee because it’s still morning!
Now that we have the important stuff out of the way, let’s rant!
I just realized that I’ve rapped to you munchkins about the need to sell ideas. But I’ve never written about how to sell ideas. So, I thought this morning I would write for posterity how best to sell your ideas in the public square.
Our duty to sell ideas come from two sources.
The first source is from the place of civics. For a constitutional republic to function, its citizens must participate in the public discourse. This is vital to the survival of a constitutional republic and to the preservation of liberty. I think President John Kennedy said it best:
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.
Now if that is not a civic call to duty, I’m not sure what is.
The second source is from Christianity. Us Christians are called upon to evangelize. The word “evangelize” is the religious word for “selling”. The Apostle Peter had some advice on this subject:
“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” First Peter 3:15
We’re clearly called to sell ideas from both a theological and a secular perspective. In Sunday School in the ‘60’s, I heard that verse a thousand times. And in most of the homes of the Black folks I grew up with in the 60’s, there hung on the wall the pictures of the saints of black America: President John Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and Rev. Martin Luther King. Two civic authorities, and one religious authority. So, I’ve always been aware of these twin duties.
To my mind, we’re called to sell the idea of Christianity AND the idea that supports a constitutional republic. But few are trained on how to sell those ideas. This rant will serve as a primer on the how to sell ideas. This is based on my 40 years of experience selling stuff.
I’ve sold newspapers door to door and sports performance. I’ve sold mailing machines and copiers; I’ve sold human capital, financial services and pharmaceuticals. And as varied as those products and services seem to be, the fundamental process of selling is no different for any of those products or services.
The first step in the selling process is that you must identify your target audience. This is the first thing they teach in Marketing 101 at any university business school. You must first know the characteristics of those most likely to buy what you are selling.
For example, let’s say that you were looking to establish a Mercedes Benz dealership. You would seek to locate your dealership in the part of town where people have the income to afford a Mercedes Benz. You’re looking for the upscale neighborhoods with lots of trees and grocery stores. You’re not looking to locate that dealership where there are no trees and no grocery stores. That’s not where your target audience lives.
You’re looking to place that dealership as far away from Martin Luther King Blvd as possible! I’m just sayin’….(C’mon man, you know that’s hilarious!)
On the other hand, if you’re looking to build an abortuary, you build THAT as close to Martin Luther King Blvd as possible. That way you can wipe out as many Black and Hispanic babies as possible. That’s the Planned Parenthood model. You need to be close as possible to your “target audience”. Dude, you’ll make a killing! (Pun intended!) 😄
Man, the best thing about being old and crotchety is you can and will say exactly what you think! I’m starting to get into this “old age” thing. I’m starting to really enjoy it! You get to say what everybody else is actually thinking, but afraid to say out loud!
Moving on, this is really common sense. And to think people are paying thousands of dollars to send their kids to the University to learn this basic stuff. Unbelievable!
The process of identifying the target market is formally called “Marketing”. This is different from selling. You must first create a marketing plan before you ever go out to sell your ideas.
And in marketing the first step is to conduct market segmentation. Market segmentation is where you determine the various characteristics of people who are in the market. In this case, the market for ideas. Once you’ve segmented the market, you can assess where to place your selling efforts. In other words, you’re looking to determine where you can get the best return on time invested.
The consumer market for ideas can be divided into the following four segments:
* Class A: Thinking Class: Proactively Read: High Capacity to Reason (Thinks Often, Minimal Emotion)
* Class B: Understanding Class: Reads Periodically: Moderate Capacity to Reason (Thinks Mostly, Some Emotion)
* Class C: Ignorant Class: Never Reads: All Information from Electronic Medium: Minimal Capacity to Reason (Thinks Seldom, Mostly Emotion)
* Class D: Unreason Class: Never Reads: All Information from Electronic Medium: Zero Capacity to Reason (Thinks Never, All Emotion)
OK: Let old dad break it down for you:
Class A: Thinking Class: These are your ideological soulmates. These people need no persuading. They are already thinking. Debates and discussions with them will focus on problems and potential solutions. These discussions will rarely involve a discussion of candidates or parties. This group represents about 25% of the population.
If there is a discussion of parties or candidates, that discussion will not focus on personalities, but on the principles and solutions they support.
They read, they study, and they are seeking to learn and grow. These are the people that you meet with to hone and refine your skills. These are the people that are like the oasis in the desert for you. You return to them to replenish your intellectual batteries. These are the people that share with you great books to read, or great lectures to hear. These are the people that grow you! These are people that you definitely want to spend time with. These people enhance your faith. These are the people who challenge you to be better. This is your inner circle.
Remember that old adage about preaching to the choir? These people are the choir! And they need to be preached to as well to reinforce the message.
Class B: The Understanding Class: This group represents one of the two most important target audiences that you have. They don’t study and they don’t read. But they DO think, and they are not governed by emotion. This group represents about 25% of the population.
This group is smart enough to recognize that something is wrong; in fact, that something is very wrong. They may even suspect what that something is. But they’ve not done the intellectual work to identify exactly what that something is.
Their suspicions are correct. But no one has ever confirmed for them with evidence-based reasoning that their suspicions are correct. It is very, very important that you expend energy with this group. Plus, they will be fun to speak with because they are not governed by emotion. They will appreciate evidence-based reasoning. This is your outer circle.
These people are in the pews. But they are not necessarily engaged. Your mission is to increase their engagement.
Class C: The Ignorant Class: This group is the other very important target audience. But they will be much more difficult to deal with than the Class B group. The reason for this is that while the Class B group is governed by reason, the Class C group is largely governed by emotion. Because they are governed by emotion and not by reason, they are outside your outer circle. This group represents about 25% of the population.
They don’t read ever, and they get most if not all of their information from the government-controlled media. So of course, they’ve been gas lit by the media machine. That said, they are not impervious to reason. Like the Class B group, they know something is very wrong. But since they don’t think and are never exposed to a line of reasoning outside that given by the monolithic state press, you’ll have an uphill climb with them. That is the bad news.
But here is the good news. This group will be an unhappy lot because they are the ones whose lives have been most destroyed by the Intellectual Elite (IE) led Democratic Party.
They are that group of people who now don’t have jobs on the oil pipeline because the IE led Democratic Party killed the project. They are the ones who live in crime infested neighborhoods with no police protection because of the defund the police policies of the IE led Democratic Party.
They are the ones who work in the service industry and therefore felt the brunt of the job loss due to IE led Democratic Party mask mandates.
They are the ones who can’t afford rent or can’t buy a home because the IE led Democratic Party flooded the nation with illegal immigrants; a move which caused a housing shortage which drove up the price of rent and housing.
They are the ones whose kids are stuck in atrocious IE led government schools that specialize in teaching Black kids to hate White kids, and White kids to hate themselves.
They are the ones that can’t afford 6% inflation driven by IE led Democratic Party policies.
The dots are really easy to connect for them. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to help them to connect those dots. It’s really simple cause and effect.
Ask them: What has changed in the last two years? These people are not in your inner or your outer circle. But you will cross paths with them in the workplace. And when you do your job is to drop little “truth bombs” to get them to begin to reason.
Class D: The Unreason Class: This class is impervious to reason. This class includes the BLM, CRT, LGBTQ, and Antifa mob. Many of them have recently graduated from “Commie U” and therefore can only “sloganeer”. They have completely lost the capacity to reason.
This is a group to avoid at all costs. Because they are governed by emotion and not by reason, they are outside your outer circle. This group represents about 25% of the population.
This group is 100% governed by emotion. Spending time and energy on them is taking time away from Class B and Class C who represent “winnable” converts.
They are easy to spot because they are usually screaming at the top of their lungs. Their physical characteristics are an outward manifestation of the narcissism found within them. The conservative ones will sport blue hair, massive tattoos, nose rings, nose bones, and tongue piercings. The worst among them will make their gender a mystery with their clothing. And they can hardly complete a sentence with calling anyone who disagrees with them a nazi, misogynist, homophobe, sexist, and of course racist.
Unfortunately, too many of our peers from Class A spend time and energy on Class D. Class D individuals you must leave to God. Ain’t nothing you can do for them. Think about that passage from Sirach: “The mind of a fool is like the wheels of an oxcart, it just goes round and round!!”
These people will evade evidence based reasoning at all costs. They specialize in the ad hominem attack. If you disagree with them you are automatically a racist, misogynistic, homophobic, sexist monster. Or you’re too stupid to think on your own and you get all your ideas from Fox News. If they aren’t pillorying you with those epithets, then it’s an attack on your capacity to reason with the shopworn “conspiracy theorist” label. Of course there is the knee jerk accusation of being a “Trumpist”.
In fact, the biggest reason I only minimally watch Fox News is because they spend too much time talking to, or about the “unreason” class. I think it’s a waste of time. It’s certainly a waste of time for any thinking person to spend time watching Class A lob insults at Class D.
Class D individuals will do anything to avoid a direct discussion of the pros and cons of specific ideas. They will generally always squeal about what’s wrong with America. But they will never provide you with their ideas for how to fix the problems. It’s always about tearing down, and never about building up. You’ll find that they are impossible to pin down on a subject. As soon as you start to address an issue, they will move on to another issue so as to avoid an evidence-based discussion.
The most important decision in the selling of ideas in the marketplace is the decision on where to spend your time and energy. You have truth, and truth sells. The selling technique will come with practice. The most important decision is where to spend your limited time and energy. Don’t spend it on Class D. That is an intellectual black hole.
The best place to spend it is on Class B and Class C. With Class B you’re preaching to the choir to a certain extent. But the choir needs to be preached to so that their faith gets reinforced. Spend 40% of your energy with them.
Class C is where the money is. Reach this group and you save the Republic and you save souls. Spend 40% of your energy with them.
Class A is where you replenish your batteries. Spend about 20% of your time with them.
Class D is where you spend 0% of your effort. The only exception to this is if you find yourself in a debate with a “Class D” person and there are Class B and Class C people listening. Because your true audience at that point isn’t the Class D person. Your true audience is those that are listening from Class B and Class C.
If you go toe to toe with these intellectual midgets, you’ll be showing Class B and Class C that the views that they are afraid to express are indeed valid views. You’ll show them that they don’t have to cower to these intellectual bullies. You’ll be coaching them indirectly that they don’t have to put up with this nonsense.
Okey dokey, enough for the morning. Time for my morning bike ride.
I hope that German Shepherd isn’t interested in chasing bikes again like the one yesterday!! I’m getting too old for this *&%^$!! 😊
Nothing like speed work with Rocky at 6:00am!! Fifty years of cycling, and I haven’t been bitten yet!! (But they keep getting closer somehow!)
Peace out....
Dad
P.S. Bonus story: So, I was riding the tandem with your mom back in ‘92 in Half Moon Bay, California. It was a long and beautiful country road. I was doing all the pedaling, and she was being a slacker back there!
I said, “Are you gonna help a brother out here? Can you do a little pedaling?” “C’mon wifey!”
She said: “Oh I’m tired and my legs hurt”.
Right about that time I spotted a couple of big sheep dogs lying in wait on the side of the road. Now every cyclist knows that sheep dogs run in slow motion. So I wasn’t worried about them catching us. I also know that dogs always go for the back wheel....never the front wheel. And guess who sits over the back wheel on a tandem? Well, that would be wifey!!
Man, those dogs went after your mom, and I never felt such a surge of energy in my life!! She laid down about 100 horsepower on that bike!!
I’m telling you, the front wheel nearly came off the ground!!
After we left those poor dogs panting in the dust I said to her: “I thought you were tired girlfriend?”
She said: “You’ll pay for that!!”
That’s a permanent memory!!
Your mom is SO cool! 🙂
Peace,
Dad
