Why Obama Can’t Sell IT

This is NOT a pro or against President Obama article but an analysis from a sales perspective that might offer some insight into much of the consternation surrounding the healthcare debate occurring today




Obama rushed into office ready to shake Washington up but in so doing made a few miscalculations:

• He began by signing policies and reversing previous administration policies without taking the time to understand their long term ramifications.

• He hired people in his cabinet who were later found out to have not paid their fair share of taxes.

• Then he rushed through a stimulus package with the intent of creating ‘shovel ready projects’ to keep unemployment below 8% (now headed for 10%).

• He promised to post legislation on his website for the public to review before voting on it, yet, many in Congress never read the stimulus legislation let alone the American public.

• He hasn’t directly addressed the problems with existing government run programs like: Medicare, Social Security, Education System, the Post Office and FannieMay/Freddie Mac are in dire financial straits.

• He wants to spend even as his own Congressional Budget Office estimates his bailouts and other programs will ‘quadruple’ the deficit of the previous administration.

We’re all sympathetic to the fact that Obama inherited a financial mess from the previous administration and the American people (yes, we were complicit in creating that mess). Nonetheless, Obama has to demonstrate that he ‘can’ fix things that are currently broken (e.g., Deficit spending, Medicare, Social Security,…) before the American public will ‘buy’ that he can fix the healthcare system or any other program. He can’t ‘smooth talk’ his way out of this mess because Americans are smart and the Internet makes them smarter!

What Obama needs now are ‘small successes’ to help him build some sales momentum which in turn will help him cross the Credible Solution Gap in order to implement much larger changes in the future. Today he lacks the necessary credibility to get his market (i.e., the American people) to buy what he’s selling. Until he can demonstrate that he can get the simpler things done, the market will not entrust him with the healthcare behemoth. Until that happens, Obama won’t be able to sell it!