This is the second of my “business lessons” from the 2012 elections debrief.  These aren’t about politics.  They are about what works, what to focus on in this new day and age, this era of the new normal.

It is now acknowledged, even by folks from the Romney camp, that the Obama campaign had a superior “ground game.”  And now, in one crystal clear paragraph from John Dickerson, we understand just what this ground game was:  good, old-fashioned, relationship building “customer acquisition.”  Here’s Dickerson’s paragraph (from his Slate.com article Why Romney Never Saw It Coming:  He was the numbers guy. But in the end his numbers were all wrong)

Meanwhile, the Romney campaign was openly dismissive of the Obama ground game. Why are they wasting so much money with neighborhood offices, they asked? (In Ohio, for example, Obama had almost 100 more offices than Romney.) In retrospect, the Romney team is in awe and full of praise of the Obama operation. “They spent four years working block by block, person by person to build their coalition,” says a top aide. They now recognize that those offices were created to build personal contacts, the most durable and useful way to gain voters. (emphasis added).

Here’s the key line:  “They now recognize that those offices were created to build personal contacts.”

All business success boils down to this:  do you have customers to buy and use your product?  In politics, your customers are your voters.  And the surest path, and still the best path, to get a new customer is to build a relationship of trust with that customer.  If they know you, if they trust you, they will “buy what you are selling.”  Especially if they think you come from a place of good will towards them, that you are “selling” them your product not to line your own pockets so much as to help them have and use something that is good for them.  (“This product will help you live a better, more hassle-free, more fulfilling life…”).  Isn’t this what we want with all of our “purchases?”  Trust, in someone we know, who acts out of good will toward us as his/her primary motivation, will lead us to make the purchase.  This is the relational transaction that has to happen for new customers to come your way.

So this is business lesson #2 from the 2012 Elections debrief:  Build Actual Relationships with Actual Current and Potential Customers.