Here are my 5 Takeaways from The Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg

Earlier today, at the Urban Engagement Book Club for CitySquare, I presented  my synopsis of the intriguing book The Victory Lab:  The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns by Sasha Issenberg.  What an interesting read!  It takes the reader on a journey through the rise of modern-day political consulting and campaign management.  And it describes how campaigns have discovered data mining (part of what is referred to as “Big Data”).

The book is filled with gobsmacking observations, and for the thoughtful reader, the crossover transferable principles, going back and forth from business to politics to business, are truly provocative.

Here is one very specific “pay attention to this” observation.  Whatever your endeavor, you’ve got to focus on the results you want.  Do not get sidetracked from those results.  Though you may feel like there is other “stuff” to spend your time on – good, important “stuff” — you will make a mistake if you let anything — any agenda, any interest, any task —  take you off your focus.

Here are a couple of useful quotes from the book (with some emphasis added):

The engines of the firm’s growth were customer satisfaction and relationship management, interlocking concepts winning fans in the corporate world.  “The concept is ‘know your customer,’ ” says Gage. “When you touch him, know how you touched him. Did the touch cause him to do something you want him to do?”

and

“He made clear to us that every day our job was to come in and figure out what we could do to win the presidential election in 1992. Anything else—improving the image of the Democratic party, making the coalition of people in the Democratic party happy with one another—we could spend time on, but only if it was in the purpose of electing a president in 1992.”

Know your customer. Know what works with your customer – i.e., works in the sense that your customer ends up doing what you want your customer to do.  And, unwaveringly focus on winning (winning = getting the result you are after) – and nothing else.

Now, one transferable principle is this.  This book argues that elections are won not by “stealing” voters away from other candidates, but by identifying, surfacing, energizing “your voters” into acting as “your voters.”  In other words, they are already your voters – you just have to get them to actually vote.  For the business arena, they are already your customers – you just have to get them to actually buy your product or service.

I enjoyed this book!  I think I learned some important lessons, and was reminded of a few others.

Here are my takeaways.  Think about these, and translate them into your arena.  Trust me, they will translate!  Here they are:

1)  What matters is person to person contact.
2) Every election, even if “hopeless,” can become a learning lab for the next “close” election.
3)  Here are the secrets:
#1 – personal is better than impersonal
#2 – “Common looking” may be better (much better!) than “slick” looking
• (people seem to be “suspicious” of what looks like “Madison Avenue”)
#3 – You’ve got to have reliable data (thus, the use of data mining)…
#4 – Identify the folks who would be your folks, and remind them to:
• do what they “promised” to do
• do what they would do anyway if they simply decided to go ahead and do it…
• do what their peers (people who matter to them!) would applaud
• avoid doing what their peers would look down on.
• For elections:  never try to “persuade” a voter from “the other side.”  It is simply not worth the effort – it is truly lost time and effort that could be spent doing what does work!  And, go after the true “undecided(s)” last.  Instead, get your folks to vote!!!
#5 – Test, try, experiment, until you discover what works – the goal being to get one (of your) new voter(s) to vote — at the lowest possible cost.  (the book describes successful strategies that took that cost from $20, to $18, incrementally down to $8, to… per new voter).
• In other words, find out what actually works, and then only do what actually works.  Demand to see the data, the proof, of what works!!!, focus on what works, and only what works.
(And, what people think “works” frequently simply does not work.  So, don’t spend time working on anything at all except….  Do only the stuff that does.actually.work!).