Over the last few months, in the run up to the election, I’ve listened to what many of the sparring politicians have said about different issues. I’ve noticed how they went about trying to persuade people to vote for them. It occurred to me that politicians could learn a great deal from small businesses and how they promote themselves.

As the owner of a small business, if I spent my time (and marketing budget) telling my potential clients how bad my competitors are, would I win new business? At networking meetings, instead of telling the other attendees how my business could help them, I could focus on bad mouthing other marketing companies. I could write blogs about how other Marketing Consultants get it wrong and don’t look after their clients properly. My website could show a list of local competitors with details of why you shouldn’t work with them.

If I did that, as the owner of a small business, would I attract new clients? No – quite the opposite! I would just damage my business reputation and turn people away. Why would anyone want to work with a business that just puts down the competition?

So why is it that all politicians spend their time and election budget focusing on what their opponents do wrong, rather than what they will do right? Maybe if they put their efforts into listening to what their ‘potential clients’ wanted, and then created a solution that works for them, some of them might have won a few more votes!