No matter how you feel about the 2016 presidential campaign and its outcomes, there are some lessons that businesspeople can take from it.
Don’t Assume Your Customers Are Loyal: One of the things that contributed to Hillary’s loss was that she assumed traditionally Democratic states would continue to vote Democrat. Wisconsin switched to vote Republican in part because Hillary ignored the state and didn’t visit once during the general campaign. If you don’t pay attention to your customers, they will leave.
Your Customer’s Goals Matter More Than Yours: Customers will stay with you as long as you are helping them do what they want. Hillary publicly stated that her energy policies would shut down the coal industry. This cost her Ohio and western Pennsylvania which rely on that industry. Once they knew she was not going to help them, they left her base.
Treat People Better Than You Want To Be Treated: Trump lost huge groups because of his callous insults. Hillary lost votes because she referred to people as “deplorable.” Many of these people would have voted differently (or voted at all) if they didn’t feel abused by the candidates. Even if someone is not your customer, they might be at some point. You have to treat them as you would your best customer if you want them to become one.
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