Aaron went to Camp Obama a few weeks ago. He had volunteered for Kerry as well. He said he noticed a sharp contrast between the two campaigns.
Kerry was old school. His campaign had to do lists and canned messages, which were handed out to volunteers without regard to their backgrounds. Obama's people dedicated a good half of their volunteer training session to learning about each attendee. They asked each person to think about why they support Obama - and what kinds of audiences they'd feel most comfortable sharing their enthusiasm with.
Aaron thought Obama is making a deeper, longer term investment in his supporters - which is really smart. When you ask for X hours of someone's time to help put up pre-made signs or read off telemarketing scripts, each volunteer means no more to you than just another undifferentiated source of labor. No one is put to their highest and best use.
But when you engage someone on a personal level and involve them in coming up with ways to communicate your message, you get to make use of their knowledge and tap into their contact network. Also importantly, you win a real convert who will internalize your message as their own.
I've been thinking a lot about Kerry vs Obama, especially when I talk to any kind of salesperson. It seems most sales organizations are run like the Kerry campaign. Every new hire is taught to read from the same script. Wouldn't their companies be better off if they did Camp Obama style sales training?
