I’m about to authoritatively talk about “sales” so apologies in advance if my knowledge of sales doesn’t exactly reflect successful sales of my ideas on this website, let alone monetize this site as a bitchin’ source of income, lol. I agree that if I know so much, then I should be able to show the fruits of my knowledge. Time will tell? I digress.

Expensive products and great ideas are similar. Both live in a marketplace. For the purposes of this article, we’ll stick with “ideas” as our example instead of expensive products. To spread great ideas into a marketplace, you can:

Sell.
Advocate.
Argue.
Apologize.

All of these are a “what,” a “how,” and a “position.” Overall, what you’re trying to do is sell. Selling can be thought of moving a unit from the shelf to the customer. Advocacy, argument, and apology are subcategories of selling. You can make the sale 4 different ways. And you can make the sale from 4 different positions.

Sell by Selling.
Sell by Advocating.
Sell by Arguing.
Sell by Apologizing.

Sell from the position of sales.
Sell from the position of advocacy.
Sell from the position of argumentation.
Sell from the position of apologetics.

Further, you can mix and match these if you really want a headache. Eg, you can sell by selling from the position of argumentation. You can sell by arguing from the position of advocacy. Etc. Remember that everything is under the umbrella of “Sales.”

Selling an idea is to know what is great about the idea, having the ability to succinctly say it, and give an example of how it will benefit your “target” or “customer” very quickly. Selling an idea is associated with quickly moving the idea to a customer who buys the idea. The sale benefits both parties, usually with visible or tangible results.

Advocating for an idea is similar to selling an idea, but is more along the lines of a recommendation. There is less urgency to the presentation, and the sale of the idea may or may not impact the advocator very much. Advocacy can be a “soft sell” or a slow sale that takes place over time.

Selling and advocating both come from a position of strength. Both tactics gain ground without losing ground.

Arguing for an idea is defensive. Generally the idea has been sitting without gaining ground or losing ground. The idea is argued for when it’s possible it may lose ground.

Apologizing for an idea is to try and save the idea despite its negative characteristics. The idea has probably been losing ground in the marketplace of ideas.

The 4 methods I’m talking about are generally positive tactics. Reasonably positive, that is. Of course, there’s negative tactics that can also be deployed like forcing, mandating, manipulating, seducing, grooming, or tricking people. These negative tactics aren’t what this particular article is about, however.

There’s different personality characteristics you can assign to selling, advocating, arguing, or apologizing. For example, cooperativeness, competitiveness, combativeness, and supplicativeness, respectively. The first two are a little more positive than the last two. It is important to note that as long as the idea is moved, a sale has been made. During the course of a sale, the seller could possibly have to deploy all 4 tactics at some point. Not evenly, of course. But there may be a moment where the seller’s position changes from selling to advocating, or from selling to arguing. The worst position to be in of course is “apologizing” or being supplicative. (This also known as “customer support” or even “customer retention.”) However, you can still win a sale from these angles – it’s just harder to do, and it’s not a good position.

I bring all this up, because in today’s political world, we see people making “arguments.” One of the eternal political wars of my lifetime has been “pro-life vs. pro-choice.” It’s just arguments from both sides. My opinion is, both sides should make an attempt at selling their ideas instead of just arguing. If this happened, I predict a certain side would dominate – or – perhaps at least the war would die down to a very dull roar. Consider your own political beliefs. Can you sell them? Recall what I said earlier: “Selling an idea is to know what is great about the idea, having the ability to succinctly say it, and give an example of how it will benefit your ‘target’ or ‘customer’ very quickly.”

If you’re particularly intellectual, you know that Christian “apologists” literally exist. If you check the Wikipedia page for Christian apologetics, they know they’re already on defense from the getgo. Why would they be playing defense from square one? Because Christianity tends to lose ground against rational critics that are pointing out negative characteristics about the religion. I will at least applaud Christian apologists for recognizing their religion does have some negative characteristics that need apologies. However, apologists need to also know how to sell and how to advocate. If the religion wishes to continue to spread, it still needs “sales and advocacy” departments. (No, I have no idea why I’m giving Christians advice, lol.)

You might be asking about Aristotle and the art of persuasion using Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. Credibility, logic, and appeal to emotion, respectively. The definition of persuade begins with “to cause somebody to do something” and finishes with “through reasoning or argument.” Persuasion is thus coming from the position of argument, so it is a subcategory of “argument.” Again, argument implies you are in some kind of “pro vs. anti” battle. Battles can be long, and of course you can always lose the battle and therefore lose ground. Whereas the positions of sales and advocacy imply that you’re not mired in a battle, and therefore no ground is ever lost from those positions. If a specific target doesn’t buy, that doesn’t mean nobody will buy.

But for you, the reader of my article here – you may wish to ponder your own religious and political beliefs and whether or not you are currently selling, advocating, arguing, or apologizing for them. If you’re doing too much arguing and apologizing, maybe you should consider selling and advocating. If you’re doing too much selling and advocating – maybe you might get some experience arguing and “apologizing” just in case you ever find yourself in those positions and need to wrestle your way out.

Further, if you’re single, you might ask yourself what you’re doing to yourself in the dating market, and what position you’re coming from. Once again, recall what I said earlier: “Selling an idea is to know what is great about the idea, having the ability to succinctly say it, and give an example of how it will benefit your ‘target’ or ‘customer’ very quickly.” Maybe before you go out, consider looking yourself in the mirror and succinctly saying something great about yourself, and give an example of how it’ll quickly benefit your… um, “target.” Matter of fact, don’t ever go out without doing that first. Be careful of course – getting chicks has consequences and you’ll need to be ready for that. But that’s advice for a different article.