Walter Cronkite

Older Americans know the names Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, David Brinkley, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings. They were the most famous news anchormen of the historically dominant television news broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC. For generations they informed the American people at six o’clock in the evenings about national and world events.

Sunday morning political talkshows are also linked to household names such as Tim Russert, George Stephanopoulos, Bob Schieffer. In style and tone these news shows were tailored to those respective individuals. It was, and still is, a question of branding, with the networks seeking to establish an almost personal relationship between news moderator and the audience, with the hope that viewers would trust the moderator with supplying them with critical news in precise, objective and investigative way.

And it’s no different in American politics, where it is often less about substance and more about personality, character and values, such as marriage, family, love of country and faith. Question marks in those areas mean questionable credibility. Americans first size up the candidate as a person, then they consider his or her politics.

Bill Clinton. Aretha Franklin.

From Merriam-Webster: a usually short narrative of an interesting, amusing, or biographical incident. Synonyms: story, tale.

The artful placement of an anecdote is key to being persuasive in the American culture. Stories are convincing. They speak to our experience. Storytelling. Great leaders in business, politics, culture know how to speak to the imagination of their audience. Listen to former President Bill Clinton speak at the funeral service for Aretha Franklin:

Procopius and Anekdota

The Byzantine official Procopius wrote three historical works in Greek. In the first two, he dealt with wars and public works projects, but the third was something of a departure from this kind of history.

Referred to as Anekdota, from the Greek a meaning not, and ekdidonai meaning to publish, it contained bitter attacks on the emperor Justinian, his wife, and other notables of contemporary Constantinople.

Door-to-Door

Door-to-door salesmen have existed for many years. Although it’s difficult to determine when the first door-to-door salesman made his first pitch, door-to-door salesmen gained a lot of their popularity following the release of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller in 1949, and by 1952, two percent of the entire American workforce was comprised of door-to-door salesmen.

Many American children’s organizations encourage children to sell products door-to-door in order to allow the children to gain important sales experience. The Boy Scouts of America, an organization aimed at teaching young boys certain values, skills, and self-reliance, encourages its members to sell popcorn, and the Girl Scouts of America, the equivalent of the Boy Scouts, but aimed at young girls, encourages its members to sell cookies.

In the time following the advent of telemarketing and emailed advertisements, door-to-door sales declined considerably. However, these days, with strong anti-telemarketing bans and better-designed spam filters for email, many American companies are returning to using door-to-door salespeople to sell their products.

Many telecommunications companies prefer to use door-to-door salespeople to sell their products. Some modern companies that use door-to-door salespeople include AT&T, Schwan’s Food Company, and ADT Security. In 2010 door-to-door sales was a $28.6 billion industry – a rise from $28.3 billion the previous year.

War of Currents

Despite its name, the Current War is not happening now, but took place primarily in the late 1800s. It was a war fought between Serbian-born, American-immigrant Nikola Tesla and the American Thomas Edison.

Tesla had difficulty convincing the American public to use his alternating electric current to power their homes and businesses. Alternating current (AC) had the ability to provide electricity over long distances much better than Edison’s direct current (DC), which required power stations to be built close together.

Nevertheless, despite the demonstrable superiority of AC to the spread-out American public, Tesla had great difficulty convincing people to use his system of AC over Edison’s DC. This is because Edison was much better at marketing to the American public. He sold himself as well as his product, and also attempted to discredit AC by incorrectly claiming that it was more dangerous, which he demonstrated by publicly electrocuting stray animals using AC.

As a result of Edison’s marketing campaign DC was the standard electric current for many years. However, this began to change after George Westinghouse, an American engineer and entrepreneur, acquired Tesla’s patents for AC and the induction motor.

Westinghouse was much better at selling AC to Americans than Tesla had been, and the first major victory for Tesla’s current occurred during the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, in which General Electric, using DC, bid to electrify the fair for $554,000, but lost to Westinghouse, who bid $399,000 using AC.

Shortly after this, Niagara Falls Power Company awarded Westinghouse a contract to begin harnessing the power of the waterfall for use, and on 16 Nov 1896 Buffalo, New York began to be powered by AC from Niagara Falls. General Electric also switched to AC, and it wasn’t long before AC destroyed DC. Even Edison eventually switched to the more productive AC.

Message vs. Messenger

German Approach

Germans separate message from messenger. The presenter consciously and purposely moves into the background, so that the message takes center stage. Germans believe that arguments should speak for themselves. Examples

American Approach

Americans link message and messenger. The message, its form, and its presenter create a unity. In the U.S. business context the presenter takes center stage. Americans believe that “you sell yourself first, then your product or service.” Examples

American View

Americans, in stark contrast, find the separation of message and messenger impersonal, abstract, sterile, even drab. To distance oneself from one’s own message is interpreted by Americans as risk-averse, disinterested, and anything but persuasive. “If he himself is not convinced by his message, why should we be?”

German View

Germans react ambivalently to linking message and messenger. An overly personalized presentation style is on the one side both motivating and attractive. At the same time, however, Germans are persuaded more by rational argumentation. “There must be a reason why he is appealing to our emotions instead of to our reason.” Germans are not persuaded by the messenger-first approach.

Advice to Germans

Identify yourself with your message. Literally use the word I. Draw on your personal experience by using anecdotes. Put your heart into it. Show emotion.

Give signals when you are a subjective participant in your story and when you are an objective observer. When persuading Americans you cannot take yourself fully out of the equation.

Advice to Americans

Temper the showman in you. Be a little coy. Hint at almost a scepticism in your own message. Neither invite nor challenge your listeners to like or dislike you as a person.

In fact, take yourself out of the equation altogether. It‘s all about the message and not about the messenger. You are not on any kind of stage. Speak to their heads, not to their hearts.

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