Who says the Republican nominee isn’t warm and fuzzy? With all respect to his hockey mom running mate, in my book, John McCain gets the award for being the most nurturing man this side of the late Fred Rogers.

In previous posts, I discussed the research pointing out that the majority of your new customers are likely to come up to 24 months after you first connect. Nowhere is this borne out better than in the McCain campaign. He is the epitome of the saying ‘90 percent of winning is just showing up!’

Every political expert you’ve heard of had written McCain off over a year ago. Underfunded and unloved by the party’s conservative base – Senator McCain was a distant 3rd to Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney and occasionally even to Mike Huckabee. Even Ron Paul seemed to have more passionate supporters.

But along the way, the Senator from Arizona just kept going. First Guiliani destructed before he even began. Then Romney pulled out leaving, amazingly, Huckabee as his last remaining challenger. McCain coasted across the finish line to secure the nomination. How could this happen?

It happened because when the others were in front, the public wasn’t yet ready to buy. Guiliani looked good in the window when voters were window shopping but was obviously never seriously considered. Romney took off but peaked too early. Huckabee was always a back up choice. But there was McCain, plodding along with his message, staying off the radar, but never completely out of sight. Voters always knew he was there.

So when they were ready to buy (vote when it counted), McCain’s message was familiar, not glitzy. Voters felt he was a known quantity and people always feel more comfortable with buying a brand name. McCain stuck to his message, withstood all the jokes, turned a deaf ear on the cool reaction he received from the right wing, and in the end was the last man standing.

Now he’s turning it on – peaking at the right time. Going for the close, because the voters are ready to buy. No matter the outcome, McCain’s candidacy is a textbook study of nurturing your prospects and being right there when they’re ready for you.

Posted by: Steve Banis