A federal judge ordered Friday that the now-shuttered Trump University had to release certain documents to the public.
The Washington Post requested the documents, arguing that the public had an interest in learning about a business run by potential president Donald Trump. And the documents are indisputably revealing of Trump’s business practices and sales tactics, and possibly into his campaign tactics as well.
Here are some interesting tidbits from the documents:
1) “You don’t sell products, benefits or solutions — you sell feelings.”
Under a head called “Sales Wisdoms,” the documents tell employees that they need to identify customers’ problems and see if it “hurts enough” that they’re willing to buy the solution.
But it emphasizes that the decision to buy the solution is an emotional one, and salespeople should always appeal to emotion and not logic when pressuring consumers to buy.
2) “Money is never a reason for not enrolling in Trump University; if they really believe in you and your product they will find the money.”
The “Gold Elite” plan for Trump University was about $35,000, no small sum for the majority of Americans. But employees of Trump University were encouraged to ignore consumers’ financial situations, based on the documents.
One former employee who resigned, Ronald Schnackenberg, testified that one couple was considering buying the elite program and he didn’t push it on them, believing it wasn’t right for their financial situation.
“I did not feel it was an appropriate program for them because of their precarious financial condition—they had no money to pay for the program, but would have had to pay for the program using his disability income and taking out a loan based upon equity in his apartment,” Schnackenberg said.
The couple was talked into buying the program by another Trump University salesperson.
3) “My husband dropped me off and said I had to come because I never leave the house.”
Trump University employees were told to identify who had high and low initiatives in the program so they could pick sales targets. The above statement was given as an example as one with low initiative.
Trump has been criticized heavily about his past statements toward and about women, including that he didn’t like his ex-wife Ivana Trump running parts of his business.
The high initiative example was someone who wanted to take care of family members.
4) Trump exercised tight control over every single aspect of his employees, the seminars and registrations.
Every step of the process was clearly dictated to the employees, including what they wore, how they talked to potential clients and students, when they could use their cell phones, what items could be on certain tables, layouts of each room, and on and on.
For example, all employees had to make sure any laptops in a presentation room had the Trump University logo as the desktop. It was mentioned multiple times and specific instructions on how to download the logo were included.
Employees also had to introduce speakers by first playing a “Trump Video,” and before the Trump video the last song played had to be the Apprentice theme song: “For the Love of Money” by the O’Jays. Both of those directions were bolded.
5) “Once reporters are present it no longer matters why they are there.”
There is an extensive list of how employees should deal with reporters. Other advice includes, “You don’t have to deliver what the reporter wants,” “Expect to be scrutinized,” and “Reporters are rarely on your side and they are not sympathetic.”
The documents were released the same day that Trump hosted a press conference where he consistently railed against the press for not giving him for positive press coverage about donations to veterans’ groups. It stemmed from Trump’s claim that he donated $1 million of his own money to veterans’ groups months ago, but a Washington Post reporter couldn’t find any evidence of a donation after repeated calls to multiple groups.
Trump made the donation following the report.
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