A Contradiction Is A Terrible Brand

It continually comes to my attention that a good deal of businesses don't do as they preach. As a brand (which to my reasoning is your reputation), you have a responsibility to deliver an authentic experience to your marketplace. A basic example of this off-brand thinking is a real estate agent who buys a home from a private seller. When they are out pitching their services they tout the benefits of dealing with a professional sales person on both fronts - buyer and seller. What does this say about their integrity if their system is good enough for you but not them? We see examples of this contradiction every where.

Online I am constantly checking out companies who profess to be brand consultants only to see their own online brands are horribly lacking. They have no positioning strategy. Their images are amateur at best and their presentations make you cringe. What are they telling you by their failure to help themselves? I can't tell the number of business consultants I have been introduced to who don't possess the very success they argue they can achieve for you. Go to any networking event and take a good look around the room. Who among the attendees stand out and draw attention to their brands. Sadly not many.

Recently a client told me of the journey his son is on to choose a university to attend next year. A university is a centre of higher learning, so you'd expect that they would be on top of their brand experience. One that stuck out in their mind and caused them to doubt their priorities was a professor's letter riddled with spelling errors. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. All of that university's efforts to attract great talent was killed by a sloppy presentation. Off-brand action.

I am investigating some sales training for myself. I approached a internationally recognized 'training' organization. I am familiar with their principals, so I was a warm lead from the moment we met. What disappointed me was the lead person I met with broke every principal in their book. Follow-up was lacking as well. I was promised materials to go over to choose my curriculum, but what I thought was forth-coming took 4 days to email me. Four days! Maybe I should be training them. If they cannot live up to their principals, how are they going to convincingly train others? I hope my experience is the exception, because if it's not, their brand will suffer as a result of this.

Another example of contradiction is one that goes way back. Why do advertising agencies advice their clients to advertise for market share while they themselves don't advertise. Can you recall the last time you saw an ad agency advertise for business? 

A brand experience shouldn't be based on, "Do as I say, not as I do." Brands should "Lead by example." Brands of all sorts must follow this credo. To do otherwise is dishonest at the very least.

A Book On Sales With A New Twist

Would you even consider reading a book on sales and selling if the author themselves was not a salesperson or at the very least involved with the sales industry? I agree, typically I wouldn't either.
But in his new book "The Art of the Sale," Philip Delves Broughton takes an outsider looking in approach. I really enjoyed this book. Like most books on sales it tells a lot of stories to get a point across. That is probably the only typical angle about this book. Everything else looks at sales from a purely objective point of view. It is this very honesty that I enjoyed.

Broughton is a good listener and it shows here. That said, I guess you could say (at least by Dale Carnegies standards) the author is himself a good sales person. Listening is half the battle. With every book I read I hope tho get at least one nugget of wisdom. In "The Art of the Sale" one nugget I loved was the discussion that "Doing something costs something - and doing nothing costs more." Another (and there are plenty more) is the fact that you should take ownership of your customers problems. It is your duty to help them and make their lives easier. For that they will love you.

"The Art of the Sale" is a good read, and a book that will make you think. Broughtons Business of Life perspective is one I think you might enjoy.

Gitomer: A Great Service Brand!

Another great Gitomer book!

Last week I attended one of Jeffrey Gitomer's seminars in London Ontario. I've been a fan of Gitomer for quite some time. Twice before I lamely attempted to attend one of his events with little success. This year I made a special effort to book the time to attend. To be sure that I was especially alert for the event I booked into the hotel the evening before. Now it was just a few minutes walk to the festivities.

Suffice to say Gitomer is absolutely entertaining in his delivery. What I especially enjoyed was that his personal brand not only matched his corporate brand but also my perception of him (based on his books) was spot on. His character matched his books. He was authentic. I was one of the first two or three people in the room as it opened. He wasn't waiting in the wings, but at a desk behind his Mac, fine tuning his slides at the front of the room. During this registration period, he spoke and joked with attendees. Posed for pictures and shared stories. Fun to watch.

During the course of the seminar I purchased another of his books and got him to sign it for me. Thank you. Following his seminar, I packed up my little bundle and headed off to another lecture on Social Marketing from another presenter.

Following this final lesson, I made my way to my car for my journey home.

Two and a half hours later, I unpacked my things and realized that I didn't have my new Gitomer book with me. I wanted to show my wife Rose, his autograph. Humph!  I immediately went online and contacted the Gitomer Empire. I asked if I purchased another copy, would they be able to get Jeffrey to sign this copy and send it out to me. They never even skipped a beat - not only would they get Gitomer to sign another copy BUT they would cover the cost of the book and shipping to me. WOW! Gitomer spoke of this level of service during the seminar, but here was his words in action. The young lady I spoke with didn't mention that she would need permission - she just did it. How great is that!

Less than a week later I have that little autographed book in my hands. This is a lesson in service that I take to heart. Do you and your people deliver on your service promise? My blogging of this experience is testament to the effect that great service can have on a customer. I look forward to delivering exceptional service to all who work with me.

Blog for Business.

A familiar song that I sing is "Blogging For Business." I definitely get benefit from my blogging efforts. Things you can expect is not only leads but publicity and opportunities. A colleague of mine, Bill Sivell recently was approached by a national Canadian business magazine to write for them on a regular basis. Bill got the opportunity from his blogging efforts. Bill has been blogging less than a year. Blogging will also help your personal brand by enhancing your 'expert profile.'

Search engines also LOVE blogs even when they change their algorithms. Blogs will help you achieve impressive rankings. Blogging is also a free media, but it involves a lot of effort. You also have to commit to write posts on a regular basis. But if it gets you exposure and opportunities, isn't it worth it? Check out Blogger to get yourself setup and running.

I also use blogging as a mood changer for those times when I'm a little uninspired. It puts my head in the right place. Discover your own niche audience and start blogging - I think that you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Feed Yourself First!

It's first thing Monday morning. As I sit here contemplating the week, I'm thinking about what efforts I'm involved with that help my own brand.

I have one networking event, a sales seminar with Jeffrey Gitomer, a peer-to-peer meeting, and a strategic lunch with a connector to determine joint opportunities. Every week I commit to efforts that feed my brand. I consider these to be the physical components of my overall marketing strategy. When ever I am "out there" you would see me in my black attire. This conforms to my brand image. My shirts are a quality black dress shirt with my logo and slogan embroidered on it. I get a lot of compliments on the quality of the shirt. I purposely chose not to wear a golf shirt, but a classy dress shirt.

Online, there's blog articles to write this week for Noobpreneur.com and SmallBusinessBranding.com, a newsletter to get out. On Wednesday my weekly branding tips get delivered at 11am. I regularly comment on discussions in my Linkedin Groups that I subscribe to.

Aside from these efforts, I meet with consulting clients live and via telephone. All of the above efforts are part of feeding myself. I read a lot as well. Everything together keeps me focused and attune to my brand. The wheels are always turning. Most small to medium size enterprises that I consult with, have their strategies for success as well. How do you feed yourself every week? Every week you have to nourish your brand.

What's on your menu?

Narrow Your Focus To Get In The Door

Marketing your brand is a tough game isn't it? Most times you just seem to be spinning around and around and it's just not sticking. You may even ask yourself, "Why can't they see the value in what I do?"

One of the reasons may be a common belief that when you sell yourself, it's wise to lay out on the table everything that you offer. For instance if you were dentist, you might say we do:

• extractions

• fillings

• root canals

• cleaning

• caps

• retainers etc.

While on the surface this seems the right thing to do - do you realize that if you leave one thing out, your public will think that you don't do that item. Seem's dumb, but I've seen it and experienced it myself. I once asked a client why they went elsewhere for a service that I perform and they stated that "I didn't know you did that." So you really can't win by laying all your cards out on the table. Plus it's an awful lost to digest.

A better way I believe is to narrow your focus and go to market focused on one thing that absolutely resonates with them. Out of everything you do, where can you focus? I recently asked a mortgage broker to consider this during a conversation. The person I was speaking with happened to mention that his background was in farming, and that he still dabbled in it. As a mortgage broker he told me all that he offered and his pitch was not unlike any other mortgage broker. When I pointed out this sameness, he shrugged and showed his frustration with the problem.

"what", I said, "if you were to focus entirely on the agri business, could you still do handsomely?" "Definitely," he replied. So I told him that he should consider becoming the expert in agri mortgages and focus his message to that effort. That way could separate himself from the herd, reduce his competitive environment and concentrate on an area he was passionate about. It would be less frustrating and more fun. Over time he would be the go-to person for that industry.

The beauty of it is that once they're in the door and they see and benefit from your value - you are golden to them. They want to discover what other services you can offer them. Your focus gives them a reason to look at you differently.

Branding in 5 minutes or less.

Tonight I have to speak on branding to a Linkedin group. I have only 5 minutes so I've titled it - Branding in 5 minutes or less. The following are my speaking points:

• Your brand is not your logo and tag line.

• Your brand is your reputation, and you have one whether you want one or not.

• You can choose to define your brand or you can let your competition do that for you.

• To test your brand strength - tomorrow morning ask the first person at your place of 

business "what do we do here?" 

The answer you get is their perception of your brand. In branding, perception is reality.

• If you don't stand out from your competition then you have a branding problem.

• If you are always selling on price, you have a branding problem.

• If your staff are uninspired, you have a branding problem

• If you are not selling from a leadership position, you have a branding problem

• If you are selling with lots of messages, you have a branding problem

If you ignore your brand, your competition loves you.