Standing Under The Umbrella And STILL Getting Wet Make More Money Making a Name for Yourself
Calling all realtors, financial planners, insurance brokers, multi-level & network marketers, and anyone else who works in the precarious and often misunderstood position of operating under a large company brand umbrella yet operating as a separate business unto itself. You may find that you’re standing under the umbrella and you’re still getting wet— not enjoying the unlimited personal and financial rewards that business opportunity offers.
Do you have trouble distinguishing yourself from another person working under the same umbrella brand? Do you feel the sting of this coming from the cubicle right next to you?
Do you sometimes feel that you don’t get the support that you thought you would from the umbrella brand? Or, find your requests to the corporate office ignored?
Do you experience the pinch that comes from needing to tow the corporate line and the expectation to create your financial success as if you were operating your business as your own?
You can stop looking around. I’m not in your office. Really. You can stop looking around and you need to stop relying on the brand umbrella that you thought would provide you so much. Staying under there will only cause you more discomfort and take you further from fulfilling the dreams you had when you first started.
Don’t look so dejected all is not lost. There’s something you can do to turn the entire lose-lose situation around, but you have to be committed to being really successful and devoted to being truly happy. Not everyone is cut out for that. Are you?
Often, I have been hired to distinguish top-performing realtors from other realtors —their competition. Ninety-eight percent of time, the first thing my job calls for is to open the grip they have on their brokerage firm. You read it right, their grip on, not the grip the firm has on them. Once their clutch is relaxed, I can then successfully guide a real estate professional (or any type of broker or salesperson) to develop their own business as a brand; all the while honoring the larger umbrella brand that provides them the credibility and product value they need to cultivate their business. Working with an umbrella brand is a blessing, but it is not a crutch!
This applies to financial planners and insurance brokers as well with added attention given to the sensitive legal requirements of the larger institution. While a financial planner or insurance broker may drive everyday to an office building, park in the garage, walk past a reception sitting under the big brokerage logo, they eventually walk into their office or cubicle, sit at the desk of their own business and are responsible for getting their own clients and generating their own financial success.
With multi-level marketers and network marketers the need to take a step back from the brand they are selling in order to truly excel is even stronger because often the grasp is even tighter. This keeps the majority of MLM’s from ever really hitting the marks that were promised as possible. The problem is not that the promised marks aren’t possible. They’re just so much more difficult to hit coming from the perspective at which most MLM salespersons operate.
When it comes to creating the business success you want in any of these or similar situations, it’s not about distancing yourself from the umbrella brand’s identity… it’s about creating one of your own.
You need to take into your awareness that people don’t just buy a product or service, they buy an experience. They buy something they believe in. They buy a feeling they can count on— over and over and over. This is where you actually have an edge over the ‘umbrella.’
The brand conglomerates find it very difficult to meet the experiential and emotional needs of the customers. They are just too big. You have the edge because you have what they don’t; the individual customer and you connect with them on a daily basis.
It’s what you do with that connection and how you communicate it that makes all the difference. This can be broken down into four important key factors:
• Realize that the umbrella brand is not a job, it’s a tool that you’ve invested in to assist you in offering a top-quality product or service. It’s an instrument that both the public and yourself recognize as of value in your specific field. If you think of it as one of many possible tools, even if you never employ another one, you will put your brand umbrella in the proper perspective and actually able to use it more fully.
• Connect your own power to your business, after all, it is YOUR business. You are responsible for getting clients. You are responsible for keeping them. At the end of the day, you have to answer to your own disappointment or success. Remember, the power in any business is not the image of a business, it’s not even the idea of the business, its the connection to the customer. They always will be yours.
• Establish your own brand voice through all your business communications. Design your own look and feel to your materials. Don’t just rely on what the big brand provides you. Everyone else in your situation is doing that. Depending solely on the big brand’s voice will not only hurt you, your customers will find it impossible to separate you from your competition.
Note: When developing your own materials, you do need to take into consideration the large brand logo, colors and even language. After all, not only did you choose that umbrella brand for a reason, your brand will need to work along side with it.
• Know that your umbrella brand may be wary of your independence but they will most certainly love your financial success. They may buck some when you begin to deviate, but remember, going along with their plan is probably perpetuating your indistinguishable situation in the first place. Plain and simply, when you look great they look great. When you make money, they make money. When you make a lot more, they make a lot more. Period.
It’s quite simple. You can make more money and experience greater enjoyment doing exactly what you’re doing and working with the same umbrella brand, if you simply change your perspective.
By shifting your understanding from working under to working with your umbrella, you will find yourself using the ‘the big brand umbrella’ as a tool, staying dry AND basking in the bright sunlight of success.
© Castle Montone, Limited
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can. Simply include this blurb with it: “Brand Visioneer and BrandU Co-founder, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to turn their business ideas into a money-making marketable brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™, get started now at http://www.brandu.com/rd.cfm?id=743"
Standing Under The Umbrella And STILL Getting Wet Make More Money Making a Name for Yourself - To learn more about this author, visit Kim Castle's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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