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Personal Branding -- What do you bring to the table?"

Written by: Gary Hernbroth

Article Overview: People don't often think about themselves as a "brand", though they should. It could mean the difference between being successful or not, whether in business or personal matters. People want to know, "What do you bring to the table?"

Personal Branding -- What do you bring to the table?"

Personal Branding --

What do you bring to the table?

By: Gary Hernbroth, Chief Motivating Officer, Training for Winners



Coke or Pepsi? McDonald's or Burger King? Wal-Mart or Target? Every

day, we as consumers make the decision to go or not go to certain stores,

restaurants, buy or not buy certain products, etc. Our choices are based

on many little things that add up to the bigger total buying decision: Price,

color, reliability, service record, appeal, size, flexibility, taste, smell, etc.

Put all those together and the "Moment of Truth" that makes us buy or not

buy is whatever that brand presents to us vs. their competitor.

Why we buy/don't buy is based on something called "WII-FM" -- and it's

not a radio station! It's a tried-and-true sales concept meaning "what's in it

for me?" And that is the motor that drives us to take out our wallets. If you

run your own business, this is something you should ask yourself every

day, with every client and with every prospect: What do I mean to them?

What do I bring to their table? What is my value-add? If you don't know the

answer to this, it's very likely they don't, either, and your business

connection with them is tenuous at best.

You must define your VALUE

that keeps your customers coming back to you and your prospects more

interested in you than the competition.

To get a grip on what you bring to the table, it is likely different things to

different people. Some may value your timeliness, others your accuracy,

still others may value your expertise or your trustworthiness. Whichever it

is, to them, that is YOUR BRAND. Recognize it. Embrace it. Work it.

As we've seen in recent times, once-solid brands have fallen from grace

(General Motors, AIG, etc.), and you have to do everything you can to

insure your personal brand stays strong. Erosion of your positive brand

thought in the minds of your customers can take forever (if ever) to get it

back. It is everything -- and without a strong one you have little chance for

success, both personally or professionally. Branding is really what others

out in the world think of you.

When your client sees your name on the

caller I.D. when you call them, what "brand" do they think of? "Oh, this is

great, she always calls me with terrific information." "Oh, brother, not HIM

again!" "They always talk too long so tell them I'm in a meeting." "I'm

impressed she called me back so quickly, she's such a real pro."

Whatever their thought, it's your personal branding that creates these

reactions.

People often ask me to name the number one thing that affects personal

branding thoughts in our customers. My research and experience reveals

that it is almost never just one thing, but TRUST seems to be at the top of

the list most times. Close behind are expertise, ability to perform at a high

level, and reliability.

If you always thought that branding belonged only to the "big guys" like

McDonald's, Ford, Coke, Nordstrom, Este Lauder, Levi's, etc., think again.

If you are a self-employed entrepreneur, it's the world's window into your

working soul.

Related Articles
  Personal Branding Tips for Beginners
  How to Use Personal Branding for a Competitive Edge
  What is Personal Branding?
  Do You Have a Brand Message?
  Personal Branding for Better Visibility

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Related Forum Posts
Re: Adrian Fernandez - GH Caskets - Hi Adrian, Welcome to the forum and thank you for the introduction. It sounds like you have a wealth of business experience to bring to the table and we can look forward to sharing experiences here and seeing you around the topics, regards, Mal.
Re: Greetings Hi from John Alexander at SearchEngineWorkshops - Hello John, Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy your time here. We are a friendly bunch and with your background you have a lot to bring to the table. I very much look forward to seeing you around the topics and sharing your experiences with us, best wishes, Mal.
Re: Team, Need your Help . . . . - Barry, It would be helpful if you would give us an idea how much income you are looking for. Do you want to supplement your current income while you are working on your ecommerce site or are you wanting to generate enough to live off of in the near future while you build your site for instance? It would also be helpful to know what skills you bring to the table. For instance, if you have zero presence online, no promotional skills as of yet, etc. it would be hard to generate income fairly quickly with a program which requires you to earn off the efforts of others you bring into the program. I've some ideas for you, but would need to know a bit more info first. Cheers, Zac
Re: Partnering up - [quote="Evan":2ueek1ra]Hi Som - if you need a good programmer to partner with, what are you bringing to the table? If you have a solid plan and it's going to make money, you should be able to convince a programmer to partner with you if you're going to take care of the business end.[/quote:2ueek1ra] This is a good point Evan! I am in a position to both invest time and resources into this project but I would first want to know what you as a partner can bring to the table apart from the idea. The reason being, and I am not saying this is what you will do, but if I invest all my time, money, and resources into your venture without any investment from your part. How can I be so sure you won't pick up and leave if you realize the project is going sour?
Re: Thank you Kevin Lee! - Hi Bizdev, Looks like you will have some interesting things to bring to the table. We hope you stick around and check out all the interesting things that are going on here.


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