Home Features Mastermind Videos About Advertise Blog Network Contact
   

Have A Suggestion?
Toronto Salsa Classes / Toronto Salsa Lessons Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
Have A Suggestion?

Featured Ebook


ebook Famous Entrepreneurs - Modern Empire Builders


Featured Ebook

More Evan Carmichael
Have A Suggestion?

Sales Lessons From Starbucks And Dell

Selling when YOU are the Brand



Selling when YOU are the Brand
   

Selling - when YOU are the Brand.

Branding is a vital component for many organisations in terms of gaining awareness while being supported by their advertising campaigns. An extremely important aspect of Branding is to increase market share and sales. For many organisations this is a comprehensive and expensive exercise. For a number of organisations a single individual’s image incorporates that organisations Brand.

Budgetary constraints for the most part appear to be the biggest hindrance to embarking on a Branding exercise. The amazing thing is that most organisations can do a great deal for their Branding without breaking the bank.

Living your Brand is an effective yet inexpensive way in which to boost your Brand and sales. By addressing your Unique Selling Proposition you can improve your Brand positioning and your Sales.

If you do not consciously create a brand a brand tends to develop by itself, and that may not be ideal. Building on a series of Unique Propositions is one way of building a brand – by design.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

For some time now organisations have been hard at work building their Unique Selling Propositions. The bad news is that what may have been considered unique last week is not that unique this week. We spend so much time and effort separating ourselves from our competition only to have all our efforts replicated and duplicated in 48 hours. So how do we stay ahead of the race?

The catch is that while we dare not - not have Unique Selling Propositions, we also need to be going beyond just another “not-so-unique”, Unique Selling Proposition.

It is, however, still possible to have a Unique Selling Proposition that does set you apart from your competition. For the individual Sales Professional within an organisation; what sets you apart from your colleagues? Your Unique Selling Proposition begins to be truly unique and beyond your competition when your emphasis is on:

Turning consumers into customers. While many claim they do this, not all their key leverage factors support it. For definition purposes lets assume that a consumer is someone who walks in and purchases your products and or services, while a customer or a client is someone who consistently comes back to you to purchase your products and or services because there is just something about the way you do business that is compelling and likable.

Here is an example; my wife and I have purchased 4 new cars from the same salesperson, why? One could argue that it is because it is a fantastic motor car, which is true. Is that the reason we drive from one city to another the buy that car? – No, I can drive down the road for that. There is only one reason a drive to the next city to buy a car I can buy down the road… the salesperson. He just does something we don’t get anywhere else! When I tell this story I ask people what they think this particular salesperson “looks” like. I usually get – young, dynamic, fast, on the ball, well dressed. The truth is he could have retired years ago – he is a real grandpa, he is not in a hurry, he even looks like a farmer, the last person you would expect on a luxury car showroom floor. So what makes him so unique that you want to go back? I can sum it up in something he told me. He told me a story… from the good old days, when he worked for a different motor distributor, when he was selling a very small yet popular entry level motor vehicle. He said it did not matter what car his customer bought … “I just made him feel so good about his purchase that he felt like he had just bought a Rolls Royce”. Now that works for me. How do you make your customers feel when they have just bought something from you? What works for them? Just by the way he is still the number one salesperson at that dealership.

Turning transactions into relationships. This separates the Sales Professional from the order takers. Allow me some latitude here… not even undertakers should be order takers. Get to know your customers, it is amazing how many opportunities you can see when your get to know the people you are dealing with. People start to trust you more. You customers are not left with a hit and run complex after you have finished with them.

Develop a Brand Memory. Whatever it is that you sell make the experience a memorable one for your customer. Leave your customers with a story they want to tell their friends and colleagues, and that story is you.

Aligning your Unique Selling Proposition and Brand with your corporate and brand behaviour. Walk the talk. If you are in fast food then be fast. If you are in quality, then deliver quality and do not compromise on the quality. One way to check if you are what you sell is to check your tag line. Do you live your slogan? If you are not living your slogan, you are not unique.

Your Unique Selling Proposition becomes out of reach of the competition and even your colleagues when you have aligned:

 Your processes  Your people (behaviour)

 Your products Most importantly is that you do all this in a way that is “you”. The old expression of “fake it till you make it” does not work with your Unique Selling Proposition. We are talking about the real ‘you’ that real people buy. Your outcome here is to have your name used synonymously with the name of the company you work for or the Brand you represent.



Selling when YOU are the Brand - To learn more about this author, visit Kevin Clark's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends
[Get Copyright Permissions] E-Mail | Print | More  


Related Articles Related Articles
Strategic Branding Questions
  There’s a heightened interest in branding these days. For small businesses, it can be one of the most important marketing programs of all. As you launch (or relaunch) a branding campaign, take a look through these...
Heck of a Nice Guy
  Whenever my father would meet someone he really liked in business, he would often remark, "Heck of a nice guy!" I never thought much of the expression, until I realized that lately, I've been using it myself. Whe...
RIPKEN BELONGS IN BRANDING HALL OF FAME
  This summer Cal Ripken will be inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame -- not so much for his baseball numbers as for the fantastic brand he created. Cal’s career batting average is not even close to .300, and he did ...
Your Brand Lives in your Sales Team
  Your best sales reps live & breathe your brand. They connect with your market every day. And when they don't personally convey your brand personality, they negate your entire brand strategy and competitive position...
Find Your Unique Selling Proposition USP
  Savvy brand managers spend a lot of time delineating differences: different product benefits, different look, different message, and different target audience. What they are creating is a distinct brand strategy exp...

Related Forum Posts Related Forum Posts
Blog pinging Blog pinging
Business magazines Business magazines
Online Sales-Keep it Simple! Online Sales-Keep it Simple!
Website suggestions Website suggestions
Prime Means of Selling Prime Means of Selling
How to be green? How to be green?
Cost vs Benefit Cost vs Benefit
Brand Babble Brand Babble

 
About the Author


Kevin Clark
(Visit Kevin's Website)
We at EQUANIMITY specialize in the development of organizations through their people. Equanimity staff is highly qualified in Coaching, Training, Consulting and Facilitation. We maintain an international standard in all of our interventions through our various international affiliations – in terms of this Equanimity has proved to be a leader in facilitating positive change in individuals and organizations. With a track record that includes quadrupling business in an organization over a 4 month period, and another organization achieving 140% of their year target in 3 months, Equanimity delivers quality results. In the current economic climate sales people and sales organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver. More and more sales people are facing burn out in the face of greater and greater demands placed on them. The Sales professional holds the potential for creating differentiated service and leading edge innovation. The purpose of Sales Coaching and Training is to address current selling strategies, methodologies, attitudes, beliefs, and values while developing robust skills and frames of mind for optimum results and personal success of Sales Professionals.
Have A Suggestion?

View Author's Blog
Become An Author

View Author's Video
Become An Author

Free Downloads


Kevin Clark's

Complete
List Of
Sales
Articles

First Name
Last Name
Email
 
If you enjoyed this article, get Kevin Clark's Complete List of Sales Articles For FREE!
Become An Author