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.

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