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Personal Branding

Guest post by: Gerry Layo

Article Overview: Personal Branding is the absolute hallmark of the top 2% of sales professionals. Most of them don’t even know that they are doing it! Personal Branding gets your phone to ring. Personal Branding separates you from all of the competition. Personal Branding puts VALUE ahead of COST. Personal Branding elevates you and thus your company/product/service in the minds of your customer. Personal Branding, quite simply, creates more sales for you!

Personal Branding

Companies spend millions of dollars every year to burn their brand into the hearts and minds of their potential customers. This is done with advertising, jingles and repetition of their messages. Nike built a brand around that "swoosh" logo and its worldwide proliferation is staggering. You cannot go anywhere in the world of sports without seeing the "swoosh." In fact, the "swoosh" has become synonymous with excellence in sports. The result? An empire of shoes, clothing and sports gear that commands top dollar in the marketplace. Starbucks did it with coffee in a different way. They chose to create a customer "experience" that is consistent throughout the world. They created a brand and invested their millions into teaching us a different way to order and drink coffee. They train and invest in the "experience" that we have in any Starbucks. The result? We will go out of our way AND pay a premium to "find a Starbucks shop."

What is it that you can do as a sales professional to position yourself and your company as THE CHOICE rather than simply A CHOICE? Through the appropriate Personal Branding tactics, you can:

-Establish yourself as an expert (Don't just be "in" your field...be perceived as the "best" in your field.)

-Be known as a resource (Don't be a "taker" of orders....be a "maker" of profits and success for your customers)

-Create a demand for your product or service (Customer's will call you...instead of the other way around)

-Build prospective customer's trust in you and your company (People do business with whom they trust and know....get KNOWN to gain their trust!)

-Differentiate yourself from the competition (If you don't stand out, you don't stand out!)

How can you create a brand for yourself as a sales professional? Let's look at some of the first steps that you must take:

1. Clearly define the "brand" that your desire to create and communicate to your marketplace. How do you want to be known? What words or phrases will your customer's use to describe you? How will you choose to differ yourself from the competition?
2. Establish a "special sauce" statement that states what it is that you bring to the table in a way that nobody else does. This should be from the customer's viewpoint (benefit driven) not from yours (feature driven).
3. Create a list of no less than 10 ways to communicate this BRAND every day in every way to your prospects, customers and clients. You must walk the walk that you wish to be "known for." Consistency is absolutely the key. Every move that you make needs to be preceded with the following questions: "Is what I am about to do consistent with the brand that I have created?"

Personal Branding is the key to greater sales for the best professionals. It is often the difference between you getting the contract or the other guy. More importantly, it is most often the main difference between you having to sell your product or service and people wanting to buy your product or service. It has been said that in the profession of selling, it's not who you know, but rather who knows you that counts.Remember, if you can't name 2-3 reasons that YOU would choose to be known, how can you expect your customers to list ONE?

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Article Tags: differentiate yourself, personal branding, sales, sales professionals



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