Monday, November 1, 2010

Branding in Sales: You, Your Company, Your Product

We all know how important branding is in marketing. Starbucks, Apple, BMW, etc. all rely heavily on the value of their brands to generate revenue. It is not so much what they produce as it is the repuation they have for producing high quality. It is their repuations that really make them successful.

Branding, however, is not only effective in major business-to-consumer coporations. It is also effective in the selling of any product or service by one person to another. It doesn't matter if you are selling to businesses or consumers--branding of your sales strategy will be the simplest way to acheive effective results. What is the reputation that you are offering? What does doing business with you entail? Ask yourself, what does it mean to buy from me? There are 3 stages to branding in sales: 1) branding yourself, 2) branding your company, and 3) branding your product.


  1. You: The first and most important aspect of your sales process to wrap a brand around is yourself! Who are you? What is your personality and how does it benefit your prospect? Doing business with you must be a pleasure...and a greater pleasure than doing business with your competitors! What do you offer as an individual? What are your greatest strengths and abilities? These are the questions you must ask yourself...and then you must answer them decisively! Establish a concrete vision of what embodies you as a salesman. That is your brand. Learn it and embrace it. The most important thing in sales is that people will buy YOU!
  2. Your Company: Unless you are an individual sales representative that is 100% self-employed and have no employees of your own, you represent a company when you are making a sale. It is important that you have a clear idea of what your company means to your prospect. What is your company's core competency? What is its competitive edge? Your company probably has more resources and capabilities than you do as an individual and you can leverage them to make your selling more effective. If you can create a clear and impressive image of your company and put it before your prospect, you are showing them that doing business with you is doing business with a trusted and well-established player in your industry.
  3. Your Product: No matter what you sell, you need to brand it. If is already branded, make every effort to understand what the brand means and what it offers. If your product doesn't have an existing brand, make one up. Give it a name. Give it an image. Give it meaning. How does buying your product benefit your customer? How does it benefit all customers? Never sell a commodity. Never sell something that can be replaced. Branding your product is a surefire way to make it indistinguishable. If branded effectively, your prospect will see your product stand out among those of your competitors.

Do you sell cars? What makes you different from other salesmen? What is the legacy of your dealership? What are the services that you offer that other dealerships cannot copy? Ask these questions whatever industry you are in. Do you sell insurance? Concrete? Hardware? Software? Membership? Whatever you sell, remember to focus on branding. Effectively brand yourself, your company, and your product, and you cannot go wrong. You are what you are perceived to be by your customer. Be something worth perceiving.

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