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How do you fix a sales relationship that got started the wrong way? Shari Levitin (@sharilevitin), author of Heart and Sell knows how. This sales expert, who is a friend of the redoubtable Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath), takes you through the steps of getting a sales relationship back on track in her article “How to Recover After Getting Off on the Wrong Foot.”

The reason I find this article so useful is that it’s not just about recovering a sales relationship; really, it’s about fixing any human relationship that you’ve messed up. (Anyone who reads my posts with any regularity knows that I think we’re all in sales every day, even though that’s not our job title.

Here’s what Ms. Levitin recommends.

“Admit Your Missteps.” In my opinion, this is really hard to do, which is what makes it essential. Ms. Levitin says, “Its always tempting to blame other people or external circumstances for our missteps, but when you do this, you fail to grow.” How true. I can think back, with embarrassment, of many times when I may have looked or even sounded contrite, but it was clear that I was palming my failure off on someone else. (I bet you can too.)

“Put the Shoe on the Other Foot.” In other words, be empathic. Really, truly listen to what your customer is saying. Ms. Levitin says, “You may or may not be able to make things better but you can start to mend the relationship.” Empathy is wonderful, but I think it may take practice. We’re living in a fast-moving world, and I wonder how many of us think there’s much reward in empathy.

“Don’t Get De-Feeted.” This suggestion speaks to our all-too-human desire to fix things fast, whether it’s a problematic sales relationship or our relationship with our Aunt Maude. Ms. Levitin suggests the we ask our customer what they’d like to do. She also cautions against making promises we can’t keep. And she says, “If you can’t fulfill a promise, proactively create new agreements, then make sure to follow through.” If this last idea seems just a little off, think about it. We all want what we want when we want it, but remember how you felt when the customer service rep suggested an acceptable alternative. Maybe not overjoyed, but reasonably o.k.

Moving a sales relationship that didn’t start well—or any relationship for that matter—forward requires courage, competence, and creativity. I’d like to think I’ve got those qualities at the ready, and I’m guessing that you do too.

Ion Chiosea — 123rf.com  

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged about sales success, but I recently ran across this great HBR article by Joseph Curtis, VP of enterprise sales at Salesforce and couldn’t resist writing about it. “The 5 Things All Great Salespeople Do” details what sets successful salespeople apart from their peers and sheds light on why they consistently outperform everyone else in their organizations.

The first thing top salespeople do is “own everything.” That means they take responsibility even when a situation they find themselves in is not their fault. They don’t blame the territory, the management, or anything else. This brings the blush of shame to my cheeks. Many years ago, as the first saleswoman hired by Dictaphone in Washington, DC. I blamed everyone for everything. I got the rookie territory, there weren’t enough demo machines to leave with prospects, the paperwork was onerous . . . You get the picture.

Here are the other four things the best salespeople do:

1. They are resourceful; they are MacGyvers. As Mr. Curtis puts it, they assess their strengths in the face of difficult circumstances and make things happen. “Resourcefulness is as much a mindset as it is a skill . . . If you don’t start with the MacGyver mindset, then you will never fully develop the skills associated with being resourceful.” Mr. Curtis recommends that the next time you find yourself in a difficult position, you put down your phone, turn off your computer, and focus on alternative ways to get to your goal.
2. They are experts. “Sales,” says Mr. Curtis, “is less about selling and more about leading, which requires high levels of confidence, which in turn requires knowledge and experience.” So work on acquiring industry knowledge and a point of view about what you’re selling. Don’t, as I and my less-successful colleagues did, blame the product for our failure to sell it.
3. They help each other. Mr. Curtis notes, “Regardless of where you are in your career, there is someone else you can help. I remember with gratitude the sales guys who helped me, even though they did rib me a bit for general ineptitude. As a writer, I’ve been grateful for the wisdom others passed along when I started my business and am happy to say that I’ve been able to pay it forward.
4. They move quickly. These professionals are not reckless, but they do have a sense of urgency. They respond without delay. They do what needs to be done to help customers and prospects make an affirmative decision.

Those of you who read my posts know that I believe we are all in sales even if that’s not our official job title. We’re endlessly persuading others to do what we’d like them to do—whether it’s to go out with us, accompany us on a run, mow the lawn. You name it. Life is filled with possibilities to put our sales and leadership abilities to work, and I believe we’re all the better off for it when we do.

Antonio Diaz — 123rf.com

What comes to mind when you think about self-sabotage? It’s an expression that doesn’t enter the personal lexicon of many, but to many others, it brings up memories of behaviors that make them want to sink through the floor and disappear from sight.

At the beginning of the New Year, eager to set some new directions, I read a wonderful article by Ted Leonhardt (@tedleonhardt), a Seattle-based designer and illustrator, former creative director, and publisher. Not only was the article interesting and frank—Mr. Leonhardt detailed his fears and failures without sugarcoating—it captured me because I felt as though he had seized my lapels and was talking to me.

Early on in his article, Mr. Leonhardt says, “I was so afraid of failure, and I let my flight-or-fight tendency take over. And rather than confronting my fear head-on, I chose to push it away … ” In a story about a presentation to a potential client, Mr. Leonhard tells of being so “afraid to discover what I didn’t know,” that he essentially decided to wing it and do minimal preparation.

The result? The CEO’s name was misspelled on the first page of the presentation (which the CEO pointed out.) To make matters worse, Mr. Leonhardt offered samples of his firm’s work that were irrelevant. The  executive sponsor who had gotten him the hearing refused to meet his eyes, and Mr. Leonhardt left as quickly as he could. Interestingly enough, the night before the presentation, he had spent several hours talking to waitstaff at a local diner. All had worked at the prospect’s company, and all had good ideas and suggestions which he had the good sense to incorporate. Alas, this was a classic case of too little, too late.

So how did Mr. Leonhardt get past his appetite for self-sabotage? He notes that his conversations at the diner had been fun and further, “Had I made an effort to do something like this several weeks earlier, my meeting might have ended differently.” His solution, which will work for any of us, was to realize that he could move past his fear by focusing, instead, on his clients’ needs and concerns. By choosing to shift the emphasis from himself to areas where his expertise could be helpful, he got the confidence he needed. “The more I thought about how I can help, the more confident I get. I can then start to plan and find myself enjoying the challenge of solving the puzzle. Before I know it, I’m in a state of creative flow.”

As a writer, I often reflect on the power of words and how we can use them to reframe a situation. A while back, I saw a video in which a group of people changed “have” to “get to.” I have to do the laundry becomes “I get to do the laundry,” which can start a cascade of thoughts around how fortunate we are to have washing machines, how good it feels to see a pile of folded laundry, how nice it smells, and so on. In a more limited sense, this is what I think Mr. Leonhardt is talking about. When you get right down to it, laundry or large, fear-provoking project, you’re choosing to “tell yourself a different story, one that gets you to take positive steps, rather than remain paralyzed with fear.”

Ioulia Bolchakova — 123rf.com

There’s nothing esoteric about brand leadership. It is, in fact, a concept that can—and should—be demonstrated in the actions an organization takes every day. Chris Wren (@chriswrenla), who contributes to Branding Strategy Insider, has recently shared some excellent thinking about it.

Brands and the Shut Down

He takes as his example what Chase and Kraft did during the recent and highly stressful government shut down. Among other things, Chase—and other banks as well—offered 0% interest loans and canceled overdraft fees to help strapped families. And Kraft quickly put together a pop-up store in Washington, DC to allow government employees to pick up Kraft products for free. Kraft also invited other brands to participate.

 An aside: a 2014 report from the Federal Reserve notes that nearly half of Americans can’t come up with $400 in emergency expenses without borrowing or selling something. Though it’s five years later, I’m betting that this scary situation has probably not improved.

Mr. Wren points out that consumers want their brands “ … to do more; to take a stand.” From everything I’ve been reading, this is a particular requirement millennials have of the brands they embrace. To want a brand to stand for something is all about its purpose.

“Brand,” as Mr. Wren says, “goes hand in hand with your vision – where you want to go and what you want to become.” A sense of purpose resonates through an organization and informs the behavior employees display toward customers and each other. And when a company does good during times of need, “authentic good will translates into real value that consumers will associate with these brands.”

On a Personal Level

So how does brand leadership translate into our personal lives? Most of us are familiar with the concept of the personal brand (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_branding), which, in my opinion, can seem a bit cynical when you read the definition on Wikipedia. On the other hand, maybe not. If you look at what brands did during the recent shut down, meeting people’s needs in a straightforward way, associates them with good, even if that good is ultimately associated with making money. If we step out our doors every day with the intention to be kind, to be patient, to be compassionate, and to give our daily work our best, then even when we fail, we’re still better people than if we hadn’t embraced that purpose.

 Phaisarn Wongkulchata — 123rf.com

 

What makes great brand messaging? Marcia Yudkin (@marciasmantras), one of my favorite marketing experts, spoke about creating captivating brand messages in a November 2017 post. By the way, if you want to learn more about getting a solid marketing concept across in next-to-no-words, I recommend subscribing to “The Marketing Minute.” This nugget of wisdom pops into your inbox once a week and delivers a fabulous return on the minute you’ll invest in reading it.

But I digress.

In her post, Ms. Yudkin mentions a travel company that organizes trips to Tibet. Impressed by her visit to its website, she requested a report featuring essential travel tips. The report—which she found “remarkably informative”—was chock-full of do’s and don’ts, sample itineraries, and other valuable information. Subsequent emails, she noted, were equally helpful. “What a great example this is of building credibility, inspiring trust and extending a hand to interested strangers!”

The key to great brand messaging she says is understanding your audience and what it might need to know about a topic, service, or product. “Be specific,” Ms. Yudkin says. “Be surprising. And be significant.” That is, eschew fluff.

When writing for technology, specificity—the nuts and bolts—goes without saying. Yet, why not try for surprise, significance, or an interesting juxtaposition? If you were writing about your company’s latest generation of storage servers, what would you say that would make your readers sit up and take notice?

silvae – 123rf.com

 

How do you create a relevant and engaging brand experience?

Darren Coleman, author of Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance, describes it as both a creative and systematic process. At least in my opinion.

In a recent article, he presents four elements of the brand experience environment, which is the context in which your brand and associated experiences are built.

You start by understanding your stakeholders. (When I was in grad school, we’d ask “Who’s your audience?”) Start by building personas because it “ … provides a powerful platform for building relevant brand experiences.” Then, engage your stakeholders. Mr. Coleman mentions the #OREODunkSweepstakes, which makes me think of a delicious, once-crunchy Oreo baptized with espresso. (Worth every WW point, too.) And, of course, you manage your stakeholders’ expectations because overpromising and underdelivering is “tatamount to brand experience suicide.”

After understanding your stakeholders and managing their expectations, you must fine-tune your perspective. Embrace transparency, says Mr. Coleman, and offers millennials as his example. They are “drawn to brands based on who they are, what they stand for, and why they exist.” Make sure that building a robust brand experience doesn’t stop at marketing but spans the entire organization from HR to operations and facilities. Compete through value, rather than price. All the cost-cutting in the world won’t help if customers don’t see the value in your product or service. As Mr. Coleman puts it, “ … even in austere times customers make buying decisions based on factors other than price.” Be patient. It takes time to build a brand experience. Fast-growing brands like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are the exception, not the norm. Don’t freak out at having less control than in the past. Monitor real-time data feeds so you know what’s going on with your brand and, by all means, work with social influencers to shape what you can.

Next, consider how to deliver your brand experience. Emotional appeal is critical. Mr. Coleman says, “Irrespective of the market you operate in you need to understand how you want to make your stakeholders feel then build experiences that help you do that.” Empower your customers to co-create. That is, allow them to personalize products or build their own stories about their relationship with your brand. Doing so “engenders a sense of control,” which (in my opinion) we’re sadly lacking in today’s world. And create experiences that span all channels. Omnichannel is powerful.

Finally, be data-driven. Mr. Coleman says, “Insight, not anecdote, needs to drive the brand experience building decisions you make.” Boards like numbers, but don’t forget including qualitative insights for a holistic approach. Don’t neglect employee and brand metrics for a sole focus on financial metrics.

I’m looking forward to reading Mr. Coleman’s book. The article summarized here is persuasive in its emphasis on creating a brand experience environment that works in today’s business climate. I’m thinking that it will be as useful to start-ups as it is to established companies that have decided to rebrand.

melpomen — 123rf.com

What is an employer brand, and how do you create one?

Most of us are acquainted with the basics of branding, at least the customer-facing variety. But how many of us have done much thinking about the employer brand. Adam Fridman has, and he delineates “3 Essentials to Crafting a Thriving Employer Brand,” in a recent article for Branding Strategy Insider.

Pointing to the power of customer experience to “snowball and reach millions over the course of a few hours,” he notes that “branding now requires attention from the inside out.”

A company’s employer brand must be as strong as its customer-facing brand. That is, its reputation as a place to work and its employee value proposition must be as carefully thought out and consistently executed as a brand targeted at customers.

A healthy employer brand is built on three essentials:

Purpose

Simply put, purpose is not about the corporate mission statement, to which many employees pay scant attention “because it has nothing to do with the day to day operations of the organization.” Purpose, Mr. Fridman says is an intrinsic motivator that transcends profit. His example is Apple, whose purpose is to think different, to be all about being the best. Purpose drives inspiration, and inspiration is why employees do what they do, day in and day out.

Values

If purpose is foundational to the employer brand, values build on purpose and provide a framework for the decisions that organization leadership—and by extension, employee—make. Values are not the same as business objectives, but they influence them and keep an organization moving in the right direction. For example, maximizing profit can be a company’s objective, but the underlying value could be “Yes, we want to be profitable but not at any cost.”

Habits

At the bottom of the pyramid, but by no means inconsequential, are habits. As Mr. Fridman puts it, “If a company’s mission statement isn’t authentic, true to its purpose, this is where the hypocrisy is exposed.” (I’m betting that every reader of this post can come up with an example here.)

So, what are habits? They’re the micro-actions that comprise daily operations, and they’re an essential target for the employer brand. Mr. Fridman comments that the micro-interventions used in positive psychology are a scalable way to establish and maintain an employer brand. Properly chosen, they can resonate across an entire work day, even though they take only minutes.

I’m from the era where people hired on, got a fast review of benefits (and maybe an employee handbook), and then plugged into their positions. Clearly, some companies were better than others to work for than others—and the word got around—but the concept of an employer brand didn’t seem to get that much thought. With the ubiquity of social media and the empowerment of the individual communicator, times have changed. Organizations would do well to make sure that their internal branding and employee perceptions of it are in sync. Because employees are, after all, customers, too.

mindscanner — 123rf.com

Fear is ubiquitous worldwide and so, it appears, is fear-based marketing.

Chris Wren (@chriswrenla) has recently contributed an excellent article, “Can Brand Value Overpower Fear-Based Marketing” to the Brand Strategy Insider content line-up. This piece draws on the ideas of many contemporary thinkers, so you should check it out for more detail. If you’re involved in branding—and frankly I think we all are in one way or the other—it’s worth the five minutes it will take you to read.

Mr. Wren starts by acknowledging the power of fear and scarcity to motivate action, noting that Brené Brown, a well-known TEDTalk speaker, considers the opposite of scarcity not to be abundance, as many think, but “enough.”

Citing Russ Henneberry at Crazy Egg, Mr. Wren says that fear is hardwired into our brains. When confronted by something fearsome, we wonder how likely it is to hurt us, how bad it will hurt, and whether we can avoid the pain.

But relying on fear can boomerang. Jennifer Perkins of Smith Brothers Agency warns that “Fear may cause people to stop and think momentarily, but in the long run, it may just cause frustration and actually have the opposite effect of what you had hoped for.” She advises making the interests of the target market and the advertiser congruent. Mr. Wren agrees, “There are legitimate reasons to highlight real threats that merit the attention of consumers. But we live in a world in which so many threats are wildly exaggerated or outright manufactured, that the role of an ethical brand is to consider which products, services and causes can only be effectively marketed using fear and limit their choices.” An interesting thought, and yet I wonder if this offers a bit too much latitude to some to continue their wicked ways.

Here are his thoughts for harnessing “the motivation of fear without relying on it:”

1. Tell the truth, even if it hurts. Or don’t and risk embarrassment.
2. Find ways remove anxiety.
3. Demonstrate gallant privacy stewardship.

In Brand Strategy Insider’s Facebook page, Bob Bhojwani comments: “We have got used to marketing the fear and then selling the solution instead of offering true value. (Consider the technology marketing collateral you may have read that predicts dire results, for example, for those network security is outdated.) And brand strategy consultant Brad Van Auken says “I personally believe that we marketers should pay more attention to people’s desires and less attention to their anxieties.”

Sounds good to me.

Ruslan Huzau — 123rf.com

 

I recently came across an article on the use of persuasion in branding, published by Branding Strategy Insider. Written by Paul Bailey (@paulmarkbailey), it makes an excellent case for the use of persuasion in branding strategy.

Mr. Bailey, a creative brand strategist, gets right to the point. He notes that “Persuasion is not the most fashionable of brand P-words right now — that honor goes to Purpose.” Your brand purpose could be, for example, improving wellness (my example, drawn from the current Weight Watchers rebranding effort.) And if done right, it can “encourage people to become interested and involved with a brand.”

Branding at its core

Mr. Bailey asks, “But is defining a purpose for your brand simply another way to persuade people that they should be interested in your brand, or want to join your brand ‘tribe’?”

Mr. Bailey might not put it this way, but his question gets to the core of what branding is all about. I believe that branding should clearly and persuasively present a brand’s purpose, whatever that purpose may be. These days, we hear a lot about influence and influencers, and Mr. Bailey reports a dialog he had with a peer who believes that branding strategists are driven by influence, not persuasion. He comments, “If we are being tasked by a brand owner . . .  to help them with a specific challenge for their brand, surely we have to accept that to seek to influence is not enough. We need to be increasing awareness and affiliation, but with the ultimate aim of encouraging desired actions – which fundamentally is persuading isn’t it?”

Not a dirty word

Like Mr. Bailey, I do not see persuasion as a dirty word in the context of branding, though ethics are involved. Certainly we would not want to persuade someone to do something wrong or self-injurious. And we should “believe that there is some value and benefit in the brand to people” before we make our attempt at persuasion.

Think about it. We persuade others—or at least try to—every day. Most of us have good intentions, so our persuasiveness is generally for a good cause, even if that good cause is ourselves. Most of the people we’re persuading are pretty smart about figuring out the purpose behind our words. So an attempt at persuasion is not necessarily beneath us or the influencers we recruit to speak for us.

Zsirosistvan — 123rf.com