If you were an agriculturist during the Old West, branding was easy. The hands of your ranchers heated artistically bent iron pieces and pressed them consistently to the sides of uninterested or unaware calves. The brand tied your cattle (a commodity) to your ranch, so they could use it to claim yours at round-up.
In banking, consulting, and many other fields, Marketing managers are now wearing their ranchers’ caps investing millions of dollars searching and creating a brand image to ignite brand irons.
Brand Delivery Failure
In many cases, however, the current branding process is broken down in the last stage, in which the brand is applied. Why? Because the brands aren’t being delivered on the ground by sales representatives. The companies have left the crucial final stage of the branding process up to chance, saying, “We must hold salespeople accountable for their performance and not how they create them.”
This is a failure of brand delivery. If every salesperson has their unique methods of working with customers and making sales, the sales team has created an impressive portfolio of brands rather than one consistent brand that you can use for all of your customers. If this occurs:
- Customers are confused about your messages and why they should remain your customers.
- Your business is at risk when customers leave key sales reps. Customers may choose to follow the consultant or sales rep they liked because that person and not your company will represent the brand for them.
- Each rep you place on the field will have an approach that is different from the previous broker and can cause confusion for your brand’s message.
Steps to Impress Your Brand
Four steps can help you increase your brand awareness on the ground, ensuring that your customers feel secure and happy to be connected to you.
First step: Translate your company’s image into a detailed description of the distinctive customer experience that communicates your company’s vision to potential customers.
For instance, if you plan to present your salespersons to be “trusted advisors” for your customers, they must be able to explain the experience of a trusted advisor from the perspective of the client. You should create clear and concise statements of expectations from the client regarding responsiveness, credibility, competence tangibles (like detailed brochures), and personal connections.
Step 2 Define the sales strategies and processes, the activities and the behaviors required to create an experience that is unique for customers, comprising:
- In the event that these tasks have to be performed,
- Whom they will be made,
- How often they’re completed, when, and
- What they’re going to do.
For instance: Do you send a confirmation agenda prior to the meeting? Are you sending thank-you letters or follow-up emails after-sales calls? If yes, what kinds and types of calls? What should the notes contain? How should they be presented? What is the proper format for them? What time should the following communication be held?
The descriptions should contain specific guidelines regarding the manner in which your employees should present themselves in an interview and how they give your company’s values as well as how they conduct their discussions, the materials for a presentation they utilize and how they apply them, as well as how they draft proposals. The principal consultants and accounting firms have practices standards that outline these aspects. Other service firms that are conscious of their brand images, such as Federal Express, McDonald’s, and British Airways, also have established guidelines.
3. Set methods to assess whether the experience is actually being provided and if the users enjoy it.
Take note of every possible aspect of customer service and the sales representatives’ performance. How? Direct observation by managers can be very effective. The ability to survey customers via interviews or pen-and-paper surveys (“Why you bought from us/not purchase from us”) is beneficial.
4. Constantly examine and rectify.
Consistency is essential to build the value of a brand. You’ll surely hear complaints of “you’re controlling us,” the message for sales representatives should be, “We’ve come up with a logo and method of advertising (delivering your brand) that generates income for us all. We’ll require you to utilize this method. We’ll help you learn our method of selling so that you can succeed, and so does our business. We’re looking for a united and consistent voice in our customers.”
Benefits of Consistency
There are three significant advantages of this strategy:
- The business is able to capture more of the value of its brand because the company is defining its brand, not individual consultants or salespeople. This creates the creation of institutional brand equity rather than personal brand equity.
- You will be able to identify and fix difficulties and breakdowns faster because there is a straightforward, clearly defined “right method” you’re measuring and coaching.
- It is easier to make changes quicker and more regularly (when your customers inform you that they’d like to make changes) when everyone is using the same branding procedure.
