Personal Branding For Sales Professionals - How To Do It Right

In our world, “standouts” – means the person, who receive more from life. The personal branding in these individuals are:

Clear and straightforward, but at the same time, a profound idea that comes from within a person and is a guide for others.

A vivid and memorable image that is easy to distinguish in a crowd.

Known and recognizable personality.

“Big Companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the age of individuals, you have to be your brand.

Here’s what it takes to be CEO of „Me Inc” as mentioned by Tom Peters

– Do you need a personal brand?

– Yes, if:

You have a dream or a unique idea;

You want to be recognizable;

You want to differ from competitors;

You want to have a constant flow of customers;

You want to set the cost of your services above the market average;

You want to engage in various businesses under your own name;

And, most importantly, you want to be free, but at the same time make good money, choosing with whom and under what conditions to cooperate.

Step 1. Analyze yourself and your competitors

Before you start, you need to determine what goals to pursue to create a personal brand. For example:

• What would I like to be known for? 
• What do I want people to say about me?
   

Next, you need to analyze what resources you already have to achieve the goal. To simplify the task, let’s distinguish two components of a personal brand: internal and external.

Internal includes personal characteristics, professional knowledge, skills. External includes the image, appearance. This is the physique, clothing, and environment.

Conduct an audit: what qualities and skills do you possess. The obtained information will form the basis of the personal brand.

Step 2: Strategy

After a qualitative and detailed analysis of the current situation, a strategy for building a personal brand must be adopted. So you need to answer the questions:

• Who should know about me?
• How and to whom my knowledge and skills can be useful the most?
• Who will get the most value from interacting with me?

Those partners and customers whose wishes you can satisfy better than anyone else will be more loyal to you. After determining the audience, you need to do your positioning:

If you are forming a personal brand in a highly competitive market, it is better to direct efforts to one narrow segment of the market where you are guaranteed to have an advantage.

But if the market is not very competitive, I recommend thinking about several segments.

Your positioning is related to the product position in the market. For example: „I’m an expert in marketing. My strength is building food brands of clothes. My unique advantage is the ability to create branded content.”

Step 3. Strategy Implementation

At this stage, you need to show in practice that you are the expert which your audience needs.

Your offer should be adequately „packaged.”

1. Start working on your external component. Control what message is about your appearance: what impression do you make, does it match the message that you are trying to broadcast?

Your image becomes an integral part of creating a personal brand that you can easily profit from.

Therefore, everything must correspond to your goals.

2. All your public behavior must be consistent with the positioning that you have chosen for yourself.

Each step should aim at communicating your value to the audience. Find the available communication channels:

• Speeches at conferencesPublications in the media 
• Communication with other market participants
• Social networks and blogs
• Entries in blogs, posts in social networks, comments

Your contact details should be in sight so the audience can easily contact you. You need to manifest yourself. But, before writing or saying something, you need to think which value your words will bring to your target audience.

Step 4. Figuration

When you decide what idea you’ll invest in your activities, and set all your goals, then move on to designing your brand.

Those who will meet you on their way will understand who you are, what idea you are bringing to this world, and what you want to say to them.

Figuration is necessary to establish regular and transparent communication with your target audience and transfer of your message.

There are several external attributes that you should have to attend to :

• Name (alias)
• Slogan (credo)
• Logotype
• Website
• Business card
• Appearance (image)

If there is something extraordinary in your appearance – be sure to use this ? the important thing is to be yourself and natural.

Step 5. Promotion

To get viral coverage of an idea, use the theory of the pyramid: propagate your product/content through opinion leaders and make them your ambassadors! In Everett Rogers’s work of 1962, „Diffusion of Innovation,” he explains how, why, and with what speed new ideas and technologies are spreading through specific channels among members of social systems.

Where to begin?

• Networking (make a list of events that your target audience visits and get your head straight for those events);
• PR. The easiest and quickest way – is to get to the pages of web resources or publications that your potential customers read;
• Events (event marketing is the shortest way to create a community of your fans );
• Media advertising;
• Affiliate marketing

Decide on the strategy of promotion: how much and what kind of social services you will have.How often will you publish in them?

Understand your client.

You need to look at yourself through the eyes of your potential client and control his behavior as much as possible.

Don’t be afraid, test and analyze what works better.

After a while, all your efforts will pay off, and you will receive all the benefits that personal branding gives!

We bring you 3 personal branding examples with key takeaways that you can use to build your brand from the group up:

1. Neil Patel

He is the co-founder of four multi-million dollar companies – HelloBar, CrazyEgg, QuickSprout, and Kissmetrics. Every digital marketer comes to know about Neil at some point during his learning curve. Creating a personal brand is an intellectual journey that will fill your life with meaning and open hundreds and thousands of new opportunities for achieving your goals.

Most people are unable to scale their businesses or achieve great success due to a lack of demand and popularity.

And that’s why Neil is successful.

He used his popularity and established a brand among his target audience (digital marketers) to turn simple tools into four million dollars

2. Jeff Weiner

Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, and, yes, even though he is CEO of LinkedIn- is relatable.

Staying active on social platforms, such as LinkedIn, and placing content this way makes Jeff unforgettable for everyone. Let it be known that a stellar LinkedIn profile forms a successful personal brand.

3. Richard Brandson

Richard Branson has 10 million followers on LinkedIn.

His personal brand is so powerful that he showers glitter and gold over every single Virgin brand because of his iconic, entrepreneurial status.

“Branding demands commitment; commitment to continual re-invention; striking chords with people to stir their emotions; and commitment to imagination.  It is easy to be cynical about such things, much harder to be successful”

If you have already created an influential personal brand, or if you are just starting out, you can never stop growing.

Pay attention to the guys at the top of their game.

They are people who offer excellent and proven advice.