How Do You Evaluate Your Brand?

When it comes to marketing, maintaining a very good brand always allows a certain product to stand out from the rest. It defines it, and gives it a certain position in the entire pie of the market.

Specifically in the Philippines, "old companies" tend to take for granted the proper branding of their new product releases. In fact without the good product releases they had before, they would not have been taken into consideration by the market.



Relating this to our sales lessons, I want to cite a few but very important issues.


1. You have to know the position of the brand you are selling.



Be familiar with the details of your brand. Your market share, sales trends, your direct competitors, rational of features, and etc.
This will prepare you more in handling possible objections on your sales call with your prospect. With the kind of brand knowledge you have, you are able to add persuasion points on sales negotiation.


2. Having a proper background of your brand will help you see which buttons to push.


Again, this relates to know the needs and wants of your prospect. When you have complete know how of your brand, filling in the needs of your prospect allows you to sell in the most persuasive way possible.
Even to this day, whenever I attend a marketing cascade about a product, I still take note of the important details of a brand. Whether you are a season salesperson or a sales manager knowing your brand is vital to our selling success.


Anyway to learn more on how to evaluate you brand, here's another great post from McLellan Marketing Group.

If you want my views on why branding matters...check out these posts:

• Are you brave enough to walk away from business?
• Be bold or go home!
• Best practice: branding
• Mark Twain...the branding expert

But let's assume you agree with me -- branding matters. If you think your company has a brand...how do you evaluate whether or not it's a good one?

Here are some criteria we use with clients when helping them either discover their brand or critique the one they have in place.

• It's evergreen (this is not something you'll need to change on a regular basis. It will always be true about you.)
• It's not a duh (if consumers already assume this about everyone in your category -- it can't be your brand.)
• Memorable (If it doesn't stick, it won't work.)
• The flag to rally around for your employees (Will they be excited and proud to help you achieve this brand?)
• True - inside and out (You can't be one company to your customers and another to your employees)
• A why or a how - not the what (how you create widgets differently or why you do it builds a brand..not that you make widgets. Everyone in your category makes widgets.)
• Makes you a little nervous (A brand needs to be a bold promise to get noticed and to matter.)
• Emotion based (We buy everything based on emotions. If your brand doesn't trigger an emotion, it will also not trigger a sale.)
• Differentiate you (Isn't that what a brand is all about. It sets you apart from everyone else.)
• Should dovetail with your mission/vision (Your internal goals and your public brand should be aligned or else one of them is off base.)
• From the consumer's point of view (it's about them after all!)
• I can tell -- it matters to me (the consumer has to be able to recognize and evaluate your brand promise. If you make the promise but I can't figure out if you kept it or not, we have trouble.)
• Big enough to trigger a buying decision (your point of difference has to be significant enough that I'd open my wallet)

If you can say "yes, that's my brand" to most of these criteria -- you have a brand that will endure and that your employees, customers and community will embrace and support. But if you can't get a 10 out of 12 on this little test (it requires quite a bit of candor) then you know it's back to the drawing board.

To read more click the source below.

Source

Features and Benefits

Basic Selling Lesson #2

Features and Benefits – What’s the big difference?

I remember my Sales Manager told me this before, “convert our product features into customer benefits and ultimately increase the number of productive calls you make in a day”.

Now I would like to rephrase what my Sales Manager said, “a product’s Feature can only describe or tell what the product is all about, but only custom-fit Benefits can convince the prospect to buy”. Of course, the features can certainly create a buyer’s interest but until a salesperson can convert that interest into custom-fit benefits, the buyer is still considered a prospect because he has not made up his mind into buying the product.

To make it simple, let’s define it this way – “Features only tell and custom-fit Benefits sell”.

Here are some examples

Features:

- has vitamins A & B

- automatic timer

- auto lock system

Translating this into benefits:

- Mr. Prospect our product is filled with vitamins A & B which will greatly make your kids stronger and healthier, therefore saving you cost for buying additional benefits (like vitamins or medicines).

- Mr. Prospect with the automatic timer settings in our air conditioner, you have the freedom to turn off the system by itself and then save electricity

- Mr. Prospect with our new auto lock system, you do not have to worry of leaving your car unlocked since you can choose a time delay for the automatic locking

Actually the great sales trainer Dick Gardner said it best, “features cost us money and benefits takes home the money”. While both are crucial for the sales process, the conversion of the features into benefits should be the main focus of a salesperson’s persuasion in the prospect’s mind.

Let me end this lesson by telling you a story.

Back when I was an Account Specialist for one of the biggest ice cream brands in the Philippines, I thought of getting a sideline to increase my monthly net earnings. During that early stage in my career, I already knew that being dependent in one income stream will not give me the kind of life I dreamed of.

On the weekends I joined an insurance company that sell investments, mutual funds, term-life insurance, health care, and death plans. I went there for three consecutive weekends to undergo training for different plan presentations. They taught us how to make a prospect’s list, how to get an appointment and etcetera. After that I was on my own to sell. Since I had a regular list of customers, thanks to my day job, I scheduled for an appointment with one of my closest customers who has an ice-cream shop (in the Philippines we call it a “suki customer”).

In my sales call, my presentation was superb. I was following what my sales insurance mentor taught me. I pushed for the higher benefit plans. I mentioned good examples and situations. I felt I had him in the palm of my hands but suddenly when I tried to close, he would not buy.

I got confused. He told me so many reasons why it was not good to buy, and one big reason he told me was “your products are good but I don’t think it can do anything for me”. When I heard those words, I immediately realized that I was not acting as a co-buyer to the customer.

It dawned on me that I was just presenting to him and mentioned only other people’s stories but I never really converted it to his personal Benefits. I knew then that I have to give him what he needs. Then I remembered this phrase “Features tell, Benefits sell”. So with that in mind, I immediately went back to the first stage of negotiation. I went through all the presentation again and this time I mentioned the features and custom-fit benefits that he would gain from it.

I ended up selling my first insurance sale, and gaining one important lesson that I will never forget.

Again it is this simple, “Features tell, Benefits Sell”.

Well that’s it for today. Join me again for my next coming post.

Dedicated to your selling success,

Sales Mentor TM

How to turn SOCIAL NETWORKING into sales!

Social networking tools like Face Book, Linked In and Twitter are not just social networking tools but should be used as ways to create relationships and create real sales. This is a whole new world that is exploding with sales opportunities and not just a way to find old college buddies. Social networking is for more than just making connections but for making sales! 

Go into this with the idea that you are going to use social networking to increase your contacts, get them thinking and talking about you and then covert those contacts into contracts! Unfortunately or fortunately depending on who you are, most people are just using this tool to entertain and waste time. 

Getting started is as simple as entering your email address into any of these sites, what you do with after that is what counts. Focus on what image you want to create and how to get people to see your site and the creative ideas of how to stay connected with those people. 

Getting to the right person at the right time with the right presentation is what creates the sale. And that is what these sites can and should do for you. With the economy much tighter it is critical that salespeople increase the number of opportunities they personally create and not wait for something to happen. Social networking tools are transforming the salesperson's sales efforts.

First, understand this is not a place to waste time and meander but to connect with those that can propel your business. When I use social networking I am looking to connect with those that can either promote my business or directly see and buy my products. If my old college mates can help me great then go after them but that should not be your primary purpose when using these tools.

Your Sales Mentor's Opinion:

Hi everyone, I got this post from Technorati. I think this is where the future is going. 

As salespeople we too should be looking to the future and be open to the changes even before it happens, so that we are always a step ahead. Although for now not many Filipinos take advantage of this social media sites (it is still a good site to keep in touch with friends by the way), but we too have to learn how to take advantage of this sites as one of our best selling areas in which we can use even for free. 

We can even open new accounts connected to, or related to the products/services we are selling, and inform a lot of possible prospects just by befriending them and adding getting our accounts added to their list of contacts.

The key here is on how to choose the prospects and to look for groups which you think will be interested in what you are selling. 

To continue reading the Article of Grant Cardone please click here.

    

Want to learn more about the internet and how to earn from it?

Meet my friend James Parmis and click his written name and subscribe to his blog. He will teach you the step by step process on how to earn online. 

Anyway that's it for our sales lesson update, hope you had fun reading my article.

Dedicated to your selling success,

Sale Mentor TM

Are you playing the competitor's game?

I'm not good at sitting idle.  So if I am stuck waiting for some reason, I get antsy.  To kill that time, I'll fire up my smart phone and play a game (or two) of Hearts.  In the game, by default I am player south.  (4 players sitting around a table, each designated by a direction.)

  

My arch nemesis is player north.  He is the shrewdest of the computerized players and if anyone is going to beat me, it's him.  (Stay with me, I promise there is a marketing message in here!)

I have played Hearts (usually with real people so don't feel too sorry for me!) for many years and I'm pretty good.  I have a sound strategy that has been time tested so I rarely need to vary from it.  But...the fact that north is good and is my most worthy opponent throws me off that track.

I find that I play differently when I am overly-conscious of trying to beat him in particular.  And in fact, the more I purposely change the way I play to thwart him....the more I lose. If I stay disciplined enough to play my own game my own way -- I rarely lose.

(Did you notice the marketing message I snuck in there?)

We all run the same risk in running our businesses and planning our marketing.  Way too many businesses invest too much time and energy worrying about what their competitor is doing.  Then, they change their own game plan to chase after the other guy -- emulating or trying to outdo.

I found this great site which discusses practical marketing strategies that will definitely help us improve our sales carriers and future business. 

This article is from Drew McLellan a top Dog McLellan Marketing Group. As a salesperson I have long understood that for us to improve we need to be completely open and aware of the new and current ideas that are available for us. Yet with this concept from Drew, we are reminded that we also need to "stick with our own guns" if we want to have our own cut of the total Marketshare. 

To continue reading Drew's article please click here.

I assure you Drew will give you great advice on your marketing endeavors.

Again see you next time. 

Dedicated to your selling success,

Sales Mentor TM