Blog
Ayers Rock
October 18th, 2016

Power Your Sales & Margins with a Fine-Tuned Brand

You’re the senior executive responsible for business performance, business success, and shareholder returns. Whether you run a private or public enterprise, the revenue and profit your company generates is of vital concern. You consider every aspect of your business to maximize these numbers in alignment with your overarching business strategy and goals.

Of course, sales is a huge contributor and business function in achieving this success. It is an integral cog in the machine that drives revenue, and ultimately value, to the bottom line.

But ask yourself this. How close is the connection between your brand and your sales process, activity, message, and delivery?

It matters because if your sales process, activity, message, and delivery is not driven out of your brand then you are missing an incredible opportunity to generate more sales, and to secure those sales at higher margins.

I know this is a bold statement, but it’s based on the following rationale:

If your brand is one of the most unique and valuable assets your company owns, then selling your products (and/or services) through this “only you have it” value proposition, should distinguish you from your competition in meaningful and valuable ways. And if your products (and/or services) are also derived from and imbued with your brand, then logic says you can expect more sales at better margins.

The stipulation, however, is that your brand be built on a strong foundation and positioned so that it is unique, ownable, believable, desirable, defensible, sustainable, AND represents specific value to each customer group or segment.

This may sound like a tall order, or too costly to implement. Yet it’s not. Let me illustrate what your brand foundation should look like so your sales people can propose unique brand value to each customer group or segment.

To date, everything on which your company has been built is derived from a set of attributes and circumstances that may look like this:

  • Your unique capabilities, experience, and insights
  • Your specific knowledge, expertise, and ideas
  • Your market understanding, networks, relationships, and business acumen
  • Your end-user understanding and empathy
  • Your passion, which drives you to do what you do

All this combined is the bedrock on which your company and brand is built. It is what feeds your purpose.

illustration of brand story chart

  1. Brand Purpose—Why your brand exists, what it is here to achieve, and the difference it seeks to make in the world.
  2. Brand Pillars—The three or four distinct elements, which when aligned together in your brand, make it unique, important, meaningful, and secure.
  3. Brand Position—The place of value your brand strives to hold in the mind and heart of your customers and market.
  4. Brand Personality—The personification of your brand. Its tone, voice, and manner. How it speaks and communicates. How it acts and deals with others.
  5. Brand Story—The narrative that weaves together your Brand Purpose, Pillars, Position, and Personality, to engage and prepare your audience for the Brand Value Proposition that is uniquely crafted for them.
  6. Brand Value Propositions—Your brand’s value as it specifically relates to each customer group or segment. Derived from your Brand Pillars and Positioning, prioritized to convey why each customer group should want to engage with your brand. This is the foundation of your Unique Selling Proposition(s).
  7. Brand Customers—The different customer groups with whom you need to do business, and who need to appreciate the specific value your brand represents to them.

If you work diligently and with purpose to create a brand foundation as represented above, building in the unique value for each of your customers, you will have the strategic position you need to navigate around competitors, penetrate your markets, and sell your brand and products in greater volume to your customers, and at better margins.

Brands like this are all around us. They are the brands you seek out, are loyal to, and are willing to pay more for. Take a look at them and examine the brand. With this template in hand, you will likely be able to define why.

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