015: Brand YOU
Brand YOU
Just like the products marketed and sold by you, my sales and marketing superstars, YOU are a brand. Think about the work you do – how could you possibly market or sell your product if you didn’t know that product inside and out? How would you know WHO to market it to, or how to present that product in a way that is meaningful to the intended audience?
Without this knowledge, you’re really firing into the dark, hoping something will hit the mark. Yet this is how many people approach the job market…as a product without a clearly defined brand, no understanding of who should buy that product or why, or what benefits the buyer will receive from their purchase. This is a train wreck waiting to happen, and this is why people so often end up in jobs that don’t fully utilize their preferred skills, or in companies that don’t fit with their ideal employer profile.
I want to give you my favorite questions for determining my clients’ brand. This is a significant piece of the work I do with my clients in formulating their branded resume, and this work also helps tremendously with prepping for the job interview.
In episode 7, I talked about getting crystal-clear on your brand, and here are the questions I mentioned in that episode:
What do I do differently, and better, than others in my field?
What do I dislike about how others in my profession go about this work, and what is my solution?
What feedback do I consistently receive about my strengths?
Here are three questions you can ask others to determine your brand:
What do I do better than anyone else you know?
If you had to compare me to a model of car (or type of appliance, or breed of dog…choose whichever one is most meaningful to you), what type of car would I be and why?
What three adjectives best describe me?
During a resume strategy phone call with my clients, I ask them what their five main brand messages are. I preface this question by telling them that I want specifics…I want to get granular with information that will differentiate them from every other person they will be competing for a position with.
If you went to a car dealership and asked the salesperson about a specific vehicle you were interested in, would you want the salesperson to tell you the car has a steering wheel, four tires, and an engine? Of course not. You would want to know about the safety features…gas mileage… entertainment and navigation systems…warranty.
The equivalent for brand YOU is to tell me you are a hard-worker (steering wheel), highly motivated (four tires), and have X years’ experience (engine). BORING. Tell me about your record of turning around underperforming sales departments and leveraging outsourcing to minimize costs and maximize productivity, your ability to conceptualize and produce strategic go-to-market plans based on thorough research and sound methodology, and your experience with quarterbacking strategic and innovative marketing and branding strategies for B2B and B2C segments (these are all from a client I’m currently working with, and he’s definitely a marketing superstar). This work requires an objective eye to your career, and often asking those you’ve worked with or working with a professional like me is the best way to view yourself objectively.
When my clients stall out on this question, I invite them to think in two possible ways:
What am I consistently called upon to do? Is it turning around underperforming departments like my client, is it building departments from the ground up to become showpieces for the organization like I have done, is it mentoring and coaching so team members perform at their peak?
Here’s the other question: What’s my secret sauce? HOW do I accomplish what I accomplish? Is it my ability to secure the best talent in the industry and keep them? Is it my ability to build long-term relationships with customers? Is it seeing potential in a customer and presenting that customer with solutions to their problems that catapult my company’s bottom line?
One more word about developing your brand messages: Sometimes it’s not so much the individual aspects of your brand, but rather the combination of those brand attributes that makes you different.
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