BRAND “Me” --- Sell "yourself" first then your products/services

In selling ( and in my opinion in personal life too), our customers first “buy” us and then our product/services.

So, what is our brand ? is it the name of the business organization for which we are working for or is it our own ideology, our value system, our own behavior that is making the business happen (i.e.the sales)? Just think it over, the customers who are giving business to you- how much they are closer to you -what type of personal rapport you are enjoying with them- how much in your absence they are branding you with your own colleagues. The answers to these questions are difficult to obtain-because in real life very few people practice on “personal branding” -but those who do it-they are successful too.

So, what is your personal brand? How do you get a brand? How do you create a brand?

Think about the following :

• Is there any book available in the market  -who can make you as a brand -even if any book/s are available also, trust me -they are not pragmatic enough to work for you.
• Also, think about your self i.e.” me” –it is you who can work for your self only –and if you working for your self and if you are getting something too-then don’t keep it to your self rather follow the principle “give to get”.
• Another important aspect which one must follow is “ how much promotion you are doing about your self and to what extent your own promotion is combined with advertising “. In other words, how successful we are in promoting ourself -i.e.making our visibility along with our strengths and then in turn how much there is the acceptance among our own colleagues or with the people whom we are working with that they are doing advocacy about us and about our products and services? Maybe, in real life -very few people or maybe negligible--- we need to do introspection on this.
• And, finally, how hard we work -how smart we work -how much - dedicated we are -how much combined we are with our self-belief as it helps our own personal brand to proliferate more than anything.

So, Personal Branding is :

1. You need to create demand for your product or service not directly but indirectly (i.e. the features, the attributes, the value proposition which you are trying to sell for your product must match with your own value system)

2.Is the business community with which you are working have confidence in you? This answer you and only you can give -think it over -why they don’t trust you -why they not like you -why they have not confidence in you -as a respected high caliber individual.

3. Have you established your self as an expert? Do your customers (aka Doctors) consider you as your business consultant ? do they seek your opinion for a particular therapy or disease area? If no, then who is at fault? If your own product knowledge, your own competitor knowledge is poor then who is responsible for it?

4. Do your customers ( internal as well as external ) see you as Leader? – As a professional are you capable of speaking publicly-can you lead the team -are your interpersonal skills strong enough to take you to place and lead the people?

5. Be an innovator –  Do your customer view you as a resource -do they find any value in you ? do you try to do value addition every time -I mean in every successive professional visit -is your next call is different from the previous call? Do your Doctors admire you because every time you try to bring something new/informative to them which they don’t know?

6. Always separate yourself from the competition  - Are you in a position to stand first in the queue?

My mentor always use to tell me that if you want to succeed in life –“work just a little extra as compared to your competitors” .Now here this extra is the catch word-if you how much your competitors are working then probably you can deliver that ”extra”

7. Gain professional stature – You own stature is subjective -as it is determined always by others.

It is you only who has the capacity to stand always tall with your own action in comparison to your competitors.

8. Build your image –  Think it over – you always want to be an achiever -but -but -are you doing 100% very month -month by month -quarter by quarter -year -by year – if yes ---then your image is the same what you are trying to present to your audience ( and that we call it as an identity). So is your identity is transmitted the same as you are thinking internally and then it is getting transmitted also in the same manner as you need/want, and this we call it an Image.

9. Always be willing to give of yourself -first- as I strongly believe that that the more you give, the more you get-so don’t keep anything to your self -try to give as much as you can -and it will make you more successful.

10.  And last but not the least –do with your own efforts and outreach -among your customers -is your own cell phone “ringing” among the qualified “customers/prospects” you are desiring or thinking of? If yes, then probably you are successful.

                                                          **************