Your Brand Matters...

Brand matters. Have people heard of you? What do they think of you? What is your reputation? What do they know about you? All of this factors into clients' decisions on who to hire.

Brand is an essential part of your career, your marketing, and your success. Thin about your favorite business and the odds are you are very aware of their brand and what message it sends out to the public. Brand can be your name but it also your business. Is Ralph Lauren a person or a brand? The answer is both, and that is true of so many of us as well.

Building your brand and marketing is not always easy for salespeople to do. But here are 10 questions, the answers to which can easily become the core of your marketing and brand.

• How did you get into your industry?
• What do you love about your career?
• How do your products / services help your clients?
• Tell us about you... family, hobbies etc?
• Who are you... coffee shop guy, outdoorsy gal, concert person, chef...?
• What do you offer your clients that your competitors don't?
• What do your clients say about you?
• What was your path to your current career (past jobs and professional experiences)?
• Where are you from?
• How do you give back... volunteering, charities etc?

These 10 questions tell your story. At the core of your answers is your brand. They can be used in marketing, sales presentations, on social media and everywhere else. But if you don't tell your story, you will never build your brand.

Clients and prospects want to know about you. They want to understand who they are doing business with. It is up to you to tell and control the story. Make sure to...

• Present your story in a positive uplifting way.
• Avoid politics, religion and other parts of your story that are controversial or that will cost you business.
• Showcase yourself as a person, not a salesperson.
• Look for common ground with your clients.
• Showcase but don't brag. Don't talk down about your competition and make your story feel inclusive to all.

These questions will help... hope they give you some great ideas for your brand and marketing. But know this... if you don't create and develop your brand others will. So decide what you want your brand to be and get to work building it.