#68 - Talking About Your Brand

Okay, Bob, guess what? 

It's another episode of Let's Chat Sales, right? 

Let's Chat Sales! 

Yeah. 

And today we're gonna talk about, brand and having a brand as a business. 

Okay. 

Right.

I like that topic.

Yeah. 

Near and dear to my heart. 

So I know what you're gonna say. 

The first thing is, 

This is gonna make a really bad show then. 

Yeah. 

Brendan, Brendan first. 

Can I ask a question? What do you mean by brand? 

That's what you'd say. So 50 some episodes in and I'm starting to figure it out. 

Right? 

So what do I, excellent question you asked there, Bob.

Which is, like 

You're trying to replace me, literally, aren't you? 

So the thing about a brand is and this is where I think Seth Go in particular said this, and that is, the brand is not something you get to dictate. 

You can try to influence it, but the brand is what other people think of your company.

It's what they think your company stands. And Coca-Cola,

I spent a lot of time getting people to understand that Coca-Cola is equated with happiness and refreshment and what else? 

Whatever it else, it is, whatever that thing is that Coca-Cola is, is its brand. 

And so in the same way, we're gonna talk for a few minutes about, about your own brand and, and what does that mean.

Your own brand, your personal brand, or your company brand, because there are two different elements. 

Right? 

Now let's talk about just brand and how to influence it.

And then I think in a subsequent episode, we'll tackle the idea of a personal brand versus a

company brand and when, when you wanna have one versus the other.

You know, Brendan, as we think about branding, I always think about the fact that this is what they did on farms to brand their cows. 

They would put the iron 

Yeah. 

Hot iron on so that you knew that they were your cows. 

Right, right. 

And I like that image as we carry it into business because then we know what you are.

Right?

Yeah. 

And I, I think that gets lost in the shuffle, but when I was teaching this in college, and I say that to college students, they kinda like.

It was an aha moment that, oh, I get it.

So your cows would have the Brendan McAdams branding and my cows would've the Bob Graham branding and we could differentiate our cows from each other.

Right, right.

And if you think about it in the business context, it's the same thing. 

Pepsi and Coke are very different. 

They're in the same space, but very different in how they present their brand. 

Right.

And you have people who are diehards. 

Oh, I'm sorry. 

You don't serve Pepsi.

I won't have it at this restaurant.

I'm not gonna drink anything. 

Yeah. 

But, but, but the point is that the brand, the way I think of brand is it's what other people think of your company. 

It's how they identify you. 

Like what do you stand for?

Can I push back a little bit? 

Yeah, why not?

I think it is started by how you think of your company.

I think you get to start that message rolling. 

So you get to start that. 

You choose to wear black shirts every time. 

Every time I see you, with one exception, you've had black shirt on.

You can but, but ultimately that's, it's what other people think of your company. 

You can, you can certainly influence that, right?

But, but ultimately, 

I would hope

It, it's, yeah, that's what your, your goal is to try and influence that, that message. 

But ultimately it's what your consumers, your, your, your customers think of you. 

If they think of you as a company that's easy to do business with, that's, fair, that has a superior product, has a superior service, that's your brand.

Okay. 

Right. 

That's the way I look at it. 

Okay. 

How do I deal with that when I'm a startup? 

I'm a founder and I don't really have a lot, I'm building this app or I'm building a new product or service. 

You know, last week we were talking to someone in one of your groups, your pioneer group who's doing face masks for medical personnel with beards.

Yep. 

How does he create a brand around that because I don't know if I'm the only person, but I wasn't aware that that was an issue.

So, so don't, let's not confuse a logo with the brand. 

Right? 

The brand, the way I was using,

I wasn't. 

The way I'm, the way I'm describing it is that it's like in the beginning, 

Yeah, you can spend time talking about how your product is this and, and that, and, but that isn't your brand.

The brand from this is my perspective, your brand is how do people perceive you in the marketplace? 

Do they perceive you as being responsive, did perceive you as being easy to do business with. 

Do they perceive you as being ecologically aware? 

You know, what are the things that make you up? 

Like Patagonia has a very clear brand.

It doesn't matter what their logo is. 

If someone says Patagonia, you know exactly who they are and what they stand for. 

Right? 

Hey, do I bring up logo?

I don't remember saying logo. 

Well, I, that's the point I'm making. 

I'm making the point. 

Okay.

Logo and brand. 

Cause I think some people sometimes think that the brand is your logo.

It's like, it's your color scheme and that sort of thing.

And I, I don't think of it that way. 

It's an emotion, right? 

Ultimately it's the emotional response someone has when they hear the name of your company or

say to your company, right? 

Or emotional or otherwise, whether it's emotional or rational.

However, however, you know, however it is, it's, it's whatever they impart upon your company and that that's built over time. 

That is a function of all the things you do up to that point in the beginning. 

Your brand is, is essentially non-existent.

People don't know who you are, and then at some point along the way, you start to get traction and maybe it's very favorable.

Maybe you're on social media in such a way that it's really positive. 

Maybe you're on social media and it's not. 

It's kind of snarky and negative and that sort of thing.

And those things, all those things all inform your brand so that people going forward. 

When they see you, they see your logo, they, they see you on a, on a podcast.

They have a preconceived notion about who you are. 

And then, oh, well you're on the podcast, they may slightly or dramatically change their view of you and thus your brand based upon that latest experience. 

Okay, so what can I do to affect that?

From a startup. 

Yeah.

Well, I mean, touch on a few of those things right now.

For one, it's, you know, how do you carry yourself and your company?

What do you, what does your company stand for? 

Are you superior technology? 

Are you easy to use?

Are you easy to do business with?

Are you fun? 

Are you edgy?

You know, is your advertising edgy? 

Be the language you use to describe it. 

Right.

Right, right, right.

If I talk about a solution in a very technical way 

Yeah. 

I'm presenting myself one way, my brand one way versus a way that a 10 year old might understand. 

Right, right. 

Yeah. 

And so are you, are you jargon heavy?

Are you very casual and fun?

Are you inexpensive? 

Are you premier and elite? 

You know, Louis Vuitton versus, the Gap? 

Right? 

So those are two different brands. 

Mm-hmm. 

And when someone says Louis Vuitton, you know, oh, this is expensive. 

It's exclusive, it's hard to get there, you know, and it's gotta, and the GAP is, is something else entirely, right?

Mm-hmm.

So in the same way, I think the easiest way for, for a small business or a startup 

to establish its brand is in the way it carries itself with its initial customers. 

You know, are they successful?

Are they, you know, can you get an ROI? 

You know, I'm a B2B sort of guy, and so the way I think of it is can your customer point to, Hey, if I spend x I get four x back every time.

Mm-hmm.

And, you know, it's easy to spend money with these guys cuz they deliver and they're, they're fun to work with.

And they, they respond if there's a technical issue and, and that becomes your B2B brand. 

So really what you wanna do is you wanna get your customers to be out there and talking about how great you are and that's gonna inform your brand.

As much or more than anything you might do directly. 

That's 20 times more valuable when someone else talks about your brand than when you do. 

Yeah. 

Right. 

That's why social proof is so important on landing pages. 

And testimonials and those things. 

Right. 

And I was gonna say that would be one way to really improve your brand, 

I think is to get testimonials from your customers 

Testimonials, case 

Speak in their language, and don't write it. 

You know, help them write it, but don't write it in your words. 

Let them use their words.

Right?

Content that's particularly helpful is a great way to augment your brand, right?

I mean, there are things that are important from logo, branding, color standpoint, that are really

helpful.

Sure.

I mean, somebody that makes the effort, that makes their website nice. 

Right? 

That's an attention to detail and that conveys something about, oh, these guys take the time. 

Right. 

To do something. 

You know, but you may not need that if you're dealing with, with the construction industry 

where they don't really care about graphics, you know, what they really care about is turnaround time or efficiency or usability, you know, maybe. 

And so, or, 

Certifications. 

Certifications, right? 

In some industries, that's critical.

Right?

So I, I think when you think about your brand and trying to influence how people think about it.

One of the things I would really focus on is what's important to that particular vertical that you're supporting?

If you're in a niche, what's important to that niche? 

If you're a broad company, a horizontally focus company, like how do you, how do you satisfy all

the different people you know, across that spectrum?

Whereas if you're a vertical, what is the specific things that really, really matter to that vertical? 

Right.

If it's medical, you know, it has to be, it has to be high quality. 

You know, there can't be, 

require FDA approval. 

Right. 

You know, those things. 

You risk the company you keep the other, you know, other customers.

They're very inclined to follow whomever else is using your product. 

And so those sorts of things are gonna, are things you gotta think about as you try to influence

your brand. 

And we're gonna talk about personal versus company brand in an upcoming episode, right?

Yeah. Yeah. 

So Brendan, before we close, I know we've kicked this topic around a lot, but, you have a course

out there. 

Can you walk us through what that course is? 

Yeah, so I just, it's just launching, just launched and it's a 30 day sprint for early stage founders and creators and basically it walks through how you should, that the things you need around mindset to get started with sales.

How to execute your early stage sales and basically puts in place the kind of, on a daily basis the things you need to do.

Like, so it's step by step, 30 day sprint to get you the kind of momentum, 

And the guarantee is you'll pick up five, five new, companies in your pipeline, 

customers, you know, in your pipeline or your money back.

And, and you construct this course any day of the week, right? 

Any day.

Yeah. 

And, 

and 

there'll be, 

and it's what, roughly 20 or 30 minutes a day of effort time. 

20. 

Yep. Uhhuh 20, 30 minutes a day, ideally.

And then there'll be a weekly, there's a weekly office hours call so we can kind of tackle it, other issues.

And there's, there's a whole bunch of templates and tools that I'll be sending out throughout the, the 30 days.

So it's, it's really worthwhile. 

If you're in that stage where you're struggling with sales, this might be a great way to jumpstart your sales pipeline. 

And if I can, Brendan, I've known you for a while now, and this is really a great offering.

It's really easy. 

You make a process that can be very intimidating to people, super easy and super fun, and I think getting that habit in place over 30 days could really jumpstart someone so that they could replicate it. 

Yeah.

Over and over. And over. 

Thanks, man. 

Well, I appreciate it and so that's a long sales pitch. 

Yeah, it'll be good.

How can someone access that Brendan?

It's 

they're listening. 

Yeah.

I'll put the link in the doobly doo and it's kiinetics.com. kiinetics.com/salesaccelerator. 

Okay. 

I need help spelling, accelerator, not kiinetics, but your kiinetics is with two I's

Yeah.

K I I N E T I C S

Okay. 

Alright man.

Talk soon. 

We should do this again. 

We should. 

We should definitely do it again, right? 

See you Bob. 

See ya.

That was another episode of Let's Chat Sales a quick one, of course. 

And I hope it was helpful. 

And if it was please like, and subscribe and more importantly, share it with your friends.

There should be something right here you could point to and click on and try that out.

It should be good.

It's probably good. 

Certainly short.

It's probably helpful. And thanks for listening or watching.