Hi there!
I hope you’re having a great end to your February. End of February – wasn’t it just Y2K?! If you didn’t get that last reference, I probably have cowboy boots older than you.
As we covered in our last newsletter, Social Selling is made up of four things:
1) Your Personal Brand
2) Your Deep Network of Relationships
3) Your Sales Intelligence
4) Your Social Listening
Today, we’ll dig into Your Personal Brand a bit. I often tell my audiences that people who refer to themselves as “gurus” usually do so because they can’t spell “charlatan”. And self-proclaimed gurus typically like to make their supposed area of expertise sound complicated, deep and mysterious. I choose to take the opposite approach. Let’s remember the KISS Principle….Keep It Simple Sweetie.
In the old days, your Personal Brand was called your reputation. And it took time to develop, and it usually preceded you. It still does take time to develop, but it precedes you far more quickly now due to the Internet. Personal branding isn’t about shameless self-promotion. Personal branding is about sharing your particular knowledge in a way that builds trust. By developing a pay-it-forward approach to your expertise, you create a transparent relationship based on value with your prospects, clients, networking partners and strategic alliances.
Prior to the Internet, people had limited resources to do their market research or due diligence on you prior to hiring you or doing business with you. Boy has that changed in the last 20 years. We’re not talking about stalking here; we’re talking about doing your homework as a professional. So if you know that people are going to be checking you out, doesn’t it make sense to remember what your parents or grandparents told you a long time ago? You only have one chance to make a good first impression. Personal branding is about making that good first impression. And due to the nature of the Internet, you can also deliver a fantastic second, third, fourth, fifth, etc. impression due to the nature of client testimonials, reviews, etc.
As my friend, Bob Burg, says “People do business with and refer business to people they know, like and trust.” This is as true as gravity. Personal branding enables you to develop your Know-Like-Trust Factor (KLT Factor) much more quickly. Whether you’re an employee, business owner, entrepreneur, recent grad, or whatever, your reputation matters. People will be making hiring and buying decisions based on your Personal Brand, often without you even knowing they’ve already done it.
As we continue in upcoming newsletters we’ll be getting into the nuts and bolts of creating an effective Personal Brand. And the good news is it’s easy. You don’t need to have tape on your glasses and a pocket protector, you just need to be willing to add as much value as you can while leveraging modern communication technology. Just always remember that while High Tech is nice, High Touch is everything.
To your massive success,
Kev