Where is Your Branding Gap?
Are you out there having difficulty finding that elusive “Blue Ocean” where you can sell your products in peace and prosperity? Is it more like a shark tank full of choppy competitive water, where price and only price wins?
Let’s say you are selling office products, for instance. Customers say, “Well, you guys are all the same. Your catalogs are mirror images of each other. You can’t even save me that much money. I have got to see a drastic price difference to switch my business over to you.”
This is the moment of truth when branding goes into overdrive to help the salesperson move the sale along. This is the time when your Branding Map™ opens up like an eagle to carry the salesperson along without overthinking and without hesitation. This is the branding gap, the place where you grapple with your customer’s pain, the pain they don’t realize they have, but a reality nevertheless, and prepare to offer your unique “umbrella” solution.
This gap can be filled with a world of creativity, ingenuity and just plain fun for your client. It might be intellectual property: you might have a system, program, guide, or book that is relevant to your field and your customer. You might have an engaging apathy killer or a convincing credibility kicker. When we work on a brand, we have more than 60 prompts for different types of apathy killers and credibility kickers. You might have an introduction for beginners or a “newbie” program; a way to experience your product or service with low risk of losing time and money. Every company – no matter what it sells – has a unique customer base, history, leadership, locale, image, value set, skill sets, culture, focus, approach, system, business model, sales model … not to mention counterintuitive knowledge gleaned over years of real-world experience.
If you are a CEO or a Marketing/Sales Director, this branding gap is the best tool you can give your salesperson as well as your customer: a well-thought-out separator that makes your customer’s decision easy. The faster you provide a clear branding gap to a customer, the faster they will be able to make a decision and move on to the next thing in their lives. You might not know it, but customers often couldn’t care less about your features and benefits – but they are begging for you to finally get to the point and reveal your branding gap.
If your concept of your brand is still limited to developing a fluffy image – a pretty logo, a clever slogan and an ad or PR campaign – then you won’t have a true brand. True brands work tirelessly at ground level, side-by-side with your sales force, at the moment of truth, creating that difference-making gift to your customer – a clear branding gap.
Brand well and prosper!
Andy Cleary