I’ve known a lot of people in my life that “sell”. Most of them didn’t know what they were doing.

Good selling isn’t just being a good talker. It’s a much more comprehensive picture to consider.

Does the brand (i.e. “Position in market”) match the price? Does the target audience match the brand and product? Does the salesperson’s experience and strengths match what’s to be sold and who needs to be solicited?

There’s more, but these are a few considerations for whether the foundation is in place to sell most effectively. And guess what…typically even these considerations are either not thought of or not addressed in a decent way.

Let’s start with this: your brand position in the market (your differentiation from the competition) needs to match who you target.

If you promise to be “faster” at something, you need to target busy or rich people. If you are the cheapest, you need to target appropriate income groups.

This is where the hackneyed slogan, “Work smart, not hard” applies to branding. Don’t waste time and effort approaching the wrong audience, or even the best offer will fall flat.

In sales it’s called knowing your product and “qualifying” your prospects. In branding, it’s called having a robust market strategy.

Verbal Branding impact is fixing things like this - by any measure a very large problem:

AdWeek article

“A Bain & Co. survey notes that 80 percent of CEOs believe their product to be differentiated, but only 8 percent of consumers agree.”

It’s literally impossible that a Verbal Branding platform won’t fix or at least mitigate such a circumstance.

I despise shoveling snow. That doesn’t mean I don’t have to do it in the winter.

Last time I had to shovel, the snow was noticeably heavier…I guess it was more of a “winter mix”. (Oh, and I hate terms like “winter mix” too!)

Anyway, because the snow was heavier, it took longer to clear the driveway and paths in front. My back and arms got tired faster. The whole thing seemed like a big pain in the $^%&*&#.

The funny thing, though, was after I was done and I rested a bit, I got a sudden surge of energy. I had to admit, I felt pretty good from the exercise. That didn’t happen when the snow was light and fluffy, even though I was much happier just pushing the light stuff around.

Hmm…I felt less like shoveling when the snow was heavy; it was going to be harder work, and I knew it going in. I didn’t get the same charge after shoveling when the snow was lighter, i.e. easier.

The lesson is, doing the hard things takes more time, energy, and motivation, but when you’re done you feel better and you’ve accomplished something more significant.

In business, sometimes you have to do what feels hard, or you’ll never get the satisfaction or benefit that comes from fighting through and getting to a better place, i.e. more successful (with whatever that means to you).

So, what’s it going to be: heavy snow or light?

One of the best things I ever learned in my life was the difference between aptitudes and preferences.

An aptitude has to do with how our brains are wired, giving us ability for some things and not others. For instance, I’ve never had a single music lesson in my life, but it turns out I have perfect pitch.

Strange but true.

Preferences are what we’d expect; the things we learn to prefer through life based on experience or circumstances. I’ve learned through my life that putting puzzles together - either for fun or work, like a jigsaw puzzle or the ability to design the architecture of a building - is something I wish I could do well.

The problem is, I have no aptitude for either. One way to flag these things is if they simple feel hard to do. If so, you probably don’t have the aptitude for it. If you had the aptitude, it would be very, very easy.

Once I learned these things, it helped me discover my aptitude for speaking, because I was told I’m wired to “rapidly produce new ideas” in my brain. That means I can keep talking, without hesitating, and it will be easy to do so. Huh - what do you know about that!

These things aren’t virtues, they just…are.

Knowing about these easy strengths is great information. Since I learned this nugget, I realized how easy and natural it is for me to speak in front of audiences. I first did a radio talk show on a small station. Easy! Then once I developed Verbal Branding, I realized the best way for me to market was to speak as often as possible.

The reason is simple: speaking in front of an audience is an easy, natural thing for me to do. I have the aptitude for it.

What are you hard wired to be or do? Do you know? Check out this organization - Johnson O’Connor Research Foundation - and you might find a different way to think about your strengths and weaknesses.

The point is, if you’re doing a job that is against your aptitudes, you might never reach your full potential.

That’s something to know about, wouldn’t you agree?

What are you the best in the world at? Five, four, three, two, one - times up!

Can you immediately answer this question?

If not, why not? Have you thought about it? You should. If you’re in business, you have to know what to have confidence in so you can present it, potentially use it for branding, and for analyzing who your target audience should be.

I tell my audiences, “Humbleness not allowed”, and they often chuckle for a moment…that it until they realize I’m completely serious.

I’m not a fan of not knowing what you’re the best at.

I know, I know; the market has been tough over the last eighteen months.

Your prospects or ongoing clients are bashing you on the head about price. They say things like, “I can get this for X, and you’re selling it for Y”.

Managers everywhere are fighting off migraines, trying to figure out when things will get better or how to break out of the pricing game.

As Vincent Gardenia said in Moonstruck, “I’ll say only this…”

You have a differentiation problem, not a pricing problem. As soon as someone wonders why your prices are what they are, it’s certain they are comparing you to others in your sector. That’s a brand problem.

Unless you have significant and important differentiation from your competitors, where prospects and clients put you in a different sort of category in their mind, you’ll always have pricing problems.

Always.

The answer is brand positioning for differentiation. It means you are fundamentally different than the competition and can therefore substantiate an alternative pricing model.

One that can’t be compared to anyone else.

I see lots of stories talking about the rebranding of companies, like AOL spinning off from Time Warner and the need to make a break from the brand’s negative exposure.

Makes sense, I suppose.

What doesn’t make sense is thinking a rebranding effort should start and end with naming. Like Philip Morris changing their name to Altria.

Rebranding is more than renaming. When a company renames, and doesn’t reorient what they offer the marketplace, there’s a chance it’ll will hurt more than help.

Ideally, the thought process should be, “We’re changing our name to X, and changing our Positioning to Y”. (Notice how Positioning is always at the core when branding is done right?)

This way, it’s a more complete vision for rebranding, where the market can recognize a philosophic strategy behind the change.

Otherwise, it just seems like the company is running away from something.

I don’t have to know what company you work for, or how big it is, or what you do.

Still, I know the weak link in your “chain” of communications: Verbal Branding.

The reason I know is because it’s everyone’s weak link! And Verbal Branding - as I define it - is unique apparently in the world.

At its core, Verbal Branding is a spoken application for brand positioning. It’s also a foundational platform for brand development, immediately and simultaneously improving sales, culture, brand density, and even management’s ability to set strategy.

I’ll be bloging about all this in detail as time goes on, and I’ve begun writing my second book (verbal and density branding is the topic), but for now, sufice it to say that unless you know EXACTLY what I mean by Verbal Branding, you have a very weak link in your brand and you’re losing money and market share every day because of it.

Guaranteed. To be continued……..

I just noticed the new Home Depot tag line:

More saving. More doing.

This is an example of getting closer to what works for a tag line, and you can see it’s similar (probably too similar) to Walmart’s, Save Money. Live Better.

If you read this post, you know I have a very large problem with most tag lines, for the simple reason that they’re horrible. It’s because they are typically “one-off” from an offer that the consumer would value.

An example would be DHL, telling the world, Yellow. The New Brown.

Huh? Is DHL offering yellow to the world as a product? I don’t think so, but nothing would surprise me.

If yellow isn’t what their offer actually is, this tag line is an example of one-off messaging. Sorry, but in today’s competitive environment no one has the time to figure out what your message is supposed to mean.

I advise being explicitly accurate, from a differentiation standpoint. And that’s why I say, this new Home Depot tag line - More saving. More doing. - is better, but not great.

It would probably be better to explain what they mean by “more doing”, so their audience can get their arms around something.

If you have a tag line, my advise is to offer something explicitly. It should differentiate you and be directly understandable without having to be translated.

I can’t think of anything that’s more appreciated than making something simple for others.

As we move through December, I’m working on my priorities for 2010 and realizing that most of my effort is going to making simplicity out of my chaotic thoughts. In other words, I’m working on developing a yearly strategy that can be encapsulated within just a few, simple thoughts.

This is important not just for me. Unless I understand what I’m doing and offering in simple terms, no one else will either. I won’t be able to execute easily; I won’t be able to talk about it clearly.

This is an aspect of planning that goes overlooked far too often - the simple idea of keeping things…simple.

If you’re like me, and doing some planning for next year, try to come to results that others will easily understand. Besides, when others understand what you’re up to, they just might tell their friends when you aren’t even around.

That’s called passive branding, selling, marketing, and networking.