1) Did you consider what your office says about you and your success?
2) Did you re-model or re-decorate?
3) Is it important that clients feel comfortable?
4) Is a nice, professional office important to building and maintaining professional relationships or will any type office do?
5) And if your office is professional and inviting, would it make sense for you to greet your cleints wearing a track suit?

While branding is not easy to measure, if even possible – it it easy to see that it is absolutely critical. Branding is you, your image, your value, your uniqueness and most importantly, what people remember about you.

A well articulated and nurtured brand will help people quantify who you are, what you do best and the difference working with you made it their life and business. How can you build a business without this level of identification and communication? You can, you’re just making it much more diffuclt fgor yourself and your company.

Obviously it wouldn’t be great marketing to put up a billboard that announced to the world: “Hey – deal with me – I’m the same as everyone else”.    Or would it?   Imagine a marketing campaign where the audience was told: “You may as well pick me because I’m just as good as the next guy so, why not?”

Okay – hang onto your chair – here’s some news you aren’t going to like.  The truth is, most service companies are pretty much exactly the same.  We can find a hundred lawyers or accountants or financial advisors in any small city and they all say the same thing.

We’re different and here’s how:
•    With us, it’s not all about the money.
•    We care about our clients.
•    We don’t take shortcuts
•    We are experts
•    We take the time to understand your needs
•    We make sure your needs are taken care of
•    We make the complex simple
•    We take the worry out of your decisions

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it IS familiar.

I did warn you that you wouldn’t like it.  Okay, I can hear it now; the denial.    It’s like the 5 stages of grief:  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance.   Companies will not and cannot become truly different in the eyes of their clients until they accept the fact that there are hundreds, even thousands of similar service providers in the same market that are ALL telling their clients they are unique – for exactly the same reasons.

So what’s the point?  The point is that MOST businesses do indeed possess some degree of uniqueness. The important thing to remember is HOW to position that uniqueness to their best clients and prospects. Businesses can no longer afford to market themselves as unique the same way everyone else does – prospective clients simply won’t believe it.  Think about how many times in a day or week you see and hear marketing campaigns built on saving time and money.  It’s old, it’s worn out and it isn’t believable, even if it were true.

In general, all similar businesses are, well… similar.  All audiences believe that and telling them differently won’t convince them otherwise.  The proof of the pudding, as the saying goes, is in the tasting.

What is the answer then?  The answer is incredibly simple.  So simple in fact that it risks being scoffed at.

Each business has one or two things that will be ever-so-slightly different than their competitors when it comes to their target market.  You need to leverage that difference in a way that has both real and potential value to your best clients. The eureka moment comes when you integrate it as part of your brand.  Make sure you visit our articles on Branding for ideas on how to do that.

DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT MAKEOVER MINDSET?

Making over your business is not for everyone, especially those who are timid or complacent. If you’re okay to continue doing what you’ve always done and getting what you’ve always gotten, you can stop reading right now. This article will not interest you or serve you. But, if you truly want to make a lasting change in your business, this article will be that wake-up-call you’ve been waiting for. It will challenge you and point you in the right direction.

A makeover should mean more than just dusting-off and tweaking what could be.  It should mean “If I could do this all over again the right way, what would I do?”

For most people, starting over can be exciting at best and intimidating at worst. It’s all a question of perspective.  To achieve greater results, by an order of magnitude, means taking risks and being passionate about the rewards.   It also means going through a mental makeover before the physical makeover starts. One thing is very clear, if you want to move forward to bigger and better, getting more of things you want and doing less of the things you don’t want, a positive mental attitude is the only answer that will serve you.

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” -Thomas Jefferson

A Makeover Mindset (MM) is how we describe the frame of mind of someone who knows with clarity and certainty that the thinking that got them to where they are today is not the thinking that is needed to take them to the next level of success and happiness. MM is the “aha” moment when you know for certain that you need to STOP dusting-off and tweaking.  MM is only achieved when the understanding is clear that something very different needs to happen.  Something big.  Something worthy of being called a makeover.  Unfortunately,  “aha” moments are often fleeting inspirations for most of us unless there is focused and sustainable action.

A MM can only be achieved when there is a realization, a revelation if you will, that there is a third “M” – Madness.  Madness is the depletion of energy and expenditure of time and resources on repeating the same thing we’ve always done to just maintain the status quo.  Madness is working harder and longer just to maintain your current success – your plateau.   Most every successful business owner and entrepreneur has gone through long hours and heavy lifting, working hard and diligently to achieve that success. The Madness is continuing to do those same things just to maintain the current level.

It’s worth spending a moment on inspiration.  At some point, most successful business owners have been caught in a moment of inspiration to make a huge change, and yet, nothing came from it? Think about a great book you may have read where you were consumed by the storyline and potential, feeling like change was necessary and paramount.  Then what happened?  Many entrepreneurs sleep on it, consider it and move on to “more pressing matters”, the “day to day”.  The fleeting infatuation with MM ends and the Madness lives on.  To escape it, you need to seize the moment and take directed action.

In my career I’ve had many “aha” moments, many of which I’ve not been able to embrace and sustain. It’s a deflating experience when your next “aha” is that you haven’t been able to sustain the greatest “moments” for change in your business and your life.  I’m speaking from experience.

But I finally understand it, how to escape the Madness forever and never look back. It’s been one heck of a journey. The quest for magic solutions for achieving extraordinary success is a tiring, expensive journey. It’s a road paved with promises and compromises. Although there have been exhilarating moments, I wish I could have done it differently. Although I’ve gained incredible insights from my failures I’d much rather have know how to do it right many years ago.

I WANT TO SHARE THE FORMULA FOR SUCCESS WITH YOU

Success is about vision, focus, awareness, accountability, starting and quitting. Yes, I said quitting. Quitting the right things will free you to pursue only that which drives you towards achieving your vision.

Here’s my challenge to all of you who are either immersed in the Madness or have flirting relationships with the “aha” moment that will catapult you. Here’s the juice!

Define your Vision.  Then, quit anything or everything that doesn’t clearly move you in that direction. Embrace highly focused activities and your greatest leverage points. Seek new thinking. Take action. Begin with the end in mind. Find the right partners to help you focus and hold you accountable. Build momentum every day, every week, every month, and every year until your vision of success becomes your reality.

TAKING ACTION IS A DECISION ONLY YOU CAN MAKE.

Here’s what starting looks like:

1. Take the free SuQu Mindscan Assessment. Understand your thinking strengths, leverage points and areas for improvement. Take the MindScan at www.freedomarketing.com/MS.
2. Find a coach and/or mentor to help you find a sustainable mindset and someone to hold you accountable. We’ve worked with some amazing business coaches and tactical referral coaches who we’d be happy to introduce you to.
3. Create a SuQu Map with your business coach. Begin with the end in mind and work backwards so you know exactly what is needed to move towards success. Focus on sustainable momentum. The coaches we know will guide you through the SuQu process.
4. Make sure you have the right partners to help you build systems and processes, define your message (brand), identify your ideal client, develop your marketing, and generate an endless flow of ideal prospects through introductions.

If you need helping putting this all into perspective call me at (905) 579-7724. I’d be delighted to talk this through with you. But don’t call until you’ve taken the Mindscan.

Here’s to YOUR LIFE – BEYOND THE MADNESS!

My experience in working with hundreds of financial advisors is that many of them feel that articulating a clear vision is not warranted because it does not drive direct results. It’s unfortunate that many advisors may have experienced some form of a vision initiated business plan early in their careers that did not serve them well. A vision’s role is to provide greater focus and helps advisors align only those activities that move them towards their vision. And we all know focused activity drives results! At Freedomarketing, we’ve found the formula to help advisors truly leverage their potential and uniqueness, it’s called SuQu Mapping. In simpler terms it’s a highly relevant and concise business plan. And it all starts with a clear vision. You can learn more at www.tactibrand.com.

BELOW ARE SOME THOUGHTS FROM VARIOUS PROFESSIONALS.

———————————————-
Jim Cecil
Nurture Marketing

How do you say….PARAMOUNT? Perhaps even with multiple, clear visions .

Some questions, for example:
1. What is my vision for my personal career in financial advice services?
2. What is my vision for my identifying my ideal niche market?
3. What is my vision for discovering and dealing with my niche member’s chief pains, passions and preferences with regards to their financial issues?
4. What is my vision for actually ‘helping my clients succeed’, rather than just helping them deal with transactions?
5. What is my vision for nurturing relationships with my current clients, prospective ones and especially, my ‘centers of influence’?
6. What is my vision for automating the ‘stay in touch’ process?
7. What is my vision for seeking and cultivating niche mentors?

As does Dr. Tom Stanley, I believe that the affluent, when given a choice, invariably select a specialist over a general practitioner, virtually every time.
Why would it be different when it comes to their money?

Will you care enough for yourself, your practice, your family, your clients and your career, to spend the time to become and become known as an expert in your niche.

I can’t be more clear on this vision.

Good Nurturing
Jim
www.nurtureinstitute.com

———————————————-

Bill Eck
Certified Wealth Consultant

These thoughts on a shared vision from the Book: Fifth Discipline, enlightens what they are missing:

“A shared vision…is …a force in people’s hearts, a force of impressive power. Few, if any, forces in human affairs are as powerful as a shared vision.”

High performance teams have shared vision and purpose.

Maslow observed that in exceptional teams… “the task was no longer separate from self…but rather he identified with this task so strongly that you couldn’t define his real self without including that task.”

Shared vision comes from personal vision and personal mastery.

Visions that are truly shared take time to emerge. They grow as a by-product of interactions of individual visions.

Shared vision requires ongoing conversation where individuals not only express their dreams, but learn how to listen to each others’ dreams. Out of this listening, new insights into what is possible gradually emerge.

It is not what the vision says, it is what the vision does.

Vision becomes a living force only when people truly believe they can shape their future.

Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1990, 2006. Chapter 10

Bill Eck

——————————————————–

So true Kirk. The problem is threefold:

• They don’t know what they want.
• They are not willing to do what it takes to get what they want.
• They are afraid of being disappointed if they fail (fear of failure).

Wishing you great success!!! in 2010

Michael Fastchi

People REFER for two reasons:

1 – They want to look good to the people they are referring. They want to feel confident you will impress the person they are sending your way.

2 – They want to look good to you. They want you to know they appreciate your service and that in return, you appreciate the referral.

Where Branding comes in:

Have you ever wondered what your clients say about you when referring you to their colleagues, friends and family? Most advisors agree that their clients would likely have many different stories to tell. Imagine one of your clients telling a potential ideal client that you are honest, easy to work with and that you offer comprehensive financial planning. You may be all those things, which are great, but they in no way differentiate you from most other financial advisors.

The question is: have you taken the steps to truly differentiate you and your business so that you maximize referrals, the life-line of your business?

Are you leveraging your brand to gain way more ideal client referrals?
TAKE BRAND NURTURING QUIZ AT FREEDOMARKETING.COM/BRANDING

If you’re not nurturing your brand in a way that engrains your message in your clients’ minds, you will have no say or control over your best sales force; happy clients telling the right story to the right people, all for you. It’s critical to making an impact in the prospects’ minds and it also helps solidify your relationship with your client. They too want to feel like they are getting something from you they can’t find around the corner.

Just think for a few minutes how powerful it would be to script you message for your clients. Imagine how comfortable they would be in sharing your story with the right people, your ideal target audience.

Do your clients…
o Know who you work best with?
o Use keywords that create intrigue and buzz about your service or approach?
o Truly understand how they benefit from working with you?
o Know how to refer people to you?
o Know how you are compensated?
o Know your professional credentials and experience?

You wouldn’t send a sales force out into the streets without having a full and complete understanding of the above. Why would you send your clients out to refer you without the same level of understanding?

There are four key branding criteria to BEING REFERABLE:

Special
How are you different or the same as everyone else? You need to be memorable first and foremost.

A compelling message is the ONLY story that gets told. If you aren’t nurturing that message and ensuring clients know exactly what to say and to whom, you’re leaving lots of quality opportunities on the table. If you rely heavily on new clients from referrals, it’s integral that you invest time, energy and money into nailing this aspect of your business.

Useful
Does your point of differentiation benefit them and how?
A flashy message that has no clear and relevant benefit will not endure further investigation. Make sure the usefulness of your offering is simple and relevant.

Reliable
Are they sure about your professionalism and expertise?
No one wants to work with a financial advisor that works out of a VW Van who also sells encyclopedias. You need to be professional, be rooted and be trustworthy. If you’re marketing doesn’t quickly answer these fundamental concerns, you won’t even need to have a phone number or office. It’s not as simple as having a cookie cutter web site like every other financial advisor. Your site needs to look say you invest in your business, you’re the expert they need and you are a true professional they can trust.

Economical
Does working with you make economical sense? Are you an affordable and profitable decision?
Lastly, you need to be an economical choice. This doesn’t mean cheap; more like appropriate for the type of people who you’ll be referred to. Do your message, marketing and perceived value reflect your fees?

Most advisors look at asking for referrals as an art, something they need to feel inspired and passionate about. They need to take their time to paint the perfect picture of what asking for and getting referrals is all about. Getting consistent great referrals is simple:
o brandish a compelling message
o establish a repeatable process that is easy to understand for you, your team and the client
o implant the idea of referrals in your clients minds
o follow through with asking and getting referrals

Be S.U.R.E. and you’ll get more referrals.

Below are some excerpts that will give you some idea of what the times ahead may be like and the mindset that will be required to prosper.

BE PREPARED FOR THE UNPREDICTABLE

If you haven’t noticed, companies who are surviving, or better yet prospering during these turbulent times are companies who are lighter on their feet. They can change gears, move quickly and adapt. It’s not about being able to predict, it’s about being prepared when the unpredictable happens.

“It is only in times like these that you get a chance to show your strength. In the end, I think we need to have absolute faith in our ability to deal with whatever is thrown at us. And we need to have a complete, realistic paranoia that a lot can be thrown at us. It’s our ability to put those two contradictory ideas together: We need to be prepared for what we can’t predict and, at the same time, have this total, unwavering faith that we will find a way to deal with all of it. And I believe we will. I don’t believe the world will treat us well, but we will figure out how to do very well.” – Jim Collins.

As a financial advisor…

• Did you plan for possibility of a market crash?
• Did you prepare your clients emotionally for this?
• Did you have a plan to communicate quickly and effectively with your clients?
• Did you have your clients real risk tolerance accounted for in their portfolios?
• Were you or are you gearing up to move to fee-based advice rather than sales commissions – the future model for financial advising?

IT’S NOT ALWAYS WHAT WE DO, IT’S WHAT WE GIVE UP

“You need a laserlike focus on doing first things first. And that means having a ferocious understanding of what you are not going to do.” – Jim Collins

Most of us have heard the wisdom, “do not put all of your eggs in one basket”. But let’s be honest, just how many baskets can you manage and just how many eggs can you juggle? If your goal is to be successful, wouldn’t you need to put all of your eggs in one basket. We’re not trying to balance an investment portfolio here. I highly recommend finding a professional consultant or coach to guide you to what works best given your strengths (that which you are most passionate about, good at and is most profitable) and your ideal audience (clients who are fun to work with, have similar values, are profitable and easy to access). Now there is a basket worth putting your eggs in!

JIM COLLIN’S EVOLUTION OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP TELLS A GREAT STORY

Have you ever thought of just how powerful your passion, vision and values are to growing your business and creating a culture around the relationships you have with your clients?

As you read the Jim Collin’s view on the evolution of entrepreneurship it will become clear that your values, passion and vision are all that truly differentiate you from your competitors. It’s why people work with you, they like what you stand for. And often times, it’s because they stand for exactly the same thing.

People do business with you because they relate to what you do, why you do it and what that means to them. Growing your business is about helping your clients understand what your business and you are all about — it is not simply marketing and selling what you do.

Jim Collins defines the evolution of entrepreneurship as follows:

I. Easier access to capital mechanisms including venture funds, angel networks, private equity and search funds

II. The idea that entrepreneurship is a learnable process

III. The entrepreneur itself has turned from a bad word into a good word

IV. A big shift away from seeing the essence of entrepreneurship as the creation of a better mousetrap to viewing it as the development of a better process

V. We’ve gone from the traditional THREE stages of entrepreneurship to the FOUR stages of entrepreneurship.

1. In Stage One entrepreneurship, you have a great idea. That’s fairly primitive, but it’s what people thought about entrepreneurship in 1979.
2. Next, we went into Stage Two, in which you build a successful business.
3. Then, in the 1990s, we got to the next stage: building a great company. That is different, because a great company will have, over time, many successful businesses. I think that may be why Built to Last spoke to entrepreneurs. It was about the company as the ultimate creation.
4. And now, I’m thinking we might be on the cusp of a Stage Four. I’m putting a big question mark next to it, but I think we might be in a stage of going from a great company to a great movement. A movement. Something bigger than the company.

IDEA –> SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS –> GREAT COMPANY –> MOVEMENT

THE NEXT MOVE IS YOURS

Challenge yourself to build your company based on your passion, your values and your vision. Put that out there for your clients and see just how powerful you and your business become. Start building a movement in your community, marketplace and industry.

Click HERE to read “Jim Collins: How to Thrive in 2009″

Spending wisely, and cutting unnecessary expenses is always a wise strategy. Now may be a very good time to review your overall business expenditures and make some cuts. The trick is, which ones? Expenses that do not give a good return on investment should be the first to be scrutinized. Take a look at your operational efficiencies, such as reducing employee turnover. Review you systems and processes to see how your team can function more productively. Consider things like seminar venue expenses and scale back a bit. But, don’t cut back on the marketing.

Marketing is All About Momentum

A short moratorium on advertising may not hurt sales too much and it will cut costs and improve profitability for the short-term. However, is it worth saving a few dollars now if it puts your sustainability and growth at risk? The answer is no. The trouble is that stopping advertising may be a ticking time bomb. Marketing is all about momentum. A doctoral thesis on milk advertising in the United States revealed the delayed nature of the time bomb. Nothing happened to sales in the short term after ceasing advertising. Nothing, that is, for 12 months. But after 12 months there was a sharp decline. The milk industry started advertising again. However, it took 18 months to get back to previous sales figures. What kind of profits do you think the industry lost in that 18 months?
The same holds true for financial advisors. Here’s a story about a senior financial advisor (Sue) who stopped advertising in her local paper, hoping to maintain profitability in an economic downturn. There was no immediate difference in revenue. A year later, Sue ran into an ideal customer she had been prospecting for years. The prospect greeted her and congratulated her on her retirement, assuming she had closed her business when she no longer saw the ad in the newspaper. This prospect continued by noting her current advisor had left the business after 30 years and that she had been looking for a new one. Thinking Sue wasn’t in business any longer, this prospect had already moved to someone else.

And so, years of faithful business building and visibility went right down the drain. This story reinforces a key principle of marketing: protect what you have already built. This is particularly important in economic downturns. Clients and prospects will remember that when times are tough, you’re still around. They’ll be more loyal, and they’ll be more apt to trust you if they know they can rely on you in good times and bad.

Keep On Keepin’ On In Economic Downturns

Being in the right place at the right time can yield opportunities. To keep your client base healthy and your business successful, you need to be in the right place all the time, so that when your buyers are ready, you’re right there, ready to take care of their needs—that’s how you build a business.

If you think marketing and advertising is a faucet you can turn on and off, think again. One of the challenges of marketing is getting recognized in the sea of sameness and having your message stand out from the crowd. Imagine that the crowd disappears for awhile and you’re one of the few players out there. Now, breaking through the clutter and getting attention isn’t so tough. Keeping your business visible in a time when most prefer to hide says something that matters.

Your challenge is to navigate the course during this period of adversity and turn it into a time of opportunity. Go ahead. Execute your marketing and make the call. If you don’t, someone else will.

If you think you’re not getting a good return on your marketing investment, you need to ask yourself why. Are you making frivolous expenditures? Are you targeting the right customers with the right message? Are you sporadic with your marketing, or steady? Are you working to your plan? Most importantly, do you have plan? Think long term, and focus on how you want to grow your company. If you’re not happy with the answers to the questions above, call us. We can help you devise and follow a plan to build and sustain your success.

We would like to introduce you to some specific financial advisor mindsets we’ve experienced in our business and how we have created success by assisting in moving the mindsets from fixed to growth.

1) I want to act like a business I just don’t have the time or resources to do so.

We’ll show you how to make more time for yourself, so you can focus on what you do best, and we’ll be the resource you never had to explode your business. That’s what we do best.

2) I want to be seen as professional but I don’t have the budget or cash flow to do it properly.

The fact is, it takes money to make money. So if you’re not prepared to invest in your business, you shouldn’t be in business.

"An entrepreneur who doesn’t invest in their business doesn’t own a business, they own a job." – Michael Gerber

We help successful professionals achieve even greater success. We do our best to accommodate cashflow needs.

3) My experience has been that we haven’t had a great ROI from marketing.

Marketing  ROI can be guaranteed if the five following steps are followed: 

• a concise business planning,
• synergistic marketing strategy,
• outstanding brand,
• powerful marketing arsenal, and
• masterful execution.   

4) I don’t like prospecting, I just want to meet with my clients and help them with their financial planning.

Great marketing makes prospecting simple and fun. When you’re the best at what you do and you have great marketing support, your clients will become advocates and they will do the prospecting for you.  We have been successful at setting up marketing strategies that have made this happen.

5) How much is it going to cost me and how much effort will it take? And what’s the payoff?

If you build and implement your plan with our certified coaches and marketing experts and it doesn’t produce at least a 30% increase in your business, we’ll refund 100% of your investment. How’s that for confidence?

6) I don’t need a coach. I don’t need a plan. I don’t need marketing. What I need to do is just focus on making money, meeting with people, building relationships.

Having a coach, a business plan and great marketing is the KEY that will allow you to focus on doing what you’re passionate about in your business. A certified coach will walk you through the process of understanding your personal and business values and ensuring a plan is put into place based on your strength and ability to execute.

Thinking back to the introduction of this article, we can say with confidence that the most successful “growth mindset” advisors:

• Have a coach
• Have a business plan
• Have great marketing

7) I have too much going on right now to think about marketing my business. 

Marketing is the ONLY way to get more customers and if the future of your business depends on having customers, then you MUST focus on being great at marketing. Period.

Talk to us and let us help you move from a “fixed” mindset to a “growth” mindset. You truly have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

You can reach us by calling (905)579-7724 or through the “contact” area of our website at http://freedomarketing.com

Branding re-defined

Now that you are scratching your head, let me explain. There is a general misconception about the very definition of “Brand”. The Dictionary of Business and Management defines a brand as: “a name, sign or symbol used to identify items or services of sellers and to differentiate them from goods of competitors.” Wikipedia defines brand as “a collection of images and ideas representing an economic producer; more specifically, it refers to the concrete symbols such as a name, logo, slogan, and design scheme.” We believe these to be classic but dated definitions.

The meaning of “Brand” has evolved significantly over the last decade or so to mean much more than a logo, symbol or design. Brand has evolved to represent your company in a much more holistic view. Today, your brand means the message you deliver. Brand is about the overall customer experience. Taking that point one step further; your brand is not what you say you are, your brand is what your clients say you are. Your brand is the reputation you build with your clients and potential clients on every contact; whether that contact be direct or indirect, intentional or unintentional.

Here is an example that many of you may associate with. Vonage, a leading supplier of broadband telephone service, position themselves as feature rich, easy to do business with and cost effective. That is what they say they are… that is their brand. On the other hand, the Better Business Bureau reports 8,155 complaints about this company in the last 36 months with the majority being billing, service and refund issues. Firstly, consider what percentage of actual complaints get escalated formally with the Better Business Bureau, then, to the question of brand, ask yourself what a Vonage client is likely saying about them. Although Vonage’s marketing and logo and graphics are exceptional, how strong is their brand?

The question of ROI

Instead of asking to define ROI on branding expenditures, we should reframe the question and ask how branding affects the value of a business. The answer to that question is simple. Branding represents the value of your business. Your value proposition is your brand. Brand is a multiplier that contributes to your balance sheet positively if your brand is positive, and negatively if your brand is negative. The stronger your brand resonates with your target clients as being unique and valuable, the larger the multiplier on your bottom line. Unfortunately, as with the above example, the converse is also true as Vonage continues unnecessarily to operate at a loss.

Exceptional logos, images and tag lines should be considered as investments in infrastructure. On their own, they produce no return on investment. They can help position awareness and intention but they alone do not create sales or retain clients. That is why there is no ROI on the creation of these.

For instance, a dozen firms of roughly the same size with roughly the same service offering could spend $20,000 on branding and each achieve significantly different results.

The result they achieve will depend on:

• their awareness of their business priorities,
• their business plan and marketing strategy,
• their ability to solidify action plans,
• their ability to track, report and implement,
• and lastly, the “multiplier” of their brand.

Here is another key point. A branding exercise never ends. Branding is not a project or a one-time campaign. Branding enables and supports current and future business capabilities. Your brand message needs to resonate at every touch point – from what the piece looks like to the tone of the message to the exuberance or professionalism of your service people to the service offering itself.

For the beancounters:

If you started reading this article in the hopes of finding a worksheet to help you build a business case around the return on a specific branding initiative, I apologise if I’ve misled you. Here is a bit of help for the analytical reader. Consider Branding expenditures as expenditures in infrastructure as you would for technology. The technology, in and of itself will not add value to the bottom line. It is the implementation of the technology into current or future processes that will produce value.

For example: if you intent to spend $15,000 to “re-brand” your business, include the costs or integrating that brand into the heart of you business. That means including the cost of integrating the brand message in your organization in a long-term sustainable way. That might (and probably should) include changing the way you do things. For the sake of keeping the numbers simple, let’s assume that is another $15,000. Only then, can you estimate the impact of the exercise. Building a business case on the hard costs of “branding” alone is a sure way to have nothing to measure and as a result a sure way to fail. On the other hand, when you build the branding exercise in an integrated, sustainable and long term implementation, the returns should reproduce themselves year after year with no additional cost. The returns will have become part of who you are and how you do business. You will reap the rewards through ongoing differentiated value you add to your target clients.

One final note:

Brand is like trust. Think of trust as a bucket that you fill for your ideal clients one drop at a time. At every touch point, you add another drop of trust. The trust bucket can take 10 to 15 years to completely fill. We all know that this same trust bucket takes only a moment, one incident, to spill. The same is true for your brand. Build it slowly and consistently, drop by drop. Eliminate everything from your organization that conflicts with your brand – less you risk spilling the bucket.