Today we talk about why you should build a strong personal brand! When you decide to take your sales career to the next level, you need to leverage your personal leadership brand to the next level. So what do you need to stand out from your peers in your career? Can you make your personal brand ROAR?

I use the acronym ROAR to help you get a better handle on the key elements of developing a great personal brand.  Today we’ll talk about the key elements of a brand that ROARs. Friday, we give you several tools to help you implement this strategy.

Tenure with organizations is getting shorter and shorter. Businesses are failing faster than ever before. Many technology organizations are being bought by larger organizations, and many times, the first people let go are the hardworking salespeople who helped them get their initial revenue and clients. Are you prepared for free agency in your sales career?

I believe that selling is going through some dramatic changes. Many, more senior sales professionals are being replace by younger, more agile performers. With new technologies it makes it easier to put less experienced sales people in your place. I believe this is a phase that we are going through, but it may require sales professionals to develop a stronger connection with their best clients. This requires building more trust and better partnerships with your key clients and organization. Let’s get ready to ROAR in our markets.

The first R in ROAR is relating to your clients’ world. Building stronger, more trusting relationships requires investing time developing a deeper understanding of your client and their business environment. What does it take to establish credibility with your clients?

Do you understand what is changing with their clients and customers? You must help educate your busy clients on what they might not be seeing happen in their markets. You must develop a stronger, more nurturing sales process than you have in the past.

The second letter of ROAR is O for owning your personal brand! What does ownership mean today for you and your client? It’s not enough to be just another corporate sales professional. You must target your message so that you connect on a deeper level with your clients.

You must become the person who gets things down when working with clients. You must build a brand that your promise is your bond. This requires developing stronger relationships with key people within your organization.  You need to know how to get things done and get other great team members to want to work on your projects. Owning it means that you have decided to be one of the best people in your field. It also means that you are a success magnet. Clients want to work with you because you bring the best team to their projects.

The next letter of ROAR is A for activity and growth that your client can see and feel.  This means you must choose the critical activities that matter to your clients. I see a tremendous amount of time and money being invested in activities that do not add value to your client or your organizations.

If you want to stand out with your clients, help them choose the critical elements they need to invest time in to get the outcomes they need to become visible and promotable. If you get the reputation of helping others win, you always have great clients. You always have a great career.

The final R letter in ROAR is for relationships. Today, your buyer is under tremendous stress in their career. They are asked to do more with less, and then less again. If you want to ROAR you must become good at understanding what is being said and not said during the sales process.

You must be able to understand clients’ personal and professional agendas. If you have not earned a client’s trust, you don’t have a great client. It is critical you can provide the right information at the right time to help champion your client within their organizations. This means have great material that helps support your client’s individual and organization’s needs.

Finally, if you want to amplify your ROAR across your corporate jungle and beyond, you must have an implementable strategy. How do you create a strategy that helps you ROAR?

Friday, we share the tools and strategies that can you stand out in your markets. See you Friday!