How to Brand Yourself: Step-by-Step Sales Professional Branding

If you want to sell in today’s economy, it’s important to know how to brand yourself. You need to create (as a sales professional) a personal brand.

There are several steps to take to build that professional brand, and you won’t be relying on marketing to do this for you. We’ll talk about exactly how to do that in a minute.

Now, let’s jump into how to brand yourself as a sales professional.

Why Build a Personal Brand?

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First off, you need a brand for yourself.

Why? Because your prospects are out there seeking a trusted advisor. They’re looking for somebody they can work with to help them identify the best solution for them, which hopefully is your product or service, and of course can help them through the buying process and gain the outcomes they’re seeking.

The way that prospects do that today is through research. Studies have shown that 45% of prospects research online, looking for solutions. They’ll often come across a product or service first and then a salesperson second.

But if you create a personal brand, they can sometimes find you first, which sets you up for all sorts of upsell and cross-sell opportunities in addition to the initial product.

So you need to make sure you build and promote your personal brand.

Steps to Building Your Personal Brand

Let’s talk about the steps you can take to do so.

1. Be on the Right Social Platforms

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Step number one in building your personal brand as a sales professional is to be on the social platforms where your buyers or prospects spend their time.

For example, if you’re in the B2B world, you should be spending time on LinkedIn.

This isn’t about spending hours a day. You can create a system whereby you go in and spend 15 to 20 minutes a day. You want to be not only pursuing prospects and making connections but also building a brand by sharing content.

This could be content you’ve created or videos, but it should demonstrate you as a trusted advisor knowledgeable about the product or service you’re selling.

2. Answer Your Prospects’ Questions

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The second step is to answer the questions your prospects have about your product or service.

To find out what these questions are, ask your

prospects,
clients, and
colleagues

about the

challenges,
questions, and
issues prospects typically face.

Then, simply answer those questions through

videos,
written articles,
blogs,
podcasts,
recordings,
webinars, or
other content forms.

So what you want to do is get some specific questions, write down some answers to those questions and then create content that answers those questions. By doing so and sharing it on platforms where many sales professionals look for advice and ideas, like YouTube, you can create a personal brand.

In fact, that’s exactly what I’m doing here. I’m taking questions that have been submitted by you and I’m answering them, and by doing so, putting it into video form, sharing it on YouTube where I know many of the sales professionals look for advice and ideas, and concepts relative to selling.

I’m creating a personal brand, and you can do the same thing. You just want to make sure you spend time where your prospects are researching. You want to be putting content out there. And by sharing content, I mean don’t just share other people’s content. Create your own. Do so by answering questions your prospects ask, and put a different spin on it.

Don’t just say what your competitors are saying.

3. Be Unique

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If you’ve ever heard me speak, you’ll know that I often talk about same doesn’t sell.

The third step is to focus on being different and unique.

You might be very enthusiastic on video, wear something distinctive like a red hat or glasses, or have a unique presentation style.

The goal is to set yourself apart from the competition.

You can’t do that when everything you do is the same as them. Spend some time thinking about how to get in front of prospects and how to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Is it your tone of voice?
Is it your presentation?
Is it the content you’re sharing?

Think about how you can stand out. Is it all three?

So there are the key steps you want to use to build your personal brand and sales.

Additional Tips for Building Your Personal Brand

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I have a couple more quick tips for you before we go.

Now, here’s the reality: As a sales professional, your role is all about activity. It involves reaching out and connecting with people.

You don’t need to devote hours a week to building a personal brand, but you should commit 15-20 minutes each day. The key is the amount of content you put out and where you share it.

The more content you create and share in places where your prospects are looking, the better your chances of being found.

For example, several years ago, we bought an RV trailer from a dealer who stood out because they had a YouTube channel with hundreds of videos by one guy who was funny and engaging. Because of his videos, we visited him and ended up buying a trailer.

The same principle applies to B2C and B2B: People do research. If your content is where they’re looking and sets you apart, you’ll start to build a personal brand.

People will start to say, get me Sean Casemore. (But of course, they’ll use your name because you’re not me!)

One more quick tip:

This might sound counterintuitive, but when it comes to building a personal brand, you have to talk about your brand, meaning you have to constantly refer other content you’ve created.

So let’s say you created a video and put it on LinkedIn and let’s say you also created a video and put it on YouTube. And let’s say in addition to that, you wrote an article that you share with prospects. Maybe it’s just a summary sheet or a tip sheet. In your videos, you want to reference the summary sheet.

Cross-pollinate to create more awareness and accelerate your brand. The more times prospects see you, the more familiar they become, increasing the chances they’ll reach out.

Get Started Building Your Personal Brand

I hope you enjoyed this video and post on how to brand yourself as a sales professional.

If you’d like to see more videos like this, click the subscribe button. You’ll be notified each time I release a new video.

Comment below with your strategies for building your personal brand in sales. Until next time, let’s get out there and sell something. Talk to you soon.