The Vital Difference Between Sales and Branding (in 60 Seconds)

There is a great confusion amongst companies between sales and branding.

It’s like not knowing the difference between the knife and the fork, even though both are utensils.

Gary Vaynerchuk said it very well, “The difference between branding and sales is simple. Are you trying to convert or are you trying to create an experience? The latter always wins.”

This is the topic of this 12th episode of One Minute Wednesday.

Doing Stupid Stuff Longer Doesn’t Make it Smarter (or More Effective)

In my new book, Brand Intervention, I define what branding is in four words, “The art of differentiation.”

Understood well, branding helps people identify which product or service is best for them and their needs.

Sales is the activity of helping another get something they need or want. Prior to the sale, they need to discover what they need or want.

Each activity (sales and branding) offers help. That is where they overlap.

Where they differ is:

One pushes out as much useful information as possible to help.
The other pulls people in to help conclude the transaction (the sale).

The Problem with Sales and Branding

The problem starts when companies try to brand something, they often look at what’s being done by other companies and then seek to “do their own version” of what everybody else is already doing.

That’s not leading. That’s following. That’s copying. That’s copycatting.

And it’s a failure to differentiate (which is the only reason you brand at all).

And if you go back to what Gary Vee wrote above, you’ll discover it’s also a failure to create an experience and settle instead on a short-term look (at what could otherwise become a lifelong relationship).

Branding is the long play.

Sales often is the short play as in, right now.

If you’re smart and attentive, you can do both and get the best of all worlds in sales and branding.

How exactly? This is what I cover in this week’s episode 12 of One Minute Wednesday: