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).
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).
Is branding the long play? At first glance, it seems this way until you understand this:
Branding will outlast any campaign and marketing cycle and, in many cases, numerous CEOs.
Marketing and sales are the shorter play as in right now.
What to know:
- Branding is BIGGER in scope and meaning and goes on for years and decades.
- Marketing is smaller in scope with campaigns that last months, weeks, and sometimes days (as in Cyber Monday or Black Friday).
- With branding done right, marketing kicks ass.
- With branding skimped on, marketing struggles. Needlessly.
If you’re intelligent and attentive, you clearly know the difference between the two, master both, and get the best of all worlds in sales and branding.
How exactly? This is what I cover in this episode of One Minute Wednesday:
Master each of these and know their respective roles in your relationships in business, and you will become unstoppable.
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