Building the Team that Sells Your Brand Crea reating ing a - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Building the Team that Sells Your Brand Crea reating ing a culture ture of of brand and engage engagement ent inside ins ide and ou outsi tside de yo your org organi anizat zation ion. W. Douglas Wendt

Webinar Key Points  Website > Go to www.wendtpartners.com > Click on Resources > Select Related Links – Wendt Partners Online Webinar Center  Conference call Phone #: 408.792.6300 Meeting #: 570-993-213  Assistance: Call 717.766.0696 and ask for Alice Wendt at any time.

Welcome  Presenter introduction  Today’s goal  Key concepts  Background  Format

What is a Brand?  Common Assumptions:  Logo  Color palette  Marketing materials  Website  Tagline  Sales pitch

Components of Your Brand  Elements  Attributes  Indicators

Brand Elements  Elements  Messages  Marketing  Methods

Brand Attributes  Attributes  Programs  Processes  People

Brand Indicators  Indicators  Evidence  Experience  Endorsement  Engagement

Summary: Brand Components  Elements  Messages  Marketing  Methods  Attributes  Programs  Processes  People  Indicators  Evidence  Experience  Endorsement  Engagement

People and Your Brand  Who connects to your brand?  What attitudes and behaviors impact your brand?  When do they connect?  Where do they experience your brand?  How do they interact with your brand?

Who connects to your brand?  Anyone who needs to believe in your organization and act :  Customers  Current  Prospective  Employees  Current  Prospective  Investors/Donors  Current  Targeted  Board Members  Strategic Partners  Other Stakeholders

What impacts your brand?  Opportunities to act or influence others:  Purchasing decisions  Vendor reviews  Employee behavior  Talent development  Leadership comments  Board direction  Investor priorities  Donor development  Partner commitments

When do they connect?  Direct encounters or indirect experiences :  In person  Over the phone  Via email  On your website  In media coverage  Customer reviews  Follow-up processes  Donor appreciation  Investor presentations  Board meetings  Online blogs/ratings  Through partners

Where do they connect?  Any physical or virtual location where your brand comes up:  Conversations with your employees  Dialogue with other customers  In their own minds when competitors appear in front of them  Through your workflow  Order fulfillment  Billing follow-up  When categorizing your performance

How do they interact?  Any way that you provide or that they decide for themselves:  Real-time experiences and impressions  Mental assumptions and comparisons  Verbal and nonverbal communications  Post-experience assessments  Water cooler discussions  Deciding to spend time on new options

People and Your Brand  You directly control very little of the overall brand experience.  You can indirectly influence a great deal of the brand experience.  The brand experience impacts a wide range of internal and external people.

People and Your Brand  3 Common Pitfalls:  The greater the brand promise , the easier it is for people to identify brand failures.  People tend to reject externally-enforced brand requirements in favor of their own perspectives .  Brand belief is won or lost by people 95% of the time.

People and Your Brand  3 Key Lessons:  Commit to your brand promise across all aspects of your organization.  Provide reasons for individuals to support your brand promise personally.  Value the role of people as individuals and teams in making your brand work.

Building Your Brand Team Partners Customers Employees Leadership

Building Your Brand Team Leadership

Brand Team: Leadership  Brand Leadership:  Executives  Owners  Board members  Major investors  Leading donors  Key influencers

Brand Team: Leadership  Communicators are often…  Intimidated  Under layers of management  Dotted line to executives  Untrained in MBA or MPA language  Expense on the balance sheet

Brand Team: Leadership  Communicators therefore should…  Read the business or strategic plan  Understand the reporting structure  Find opportunities to meet investors, board members, influencers, donors  Build their internal network of support  Learn how financial decisions are made

Building Your Brand Team Employees Leadership

Brand Team: Employees  All employees impact brand experience  All employees experience the impact of the brand  Who leads employee engagement ?

Brand Team: Employees  Begin with the chain of command:  CFO  Director of HR  Create a pathway for reviewing employee engagement:  Quality of work life survey  Perceptions  Programs and resources  Recruitment / retention  Defined career paths  Training and development  Educational advancement  If you are an HR executive, connect w/communications  Create a joint initiative  Strengthen your position

Building Your Brand Team Customers Employees Leadership

Brand Team: Customers  Who connects with customers?  Sales  Marketing  Customer service  Accounting  Operations  Finance  Partners

Brand Team: Customers  Customer engagement:  Review communications  Marketing touch-points  Contacts within customer organizations  Events and programs to encourage loyalty  Level of customer utilization of your services  Use of customers for references, testimonials and case stories  Audit messages across departments  Customer perceptions  Identify ways to deeply analyze customers

Brand Team: Customers  Departmental cross- collaboration:  Sales  Believes they own the customer  Internal advocate for the customer against the ‘system’  Marketing  Believes they define customer perceptions  Customer service  Closes the gap between sales over- promises and reality  Manages expectations

Brand Team: Customers  Departmental cross- collaboration:  Accounting  Deals with customer mis-behavior  Operations  Has to meet customer needs within real-world constraints  Finance  Makes sure customers don’t bankrupt the organization  Has to decide if customers are actually profitable

Brand Team: Customers  Key points:  Each group that interacts with customers has to be ‘on board’ with the customer brand experience .  Current customer engagement defines near-term potential for brand development .

Building Your Brand Team Partners Customers Employees Leadership

Brand Team: Partners  Partners include:  Sales and distribution organizations  Nonprofit and government financial backers  Allied organizations  Marketing relationships  Additional participants in leadership roles  Non-customer ‘fans’

Brand Team: Partners  Key points about your partners:  Partners are more likely to be honest than customers.  Partners should be able to see a value for their engagement.  Partners provide third- party validation that backs your reputation.  Partners are easily overlooked because often they are not visible on the balance sheet.

Steps to Build the Team Assess Engage Interact

Build the Team: Assess  Start with an assessment team  Go beyond surveys  One-to-one focus  Whether in person, phone or email  Enlist employees  Focus on experiences  Broaden reach within each group  Identify brand leaders

Brand Success: Assess  Partnership for Career Development  Situation  Connects business with education  Must meet high expectations  Small staff, volunteer board  Strategy  Solution  Internal impact  External impact

Brand Success: Assess  “Wendt Partners believes in what we are doing and applies enthusiasm in ways that energize our forward momentum.“  Betty Holmboe, Exec. Dir.  Services:  Strategic Consulting  Branding & Messaging  Organizational Development  Integrated Communications

Build the Team: Engage  Define opportunities for engagement  In person  Phone, web, video  Online  How to bring value  Broaden connection  Deepen relationships  Based upon each group’s priorities  Systematize and codify so it is not ‘flash in the pan’  Teach one group to engage the next

Brand Success: Engage  Capital Area Intermediate Unit  Situation  Large, distributed organization  Stakeholder support  Strategy  Solution  Internal impact  External impact

Brand Success: Engage  “…the internal and external response to the changes Wendt Partners helped us make has been outstanding.“  Amy C. Morton, Executive Director  Services:  Strategic Consulting  Branding & Messaging  Organizational Development  Integrated Communications