“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the greatest of them all?”
The majority would cry Brand of course – brand maketh the company. This includes brand aesthetics, logos and messaging (branding and promises), product design, marketing activities (advertising, social media, etc.), brand recognition, and so on.
When we talk about famous successful brands such as Apple, we know that they have big – read huge – marketing budgets. They have invested heavily to make it just right. Those most successful, like Apple, have also managed to create a large loyal following base which makes them the greatest of them all.
The power of brand recognition and marketing activities are crucial to the success of any business but is that all that is needed to truly become a great brand, and a truly great and profitable business?
Brand and marketing have a lot do with it, for sure. But if brand & marketing were to look into the enchanted mirror and asked the question: “mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the greatest of them all?” the mirror’s answer might surprise many.
It’s this – the unsung heroes of great and highly successful brands are the sales and customer service teams that make it real for people. It’s the human to human interaction that delivers on the promises these brands make. Which is why Apple invests an equally enormous amount of time, effort and money in educating and training their sales and services teams on the ground – in store, over the phone and online – to be highly skilled and capable sales and service people who create a wonderful buying and customer experience for their loyal and new customers. Nothing is spared.
Apple knows the golden rule of brand: Make promises you can keep and keep the promises you make. Because nothing happens until something get sold.
The following Barrett model demonstrates the power of Brand & Marketing and Sales & Service working together in a coordinated manner to deliver the real deal and immense satisfaction to customers and staff.
So where does your company sit?
- The Real Deal & Immense Satisfaction: excellent branding and marketing activity working in concert with quality sales and service teams who know how to represent the true essence of brand in person – human to human. These business invest in quality branding, marketing and the continuous development of their sales and service people.
- Hidden Treasures & Small Loyal Following: excellent sales and customer service experience, potentially good branding but limited marketing activity (close to $0 spent due to limited or no budget available): this is often the challenge for smaller businesses who have great products and services, great people but tight purse strings.
- Unfulfilled Promises & Frustrated Customers: all money has been invested in branding and marketing activity with little or no investment in sales and service which results in untrained and disempowered salespeople and customer service teams who cannot deliver on the promise in a coordinated and consistent manner.
- Transactional & Transient: Little or no branding and marketing activity (close to $0 spent) with little or no investment in sales and customer service people.
Moral of the story: The best branding and biggest marketing budget are nothing more than unfulfilled promises if the sales and customer service teams are not equally excellent and delivering on the brand promise.
So, don’t be surprised if the mirror replies “you, brand and marketing are wondrously great, but sales and service are beyond compare”.
Sales and Service are the unsung heroes of brand success.
Remember, everybody lives by selling something.
Author: Sue Barrett, www.barrett.com.au
Related topics
The role of marketing in developing trust.
Designing empathic customer centric cultures.
What does Selling Better mean for customers and shareholder return?
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