As a copier dealer principal you’ve invested decades, countless hours, and millions of dollars to build your brand reputation in your local market.
What steps have your sales reps done to build out their brand reputation? This ties directly back to your dealership.
When people ask you about yourself, what are the first few things you share?
Aside from where you may live or whether you are married with kids, one of the first things you are most likely to share is your job title or what you do for a living. There’s a good reason as work is a common thread in most of our lives. Sharing with someone where you work and what you do gives them a good idea of what’s important to you. This is just a part of normal “get to know” conversation.
In previous posts, I have shared how important personal brand development is to copier sales reps. In a saturated, highly competitive and somewhat commoditized market, a quick Google search can turn up multitudes of information regarding your dealership and the sales reps who represent your corporate brand.
Your sales rep’s name, face, personal style and LinkedIn presence can be major factors in building a positive reputation with prospects and your clients. This is especially true in the complex and rapidly changing business environment where price is no longer the primary differentiator.
Here’s the problem, in the business world, it’s not enough for copier sales reps to take on your dealership’s brand as their own. Instead, your sales reps need a well-defined and well-developed personal brand. Your dealership needs to encourage brand development and thank your sales reps who build their brand, as this means more business and a much improved customer experience.
Time and time again in sales meetings, copier sales reps are being told, “Run your sales territory as if it was your business. You are the CEO now go out there develop new business and take care of our clients!”
Copier Dealer Principal’s, I am going to ask you all to stop and think real hard about one word for a moment…
Would you allow your dealership to operate without any web presence? Of course you wouldn’t. Your website is the window into your dealership portraying your brand in a business professional manner out into the community.
If you are encouraging your sales reps to be the CEO’s of their own territory and you know how important your corporate website is to your brand then why on earth would you allow your sales reps to operate their business with incomplete, non-branding LinkedIn profiles?
I ask you, as dealer principals; place yourself in your client’s shoes or for that manner a prospect’s shoes. Based on your first impression of your sales reps LinkedIn profiles or for that matter any aspect of their digital footprint would you hire and bring them into your company? Tough to digest?
Three Critical Ways Sales Reps Help (or Hurt!) Your Copier Dealership’s Brand Image
- Your dealership has very little personality without your sales reps
Lets face it we currently operate in an business environment where connections and relationships are the most valuable assets a business can have. Your clients and prospects make choices about the copier dealership they want to work with and buy from based on how well they connect with your sales reps. Copier sales reps with a strong personal brand behind their dealership brand make it easier for clients and prospects to make a meaningful connection.
The personal brands of your sales rep’s help to humanize your dealerships brand. This is so huge and a key way to distinguish your dealership from your competitors, especially when you all sell a perceived commodity.
- Loyalty is built when clients or prospects identify with a sales rep’s personal brand
When your sales reps develop a strong personal brand people will pay attention. These strong personal brands of your sales reps will help your dealership build a loyal client base. Helping your sales rep’s build and develop their personal brand is a key strategy as the dealer principal. The value your sales rep’s have to your dealership isn’t just measured in their sales results but also the impact they have on your dealerships clients.
Foster the culture and the environment to help your sales reps build their personal brand. Encourage them to professionally network, speak at not for profit groups, volunteer out in the community and most importantly have them build out their online presence with their LinkedIn profile.
- Your sales reps personal brand helps to build your dealerships culture
Encouraging and allowing your sales reps to build their personal brands will have a positive effect on recruiting and your retention efforts. It definitely portrays something positive about the culture of your dealership and provides a clear window for prospective sales reps to gauge how they will fit into your business culture.
Retention is also easier when you celebrate the personal brands of your sales reps rather than squashing them behind your dealership’s brand. Think about it from your sales rep’s perspective, wouldn’t they rather work for a dealership which helps them build upon their brand to help align with the modern buyer rather than being coached to sales methodologies from years gone by?
Now more than ever before personal branding by your sales rep’s is not only important to their success but to the success of your dealership.
Your sales reps are front and center, the face of your dealership. You can help by fostering a sales environment full of skill set development, mindset building, self-development as well as a growth minded atmosphere. Provide to them the tools necessary to perform at their highest level.
Coach and guide your sales reps to create their professional brand. Think of their online and offline reputation in the same manner you think about your dealerships brand. When a prospect is considering a purchase or a client to continue to do business with your dealership, the reputation of your sales team for delivering value and their social proof is mission critical.
It always isn’t about this…
But rather this…
It is my commitment to help copier dealers grow, win and develop a team of brand building sales machines.
If you enjoyed please share your comments. Look forward to connecting and starting a conversation.
Check out more at the Social Sales Academy blog site.
