Your product or service is what you offer to the world. It is the impression you make at work, at home, and with friends. It is your secret power. It is what makes you, you.
Before we proceed further, I want you to close your eyes and consider what you seek to achieve by selling your product/service.
What do you see at the end, behind that goalpost that you’re relentlessly running towards with your dreams clutched against your chest as you dodge all the odds?
Take some time to think about these questions, and the answers will determine the purpose behind your initiative. This defines your intention and is a foundation for your value selling framework.
- How will selling your product help the person from drowning? Save them time? Money? Make their life better?
- What are you looking for besides a transaction? Besides extracting money from your customer!
- If you don’t sell anything, what is the impression you want to make on others?
- How can your product enhance your customers’ lives in a way no one else can?
Your intention explores the power of ‘why’ behind your initiative and illustrates the search for its meaning and purpose. What outcome do you seek to achieve through your brand? For instance, if you are a student in need of credits applying to volunteer at a nursing home, how would you state your intention convincingly? Your reason could be that you wish to record the legacy of men and women in their 90s and upload it on Spotify. That intention has value-charged outcomes that benefit others apart from yourself. Through good intentions, you get the result you want.
If your expected outcome is a personal benefit, like getting a job, you need to rethink your intention!
Intention can change periodically, say annually. And you keep renewing it according to the immediate goals you wish to achieve within a specific time frame.
An essential takeaway from my past experiences is that one shouldn’t be afraid to sell themselves. If you believe what you’re offering could mean a lot to somebody, then you’re doing it right. Who knows, what you think of as an interruption could keep somebody from drowning. You could be giving them a lifeboat, a lifevest, or even teaching them to swim. It’s a different sale for each person, but they’re all equally meaningful.
Your Promise; Your potential
Once you have articulated your purpose, way, and impact, it’s time to complete this three-sentence marketing promise from Seth Godin that connects what’s important to you with what’s important to others (your audience).
- My product is for people who believe _____________.
- I will focus on people who want ________________.
- I promise that engaging with what I make will help you get__________.
This statement is anything but easy, and if you do it right, it will take you a week or so of refining until it starts to sing!
Here’s mine:
- My product is for people curious about their full potential.
- I will focus on talented people who are open to personal and professional growth but aren’t sure how.
- I promise to use my candor, experience, & network, to guide you in building an action plan for your life and career.
What’s Your Movement?
A movement can be your reality as individuals, professionals, and entrepreneurs if you prioritize it. Whether focused on financial inclusion, gender equality, or helping build up necessary skills in underserved communities, you can and should define your movement based on what excites you.
A movement can be a full-time job or a hobby after your day job. Either way, it is critical to define what it is and what you plan to do with it, or else you will never be able to measure your progress.
My movement is my company, Jay Mandel, Your Brand Coach. Your Brand Coach applies my diverse skills as a career corporate digital marketer, entrepreneur, and coach to help people understand what makes them tick and translate it into a real business or an actionable plan to connect your passion with your vocation. Seeing people receive clarity and a concrete plan from my workshops drives me to continue to evolve my movement and offerings.
Align Your Movement With Your Identity
There are three facets of a business that you must maintain to build a sharp brand image: Identity, Platform, and Movement.
Identity sets the foundation for having a crystal clear vision of who you are.
The platform (or channel) is the method you choose to establish your identity and share your message with your target audience. It could be your website, a social media handle, or a physical presence. Once you realize and form your business identity, you must meticulously strategize how you will approach your customers on your platform.
And then comes your movement, which acts as the icing on the top and enriches the customer experience. Your movement, presented as a promise, builds a deep connection with the audience.
Just like identity, your personal or company’s movement is also something that needs to be registered and organized by the self. You cannot perceive your movement (or come up with one) without truly understanding who you are and how your values resonate with your customers.
Bottom Line
Connecting your vision, plans, and actions with psychology helps you better understand your skills and plan of action. To understand what goes on around you, it is imperative to figure out what goes inside your head. And most often, we are unaware of what we truly desire and are capable of!
When you understand who you are, what you do, and why you do it, you are well positioned to lead change in your organization.
