Imagine, if you will, how easy life would be if your brand did all your selling for you. Marketers around the world would be sat supping cocktails on the beach, watching their sales teams frolic playfully in the waves. But hold up. Before you book your first-class flights to Acapulco, it might be time for a little reality check.

As a propositions marketing manager working for a global communications provider, I often found myself pondering why, after all the zillions of pounds spent on brand re-invention, snappy straplines and endless above-the-line advertising, were sales teams still not hitting their targets. Why was I building massive sales enablement programmes and creating endless value propositions for solutions that customers never got?

With experience and the power of hindsight, it’s much clearer to me now. No-one is taking the time to connect their solutions to the brand. Comms, marketing and brand teams are operating in silos. And perhaps, most importantly, the end-customer is all but forgotten. The solution they are buying just isn’t living up to what your brand is selling.

Customers need to have a consistent experience if they are to really connect with your business and what you sell. They don’t want to be having to interpret multiple different messages coming from the same company. They want a clear articulation of your brand values all the way down the line to the service or solution you are selling. And they want to know something quite simple: why you are better than anyone else.

By creating a ’golden thread’ that connects your overarching brand messaging to your go-to-market themes all the way down to your portfolios and individual solutions, you can present clear value to them throughout the chain. No matter how or with whom they interact, they will be able to understand just what it is you can do for them – increasing the chance of them buying from you and staying engaged afterwards.

Put simply, this means translating your brand value to a solution level – what element of your brand does it relate to, what brand promise does it deliver on, what are the USPs and what value does it really create for the customer.
Do this, and not only will you have happier customers willing to part with more cash, you won’t be wasting all that money on catchy brand names and mission statements.

To find out more about how we can help you connect the dots between your brand and solutions using our simple methodology – and what this could mean for your sales enablement as well as campaigns – please get in touch.

Jo Dunkley
Director