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5 WAYS TO TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS BY DEVELOPING
“CELEBRITY STATUS” WITH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
You are a business leader, you know the competition, you
know the other leaders in your market, but you far too often
see your clients or customers drawn to others. Marketing
produces leads, but you are ultimately often one of the
“also rans.” Your service or product is excellent
and yet you have not become “the person to see.”The
problem, according to personal branding expert Tim O’Brien:
You have not effectively “branded yourself.”
“Do a personal practice test, and ask yourself who
the first person is that you think of when it comes to various
professions,” says O’Brien. “When you
think of the world’s best lawyer, who comes to mind,
and why does he or she come to mind? Or, bring it closer
to home; who have you heard is the best real estate agent
in your area? Why is it that person?”
O’Brien, author of the forthcoming book The
Power of Personal Branding: Creating Celebrity Status with
Your Target Audience, is essentially in the
business of making business leaders and individuals irresistible.
The founder of Rainmaker U., a coaching program that teaches
professionals how to create compelling personal brands,
he offers 5 essential tips for developing an effective and
magnetic personal brand.
1) Select the right “domain” and target
audience.
The focus of your message must be carefully directed toward
exactly whom you want to reach. Especially in service professions,
trying to be everything to everyone is a recipe for mediocrity.
For example, O’Brien often coaches financial advisors
and insurance brokers in Los Angeles whose target audiences
are high-net-worth individuals. The problem: There are hundreds
of thousands of high-net-worth people in L.A. County. O’Brien
coaches his clients to shrink their focus and hit a select
target audience like a battering ram, while their competitors
spray their message lightly everywhere.
O’Brien’s philosophy is that once you start
achieving success, go deeper, not wider. He uses designer
Donna Karan as an example of what not to do. Karan virtually
destroyed all of the cache her brand had developed by watering
down her brand with line extensions—from umbrellas
to men’s underwear.
2) Hone your personal descriptive qualities.
Personal branding has nothing to do with what you think
about yourself and has everything to do with what your target
audience feels about you. Cast aside bashfulness, and forget
about appearing conceited. Your target audience wants whom
they perceive to be the best, and what you portray is what
you become. If you are a commercial litigator, for example,
do you want to be known as affable and easygoing? Perhaps,
but your target audience is probably looking for descriptive
characteristics like “tenacious” and “forceful.”
A public relations pro? You want to be perceived as sophisticated,
creative, and personable.
3) Crystallize the benefits your qualities provide your
audience.
If you want your personal brand to sell, it must offer your
target audience something it wants and needs. People are
only attracted to a personal brand if there is something
in it for them. If, for example, you are a business development
consultant, a personal quality such as charisma provides
a clear benefit to your audience. If you are charismatic,
you can motivate.
4) Pick a winning benefit.
According to O’Brien, you must focus on just one benefit
to build your personal brand. Select the one most relevant
to your industry and that resonates with you the most. Trying
to be more than one thing to your target audience dilutes
the impact of your personal brand. You are a real estate
agent, and you are perceived as being friendly, patient,
and relentless. What is the one quality that probably has
the most benefit to your customers? Relentlessness —
you are known as not stopping until a sale to a client’s
satisfaction or until you find the perfect home for a client.
5) Develop a catch phrase.
Developing a catch phrase does not apply to everyone, but
think about your profession, make a list of phrases that
capture your most important quality, and see if one resonates.
Think of the movie American Beauty and the character who
was known throughout the town as the “King of Real
Estate.” This isn’t a descriptive characteristic
but a declarative one, backed up by a track record and market
dominance.
Tim O’Brien is a renowned personal branding
expert and author who knows what it takes to cut through
the noise and create a lasting impression. He serves as
President and CEO of Los Angeles–based The Personal
Branding Group, Inc. In 2001, he created Rainmaker U., a
coaching program that teaches top-level professionals how
to position themselves as The Person to See™
within their target audience. More information about Mr.
O’Brien is available at www.thepersonalbrandinggroup.com.
The Power of Personal Branding is scheduled for
release in January 2007.
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