Sell the Brand First: How to Sell Your Brand and Create Lasting Customer Loyalty

Dan Stiff

McGraw Hill Professional, Jun 7, 2010 - Business & Economics - 256 pages

A brand has the tremendous power to create a positive experience that will resonate with your customers. So why do you-and most other salespeople- focus on selling your product or service, but not on selling your brand?

Sell the Brand First reveals a fresh, highly effective way to close the sale: by selling to your customers from brand strength. Corporate trainer and brand selling specialist Dan Stiff shares his proven Brand Staircase Method-a four-step process that shows you how to hone in on your customers' mind-sets, create sales pitches based on how your brand fits into your consumers' lifestyles, and fully satisfy the trade buyers' needs and expectations.

Even the most experienced salespeople tend to simply adopt their marketing department's version of their brand. Stiff helps you become a “Brand Ambassador” by making your brand your own, finding the emotional connection between your customer and your brand, and speaking “Brand Language” to serve buyers' needs. The Brand Staircase gives you the tools you need to

• Discover the inherent value in your brand and sell from it
• Avoid “hollow brand promises” and break through the “glass ceiling of price”
• Build on marketing efforts to leverage your brand's identity and positioning in the marketplace

Stiff illustrates key points through practical selling experience at NCR, DeWALT, and Black & Decker. He combines that knowledge with engaging real-life case studies and proven examples from Fortune 500 companies within multiple industries. His sample dialogues and common brand examples in the marketplace make selling the brand come alive.

Whether you're selling B2B or B2C, or you're a sales manager leading the charge, Sell the Brand First will change the way you look at selling and the way you sell for the better-and for good!

Contents

• The Core Components of Brand Selling: 27
• Understanding the Buyer and Seller: 85
• Selling Brands in the BusinesstoConsumer Setting: 135
• Selling Brands in the BusinesstoBusiness Setting: 187
• Impact on Company Culture: 235
• References: 249
• Index: 251

Popular passages

Page 75 - It's unwise to pay too much, but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money— that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do.‎

Page 75 - It's unwise to pay too much ... but it's worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money . . . that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything, because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot. It can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that, you will have enough to pay...‎

Page 66 - By the time you reach the end of this chapter, you will be able to perform almost all the tasks you need to use Subversion in a normal day's work.‎

Page 147 - It is better to remain silent and thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt. "To open wide one's lips brings downfall.‎

Page 8 - Products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind.‎

Page 29 - We must know where we have been in order to know where we are going.‎

Page 96 - Dictionary, a professional is "a person who earns a living in a sport or other occupation frequently engaged in by amateurs. A person who is an 'expert‎

Page 213 - It is like the wind; you can't see it, but you can feel it, you perceive it, and thus you know that it exists.‎

Page 243 - ln the 21st Century, Branding ultimately will be the only unique differentiator between companies. Brand equity is now a key asset.‎

About the author

As president of Leadership Performance Development, Inc., Dan Stiff specializes in showing companies how to leverage their brand strength, lead teams, and sell in the modern business climate. His clients include Baldwin, Home Depot/Expo, Aviall, Beretta USA, Purdy, and Juno Lighting Group. Stiff speaks to corporate groups 40 times a year and also has a network of affiliates who teach his sales methods to top corporations such as IBM, Pepsi, Pfizer, Nextel, and AOL/Time Warner.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Sell the Brand First: How to Sell Your Brand and Create Lasting Customer Loyalty
• Author: Dan Stiff
• Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional, 2010
• ISBN: 0071491643, 9780071491648
• Length: 256 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Management; Business & Economics / Training