One of the more memorable Pepsi ads in recent years was the commercial with two truck drivers running into each other at a truck stop. The Coke driver and Pepsi driver bond over a good song and soon the Coke driver is enjoying a Pepsi Max. Once the Pepsi driver tries to capture the moment with a picture on his cell phone, the love-fest ends and a fight ensues.
It reminds me of something my brother told me when he was working for Pepsi making deliveries. He told me that if he was ever caught drinking a Coke while wearing his uniform or driving the truck, he would be immediately fired. I found this really hard to believe, after all, this is the land of the free. While it seems a bit harsh to be fired for drinking a competitor’s product, I guess it does make sense on some level. When you consider the millions of dollars most major companies spend each year on supporting their brand, why wouldn’t they be strict about protecting it?
At the Cupertino, CA headquarters of Apple there is a store just for employees. Every Apple employee, from the maintenance team to senior developers, are able to purchase Apple products like Macs, IPods and software for about 75% off retail. It’s not a profit center but rather a place to create and reward their greatest brand ambassadors, their employees.
I began to think about brand ambassadors this past week when I was trying to replace our cable company. I called one of the satellite service providers hoping to get more information about installation and how satellite TV services works. Instead, I was given an extremely aggressive sales pitch. The goal of the sale person was clearly to get me signed up to have a rep come out and evaluate our location for service. He said that the installer would come out and answer all of my questions before installing anything. Oh, and the only way that he could send a rep out was if I signed up for the service and did a credit check. I explained that before I had the installer come out I wanted to get some questions answered. No luck, it wasn’t going to happen. It was all or nothing. Now, regardless of their branding efforts, their millions of dollars in ad spending and what have you, I will always think of them as the aggressive, unfriendly brand.
Other than marketing, your sales team needs to be your best brand ambassadors. Knowing that they are probably in front of your customers and prospects most often, what are you doing to ensure your brand is being protected and represented well? Here are a few things to consider.
Emails
I am sure you have received emails from someone where the font is a script of some sort and it is in purple or red. Or maybe the email signature has a smiley face or seasonal graphic of some sort. This may be cute when emailing grandma, but they don’t reflect well on your brand. Companies should set standards for email use that apply to all employees with an email account, including the CEO and the shipping manager. Font styles, size and color should be consistent. Furthermore, the email signature should be consistent in style and layout.
Presentations
When your sales reps give a presentation, who is writing it? Many companies do not have sales support staff, so they often write and create their own presentations. Be sure to have a consistent Power Point presentation template for everyone. The layout, colors and general branding should be the same to ensure brand continuity.
Messaging
Similar to the last point, all communications need to be consistent in style and messaging. Be sure everyone talks about your product and service in a similar way. Letters to your clients and prospects need to include the same language, i.e. tag lines, benefits/features, quotes, whatever. A sales person once asked me to proof a letter she was sending to a group of prospects. The letter was on the wrong letterhead, used a bold-script font and had inconsistent spacing. It was a mess and didn’t look like any of the letters we send out.
Your sales team has one goal in mind, to sell. They don’t want to worry about branding, presentation styles, fonts and letter spacing. This can all be easily done for them with templates. That being said, it’s important your team is as passionate about your brand as you (hopefully) are. I doubt very much the CEO of the satellite company I called wants his prospective customers to be pressured and to have what can only be described as “stressful” sales experience. But if he does, shame on him.
