Communication;

Sales teams tend to be taught about selling – buying cycle, selling cycle, objection handling, CRM etc – and about products – features, benefits etc.

All too frequently the idea behind the brand is left out, and in a world of undifferentiated products this leaves the sales team with not a great deal more than the customers pricing needs to negotiate with. In markets where brand makes a real difference to the selling price for example:  toothbrushes and painkillers you can buy a bog standard product for pennies whereas the branded version will attract a multiple of many times the cost.  This brand differentiation has been created at considerable cost and effort by the organisation and yet time and again I see this investment come to a crashing halt at the point of sale!

From a training perspective understanding that everyone who represents the brand needs to be aware of how important it is to protect brand value and promote what the brand stands for consistently is vital.

At every level of interaction – brand ambassadors offering tastings in the supermarket, the sales person visiting the retailer and negotiating trade terms, the brand team briefing the agency – the importance of the brand as a tangible asset of the organisation is central to the training process.

The problem is that brand teams and their agencies often speak in an unintelligible ad speak about their brands and their brand’s values. The communication of a brand to the more pragmatic and hard-nosed sales person who is incentivised on sales volumes is a real skill needing a clear understanding of the role the field force plays.  I once heard a story of a trade marketing team required to complete each retailer visit in 8 minutes.  They were scheduled on that basis and incentivised to make these calls.  The agency working on a specific brand promotion invented a cardboard point of sale display structure which needed to be transported flat packed and constructed in store.  No one could possibly construct it properly in under 20 minutes so to meet targets, the trade team were either leaving it for the retailer to put together – they didn’t, they left it hanging around unused in the store room or worse (from a brand values perspectives) leaning up against the wall in the outlet.  Alternatively the trade team cheated – using sellotape or even brown packing tape to stick the thing together.  A wonky POS display held together with brown sticky tape hardly shouts premium product from the roof tops does it?

So brand training needs to go in both directions – the agency and brand team also need to understand about the realities of the trade environment.

A well trained brand team would never have created that POS display in the first place. A well trained field force would never have tried to deploy it without sending it back to the brand team and explaining the issues or changing the schedule of the trade team during the execution period.

So what are the golden rules for the L&D team in ensuring that the investment in the brand is being carried through?

Consistency

Organisations must be CONSISTENT in their brand delivery to establish a meaningful relationship between their brands and the consumers who love them. A brand is not a message; it is a story in peoples mind.   A story that is not told in a single exposure, activity or a campaign it is told over time, as the culmination of every thought a consumer has about the brand. 

Attitudes

Attitudes to a brand are measured by the marketing team on an ongoing basis and this is where the L&D team should look to make their impact, by incorporating scores from commercial buyers as well as consumers.

If the field sales team, really understand the brand positioning they will feel more empowered and better equipped to negotiate the value of that particular product which will in turn effect the value that the buyer attributes to it.

Timing

In training staff that interact with the brand, time is of the essence. Nespresso had a window of opportunity where it created a unique category – a simple home coffee maker that provided similar product range which had previously only been available in coffee shops.  Now Nespresso has been joined in the market by many similar machines.  However, the term Nespresso describes this category as much as the specific brand.  Great brand awareness early on protected the innovation.

Communication

The primary role of the L&D team in this scenario is ensuring that the common language of the marketing function is translated so that the sales function can hear it, understand it, and apply it.

The core elements required to create and therefore explain a brand are as follows:

1. Know your consumer – walk with them – talk with them.  Generate DEEP CONSUMER INSIGHTS.  The better you know them, the more successful you will be.
2. Understand your brands foundation:  Your brands founding core purpose, vision, mission, position values and character.
3. Differentiate your brand, and build it to best meet your consumer’s needs against all competition.  People must have meaningful and relevant reasons to buy your goods over direct competition.  Why is your product better than theirs?  A brands position should be clear, compelling, and hit the target consumer dead-on.
4. Think about your personal impact when you meet a buyer. The brand is not simply logos, packages and communications.  It is the sum total of everything that people think of you.
5. You don’t actually control, own or define your brand.  All of the consumers out there thinking about you do.  The brand is built on stories and experiences they hear or have with it. Turning bad experiences into good ones i.e. how you handle complaints or returns can make all the difference in how the brand is perceived.
6. Consistency, consistency, consistency.  Meaning comes over time, and is the sum of everything people think of you.  Don’t be sporadic.  Stay on point.
7. Keep the brand relevant and alive.  Tell meaningful brand stories (related to good customer service experience) at every opportunity.  Internally, make sure it is everywhere, all the time.  Externally, do your best to make sure it is front of mind, wherever your consumers would like to have it.
8. Great brands stand out. They are recognised for doing and making great things.  They are remarkable in that people want to talk about them and to recommend them. Encourage sales people to generate case histories and testimonials.
9. Preserving the integrity of the brand, and managing the equity in the brand is everyone’s responsibility.  EVERYONE.  The entire organisation is charged with the protection of the brands.  People around the organisation need to understand and believe this.
10. A great brand always beats its competition.  Being able to identify the right competitors, and then knowing their strengths / weaknesses in relation to your own brands so that you can out deliver them is a hallmark of a great brand manager.

The crucial sales role

When a sales function is integrated into the branding process everyone benefits. In representing and ‘living’ the brand experience they are an organisation’s best ambassadors for the products. Their daily interactions with corporate buyers, consumers and competitors place them at the heart of all branding activity and can collect and feedback valuable information that provides a real competitive edge.

By far the most successful brands integrate the activities of both the marketing and the sales function; brands such as BAT; CocaCola; and Unilever all work in this way to establish their premium positioning.

The remit of the L&D team is to ensure that the entire organisation plays its role in supporting the brand starting at the point of induction and continuing through all learning activities like the name in a stick of rock. The brand values should be applied to every customer service and negotiation scenario to lock in the true value of the branding experience.