Personal Branding: How to Win New Business
If you’re in business, you’re in the business of winning more business. Like a game show contestant, you’re always in the hunt for the Grand Prize – a big sale or a new account. But to win, you need to get on that game show in the first place. Game shows employ “bookers” to select contestants. Your audience? A potential customer. 
Getting on a game show or winning new business is all about making a connection on a personal level. What kind of contestant do you need to be? How will you get noticed? In showbiz, it’s called “shtick” – in business, it’s called personal branding. You’ll need to market yourself (or your company) and compete to determine if you go home a winner or walk away empty-handed.
Long-time game show Wink Martindale was recently interviewed about contestant selection for the “Price is Right.” At “Price,” potential contestants line up as early as five a.m. Then, coordinators (“bookers” in game show parlance) ask random questions of those in line. What are they looking for? They’re checking out the person’s energy level and disposition, they’re listening to his voice or watching how she expresses herself. Personality is important – and so is appearance.
Martindale says contestants need to consider what the booker is looking for—and act accordingly. “Maybe they’re looking for someone wearing an outrageous outfit or who just looks interested.”
Your personal brand is your message: what you say and how you deliver it. In relation to the kind of business you want to win, you decide how you want to come across — creative, conservative, serious or fun-loving? Are you pitching a company with a culture that’s steered by younger, hipper, risk-takers or that’s long-established, conservative and risk-averse? You want to come across as trustworthy, honest and enthusiastic about the new business potential. And you’ll need to appear knowledgeable, competent and professional. Those qualities you feel will best convince your potential client can be conveyed by how you present yourself through dress, actions and words.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati