Personal Branding Guide For Dummies

Previously, personal branding has been an enigmatic process that experts and industry leaders took part in. The times have changed and anyone who wants to own their niche needs to their own brand. For a sales person dedicated to the Finance vertical, they must be a trusted adviser in that space, deliver leading content to prospects around their niche, and must have the support from marketing to help establish more credibility than their competition.

Here are three quotes from some of the best personal branding experts in the sales industry:

Tip 1: Create A Buyer Centric Profile
Have a look at your profile. If it hasn't been optimized for your customer base, odds are that it's build to attract recruiters and not prospects. With Marketing support, salespeople should have the right keywords, and a profile that demonstrates the value that you will bring if the prospect decided to work with you. For a great look at how to optimize your profile see this blueprint.

Tip 2: Profile Consistency
Once you have your LinkedIn profile optimized, it's time to create consistent profiles on the networks that your buyers and potential customers play in. Map your buyer demographics to social networks to see where they are online and be there for them to engage with.

Tip 3: Deliver Valuable Information
Now that you've created profiles in the right spots, what do you say? Marketing has traditionally provided sales with priority shifting content about products and services, but they now must also provide salespeople with the right content to build their personal brands. If this isn't in Marketing's current playbook, use curation tools to bring yourself the newest and most sought after content in your niche. Here are some great curation tools.

Tip 4: Be There And Be Helpful
Building trust and credibility in an area is not an overnight play. It takes times and repetition. It's not enough to just post to LinkedIn and Twitter once a day. Speed up your personal brand by being in the right LinkedIn Groups and hashtags on Twitter and be helpful by answering questions and taking part in the conversation through adding valuable insights where you can.