[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Welcome. This is the sales IQ podcast. My name is Luigi Prestinenzi, and I'm on a mission to help salespeople be the best sales professionals they can be each week. We'll bring you a different message from thought leaders around the globe so we can help you master the art of selling.

Branding is the art of differentiation. That is a quote from this week's guest David Brier, who is a leading expert when it comes to branding. And he's going to talk to us today about how you can create a. That will differentiate you from your competition. This episode is brought to you by vanilla soft.com sales engagement platform.

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So do yourself a favor head over to vanilla soft.com. Sign up for a free trial and see why so many salespeople are closing more deals as a result of using vanilla soft. So before we get into today's show, guys just want to say, thanks again for subscribing. And for listening to this podcast, I do this to help you be the very best you can be.

Please continue to like write and share wherever you listen to podcasts. And please don't forget to send me a message on LinkedIn. I absolutely love receiving those messages of gratitude and thanks. So please keep it. What the hell is branding got to do with sales? I'm a sales pro. I listened to your episode, Luigi, because you tell us about how we can be the best sales professionals we can be.

And why would we want to listen to an episode on branding? Well, the reality is sales pros and they're doing more marketing than ever before. The days of waiting for marketing to dish up sales, qualified opportunities into your pipeline, he's gone. And if you want it to continue, then I'd probably say it's Tom to look for a different job.

That's why this week's episode is a compelling episode. That if you haven't already created a personal brand, it's going to compel you to create one. And if you have, it's going to help provoke thought on what you could be doing differently to separate yourself. From the wrist on what you can be doing differently so that your customers, your prospects, the people you want to engage with will see you differently.

And you know, when I first started in the sales world and geez, when I say this, I feel like my old man, I feel like my dad, you know, going back in the day of, but when I first started. I wouldn't say I'm a veteran, but I've been doing this for a long time. Personal branding. Wasn't a major thing. And maybe it should have been, but it wasn't.

It was a really simple process. We had a phone, we had a desk. Sometimes we didn't have a desk. Right. But we had a phone and it was dial, dial, dial doll, get out there on the road, door, knock, generate conversations to generate business. It was actually really simple. We thought I had told my boss back in the day there silver Fox.

That I had to create a personal brand. He probably would have told me where to go and get out of his office and find a new job. Right. Times have changed though. Yeah. And the role that we play as sales professionals, we're really spending more time creating awareness in the marketplace and helping people engage with us earlier in the sales process.

And yes, prospecting is a massive component of what we do. And you guys know me, you know, how much I love the phone and love prospecting and email cold emails and everything that comes with creating net new opportunities from nothing but building a personal brand is absolutely critical because it's only going to allow.

The prospecting efforts that you do. Yeah. So that's why this week's episode is awesome because David consults to companies all over the world, some of the biggest companies in the world. About this sort of stuff about how do they can create their company brand. And there are many things that we can do as sales professionals to elevate our personal brand.

So David's an author. He spent his whole career devoted to this particular topic. So there are absolute nuggets of gold that he's in this episode. And again, I'm hoping you have a notepad out. Um, and you just take note after note after note, because it's really gonna make you think it's gonna stop and help you consider.

Exactly what you're doing from a personal branding perspective, that's going to help you, not just be the best sales professional you can be, but to create better buying experience for your customers and your prospects. It's a, can't wait to get into this episode with David.

Welcome to the show, David.

[00:04:54] David Brier: Thanks Luigi. I appreciate it, man. Yeah,

[00:04:56] Luigi Prestinenzi: man, I'm pretty pumped to have you on the show, man, because I think, uh, you know, right now with everything going on in the world, personal branding has not been as important as it is right now. And, um, you know, sales professionals, anyone sales professionals, business owners, marketers, and now, you know, the actual focus on building brand is super important.

So really excited to have an expert like yourself. Talk to our audience about what they can do to build a personal brand and help them connect better with your audience. Before we get into today's topic. Mike, we'd love to know how you started in this journey. Um, business sales, marketing branding.

[00:05:35] David Brier: Oh, wow.

Okay. Well, let's, I'll give you the fastest ads that I possibly can basically. So I'm a native new Yorker born in Brooklyn, raised in Queens, a little stint on long island. And then I started my career in Manhattan and, um, I've always had an entrepreneurial. I was never really a big fan of like jumping into some agency stuff.

I didn't tend to like the cultures. They felt a little. In my experience, the advertising world, they were really full of themselves. Like, like, like, like they were like the bad-ass is of the world. Like they knew better than anybody. And so there was a certain air that, that didn't float my boat. And then there was a certain, uh, risk aristocracy that went along with the design agencies.

And so there's like these two worlds and I. Stay true to my own path and being always involved in art and creation and language, and really appreciating all the components that make up, uh, something that left an impression upon you because, uh, growing up in New York, I loved going to. You know, New York city and soaking up the culture and all kinds of stuff.

And so for me, it was always a matter of what makes an impression upon me. You know, it might be something musical, it might be something visual. It might be some incredible piece of architecture, but that was always stuff that caught my attention. That's really, that was the foundation of my. Yeah. I mean,

[00:07:03] Luigi Prestinenzi: I'm, I'm jealous mate because, uh, New York city is literally my favorite city in the world, man.

Every time was airing in, in December, uh, to the Rockefeller center, it was cold running down central park. It's just, I don't know. It just everything about that city. Absolutely. It's electric. Right? Um, I just think the hustle, the bustle, everything about it. I love it. And so. From an early age, obviously you going into New York city and, and where did that inspiration for you come?

Like where did you find it to sort of say, Hey, I'm going to devote my life to helping businesses and helping people create brands that better connect with audiences.

[00:07:42] David Brier: There was. I was studying to be an illustrator and I was a fine art. I believe it or not. When I was 15, 16 years old, I was already a fine art painter.

I was already doing large. And if you can, you can see, I don't know if you're, I don't know if your folks are going to see a visual thing, but you see that painting right there. That's that's a painting of George Harris. That's an oil painting. I did that when I was 16 years old. Wow. That's pretty impressive.

Yeah. And so, and so things, so I will. Kind of grooming myself to be an illustrator, you know, be on magazines and album covers all kinds of stuff, but it was, I saw one particular designer who took the whole, the freaking entire thing. It's kind of like if you were, it's kinda like when someone hears the Beatles or some amazing group for the first time.

Well that's music, you know, and to me it was like, whoa, that's, what's possible with design. So that it was at that point that I realized I didn't just want to be basically. A musician in the band. I wanted to be the conductor. I wanted them to ensure that all the talents and all the pieces that came together, came together perfectly with the right synergy so that you and I, when we came upon that.

Holy shit. Yeah. You know, it stops you and, you know, it's it's, I mean, someone recently made a comment about one of my posts on LinkedIn and said, and they called me the scroll stopper. It's like, because you know, you're always scrolling and they called me the scrolls. Cause they said they were like scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and scrolling.

And they're like, and it stopped. And we're like, holy shit. And they had, they had to read the post. Right. Yeah. And so, anyway, so that's, that's the thing that got me.

[00:09:32] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's pretty cool. Um, and so, because it's thinking about it and, and I've, I've, I think we, we spoke, we spoke recently about this, right? I I've been giving a lot of thought to, you know, what does that, what does brand actually mean?

And I don't think enough people appreciate. What brand actually means. Right. And there has been a major shift. I mean, we've got a lot of sales professionals that listen to this particular podcast and, you know, historically it was marketing's role to conduct that top of the funnel brand equity brand awareness.

And the shift has occurred where salespeople now are. It's a massive part of their role to create their own brand, to connect with that top of the funnel. Right. Um, and, but I think for a lot of people, they're just the definition of brand. Like a lot of people still don't know. And maybe it's not that don't know.

I think the definition means things, different things to different people. I mean, from your perspective, given that you've devoted your kind of your life to this particular topic, what does brand mean?

[00:10:35] David Brier: Well, funny, you should ask because the basics, the basic thing it's in my book has mentioned, and it was one of the things that got me frustrated because when I started writing my book, there were like about 6,500.

If you go, if you went onto Amazon, you typed in branding for books, you'd get over 6,500 books right now it's over 10,000 books, which by the way, if you and I were to start, if you and I were to say, Like let's, uh, I'm going to do, I'm going to do you as though you had an, an exit, you might go a day, every day.

So we're going to, we're going to like a sit down. We're going to read a book a day or just a one, a book a day. It would take us 24 and a half years reading one book a day to finish all of the books that currently exist on the topic of branding. And none of them had one agreed upon definition of branding.

That's what I tackled him. I brought it down, not to 24 plus years of study for fricking words. Branding is the art of differentiation and anybody in sales knows that if they fail to differentiate, they're not, they're not distinguishing their offering from what else is out there. Right. And anybody that's involved in leader.

If you're not making it clear, how are we as a culture in the world? How are we different? And if you, as a brand, the best brands in the world, I mean, Gary V even says, it's the group, the greatest brands in the world. They actually brand, they don't sell. And as a result, they moved more product into more hands and impact more hearts and more minds than those organizations that are just, we're going to sell, sell, sell, sell.

[00:12:21] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah, it's such an interesting concept, right? And I mean, I'm in both fences. Cause I love the concept of selling. I love the concept of creating something from nothing. Right. I'll put some large deals together in my past and I think there's nothing more satisfying than going this person bef you know, six months ago, did not know there were signing a check for, you know, $5 million with me.

And we created something from nothing. I think that that in itself blows my mind. I've written that down, the art of differentiation. And I think that that sea of sameness that a lot of sales professionals get stuck in. Um, it's a very difficult place to swim in, right. Because the only thing that they can differentiate is in price.

And then they're battling in cross.

[00:13:04] David Brier: You and you just nailed it. That's I'll give you this because this is what you've covered is exactly the point and sales. Those who are involved in sales will appreciate this. And as well as marketing, if we find that a prospective customer is talking more about price, price, price, price, price, then it's like a Seesaw.

If that's high, then your value and differentiation is low. And now if you flip it and have you start pushing up your differentiation, why is it that people. Still buy apple products that are not, that are at the top of the heap. As far as price, their value is high. Their branding is high, their differentiation, either user experiences, high that, and then price becomes secondary.

[00:13:51] Luigi Prestinenzi: You spell on man. It's like the Tiffany it's like the Tiffany. You know, when somebody had this conversation with someone, they like, you know, I said, mate, you know, it's, uh, it's based it's perception. It's what person perceives as value. And you know, there's Tiffany paperclip. I mean, what is it? It's 200 bucks.

Like who in their right mind would spend 200 bucks on a paper clip. Right. But people do like, I'm not sure if you even seen, like, and then that day I went down this rabbit hole, David, and I'm on their website and you can buy. Potty cups, right? Like a hundred bucks. I'm like, who are we spending this money?

Because maybe I don't see it. I don't, I don't, you know, I don't see valuable. But there are people that see value in that, right? It's the brand is speaking louder than, than what I would, I can actually, you know what I'm hearing. Um, but they know their market and they're serving their market well, and they're making money from their market because that's what their market will buy it.

Right.

[00:14:47] David Brier: Complete, complete. I mean, it's, I mean, look at. You know, I mean, look at, just go back flash back to when Starbucks first introduced the whole coffee house experience. There were, there were restaurants that serve coffee for 50 cents or whatever it was. And then all of a sudden they bring this whole day.

It's an aura and it's an experience. And you walk into a Starbucks, you're sort of stepping outside of the hustle bustle of the world. So what are you paying for? You're paying for that whole 360 degree experience. And you're glad to pay the three 50 for the freaking cup of coffee. You're like, sure. Take my money.

Yeah.

[00:15:26] Luigi Prestinenzi: I love, you know, I often refer back to Howard Schultz, man. I love his story. Um, another new Yorker, you know, from the housing projects and I absolutely love his story. I love the fact that, you know, he went to Italy, he, he saw a coffee culture and he wanted to replicate that and he's created something remarkable, but I think you're right, because brain.

W w we don't have a lot of Starbucks in Australia. We've got them, but not in the burbs. Right. What I call the suburbs, um, like in, in the us they're everywhere. Right? Like you walk down New York, it's kind of like on every corner. Um, practically every corner they get free. Wi-Fi I mean, but I remember when one opened up near our house, my kids are like, and my son was like 12 years old.

My daughter's 15, 16. Oh, can we go to Starbucks? How, how are you attracted to Starbucks? Look, you don't drink coffee. And they're like, yeah, but they don't have coffees. They got all these other things and my friends are going there. I'm like, you know what? That's cool. That's cool. How you've turned?

Something that just coffee, right. Just coffee. And you've actually, you've created a brand that's engaging with. 14 and 15 year old that want to go there because they see it. Cool. It's I?

[00:16:38] David Brier: Yeah. I mean, it's the whole, the whole, the whole aspect, you know, I mean, there's such the greatest, the greatest salespeople understand branding, the greatest brand, new people understand sales, those that complain and play the finger-pointing sandbox.

What I call the stupid shit. Um, oh no. They're they don't know what they're talking about. Oh, they don't know what they're talking about. And everyone's like, it's like the people do you think you'd like, do you not have a common goal? Can you like grow up like really freaking fast, like in the next three minutes?

Yeah,

[00:17:11] Luigi Prestinenzi: I get it, man. And then so say, where do you see companies go wrong with brand? I mean, you're spending, you spent, like I said, you devoted your life to this. Where do you see they go wrong? Where the brand doesn't connect with their audience and their, and their tribe.

[00:17:25] David Brier: There's a few, there's a few places. One is, is they're focused on themselves trying to get their.

Yeah, right. I call that I often will compare branding and sales to going for on a blind date. It's like, if you go on a blind date and the person that you're sitting down with for the first time, and all they want to do is say really nice to meet you, by the way. Let me tell you all about. Yeah, that check can't come fast enough.

You're like, get me the hell out of here. Right. They're not interested in you. And so what I tell what I tell people all the time is back to it's like the road to our customers' doorway. The path starts at their front door, not ours. Yeah. Right. The problems that they encounter, the aspirations, they, they encounter the frustrations, the hopes, that goals, um, That's one thing.

Another thing that absolutely will suck the life out of brand potential is, um, proximity. And what I mean by that is brands. Companies oftentimes are so close to their brand. They they've lost perspective. From the outside world, they're only looking at it and they have this, it's almost like they have this love affair.

It's kinda like, it's kinda like a, it's like telling a parent who shows you their kid who they're absolutely in love with their kid. And this kid, you know, is like, it's the, let's say this is one really fricking not good looking kid. Right. You're you know, maybe they've got a third eyeball or something weird.

Right. He's right. It's just, it ain't happening. Right. It's like, you're not really hitting it. And they're like, this is the most adorable. Have you ever seen. I have a seat, have a seat, mom, we have to have a talk. And so, you know, so that proximity, I, what I call that is what's lacking is passionate impartiality.

That's what I love. That's what I love. It's what I love doing with companies is all show up and I'll go, okay, good. Let's, let's talk about the good, the bad and the ugly. And because there's this shit that you've been doing, that's stupid. That's absolutely ridiculous. And you're going to stop doing that.

Starting. Yeah, that's no longer part of your discussion. That's no longer part of your brand and let's find the stuff that's truly relevant and meaningful. And that meets the criteria of differentiation. It can't just be, oh, we're better. Or, oh, we're cheaper. Or we have more features or, oh, this or that.

How different is better than better. That's what brands must know that different is better

[00:19:54] Luigi Prestinenzi: than better. This is interesting, right? Because brands not just about the logo, it's not just about the. It's the stuff that's sitting behind it, right?

[00:20:02] David Brier: Complete. Yeah, it is. Uh, Brent, I mean, too many companies treat brands, like what I call digital Botox.

It's like, dude, it's like, it's like, you know, it's like, look, look, we, we, you know, we all, we know all of that. We know plenty of Hollywood personalities that are very superficial. There's no depth to them. Right. So you go, okay, so they have the perfect 10, they have the perfect makeup and they have the perfect set of tits and the whole pen, you know, and you go, okay, great.

You know, fantastic. But, and then you sit down for a minute and you realize there's nothing. There's there. They're empty. It's a vacuum. It's a hollow shell and you're going, wow. That was a real let down brands the same way. Brands are the same way. I'll give you a perfect exact. Right. I mean, we, we both have talked about apple a bit.

The thing that I love about apple is their amazing attention to detail. I love getting like the newest iPhone home and I opened the box and I pull it off and everything fits. Perfect. It's like, it's kind of like Indiana Jones discovering that treasure. You like pull it up and you're like, holy crap. You know, I mean, nothing is nothing.

There's no shortcuts. They haven't, they haven't used cheaper board. They haven't gone. Oh, we've closed the deal. Therefore, we can just now ignore those son of a bitches. You know, it's like they respect our experience. All the way through.

[00:21:26] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. You know what it is. I know often people refer to apple and go like, you know, they're a trillion dollar company, et cetera, but you're right.

It's, it's steady experience goes beyond the packaging. It goes beyond the phone. It goes beyond the, like it's, it's in everything that they do, their website the way. And even, you know, I spoke to you previously about this experience that I had before. It even goes in the interaction you have with their stores, right.

When you go and talk to their people, like did the people are the salespeople on the floor with the iPads and they're wearing the blue top. So I think it's still blue, but you know, just the interaction you have with them, they're proud to work for apple. Right. Versus, you know, I go for my phone, I've got to go to my telco provider or go in there.

I don't even get eye contact like that. They don't even acknowledge that I'm walking in there. And then that's what frustrates me the most. On buying from your company. Right. I get it that you're frustrated. I get it. That things aren't good for you and your beat or whatever's happening in your day.

Shouldn't be impacting me as the customer. Right. And you, and you don't even acknowledge that I've walked into the store. Right. And, and, and I think, I think that's really interesting. You have. Everything now salespeople can have a lot of excuses of why they they're not being successful. Right. Because they're saying, well, we're asked to do more than ever before.

You've got CRMs. You've got LinkedIn. You've got, now I've got to create content. I've got to write, they've got to do this. And I'm being asked to do all this extra stuff. That historically I wasn't meant to do. And I've also got to do some of the roles of marketing. Um, I'd love to understand, right? If, if you're one of those pros at the moment going make the world is changing too fast for me to keep up with, but I know I need to create a personal brand where the hell do I start?

Because my company's got their brand. And w how do I define my.

[00:23:22] David Brier: Here's what you got. Here's the most vital thing that somebody got to understand. They cannot look at it from just today. Oh, I've got to do it because if I don't do it, I'm, you know, I'm behind the eight ball or whatever. It's like respect the human experience.

Respect the fact that sale is a heart mind, wallet transition, right? Heart mind. Wow. Right. So the thing is, is that the greatest rock stars in the world. And when I say rock stars, I mean, everyone from Einstein to Martin Luther king, to Steve jobs, to Richard Branson, to Eli Musk, these were people. That's what people meant.

Because it's almost like hiding in plain sight. They almost like take it for granted. It's like air. It's like, oh, well I don't have to pay attention to air. It's all the way, you know? Okay, there we go. No, no, here's the deal. These were all people it's like Einstein gave a voice to science, right. And Martin Luther king gave a voice to civil rights and, and you can go on and on and on.

And the thing is, is that they stand for something they're in touch with their humanity. They're not just pitching. They're not just pitch people, just kind of going at it going dah, dah, dah. But they, it meant something. They cared. They gave a damn and they stood up for it and they were willing to voice it in the world.

And I think that that's the place. If you, if you really understand that to its core, that we're, you're adding that layer of humanity because too often, Too often, especially companies that have a lot of moving parts or they're bigger, or they're just moving parts. They want to put as much on autopilot quote-unquote as possible.

Oh, we want to automate this. We want to automate that. And I will. And I I'll tell you, I get into head, head to head battles with the CEO. Sometimes I'm going to say, do you do not, never put a COO in charge of branding because they're going to be trying to put processes. In place of ownership. Yeah. They're going to try and put automated sequences and efficiencies in place of humanity.

That's, that's a recipe for actual freaking disaster and that you can never allow happen. It's like, I mean, I can go on, I can talk about this for a long time, but that alone you own your humanity. No, one's going to own it for you. See

[00:25:56] Luigi Prestinenzi: that's that's so powerful, right? We are living in an age where in sales, their sales engagement platforms is all these pieces of technology that have, that have exploded.

You know, the unicorn businesses are coming out because if there's all these parts where businesses are trying to automate and the data. Is showing that it before pre COVID or previous pandemic X amount, I think it was 60%, 70% of sales teams not meeting target. Right. Um, so a significant amount of salespeople not actually meeting their number, even with all the technology tools that we have today to find a mobile, we can literally one click of a button.

We can get our prospects, mobile number, like. You know, when I started, it was in, I shouldn't talk like that. Cause I feel like I'm on my dad. Right. But when I started in sales, like we didn't have those tools where men used to find it. Right. We managed to do our research. We managed to learn about our prospects.

We managed to come up with creative ways to engage with them yet. And I think what I'm seeing, and this is why I love this conversation. What you just said, caring humanity. That whole branding piece. It's not about going, how many sequences, how many things can I automate in my sales process? It's how do I show my customers that I actually care about them and connect to them on a human

[00:27:16] David Brier: level completely.

And that's what I mean, just take let's let's do this even more practical example. I remember when. I remember, like we have the largest, we're not far from the largest mall in America, which is the mall of America, which has actually more, more people coming from outside of the country to visit it. Then Disneyland, every year they literally go there.

They'll do, they'll do like a three or four day trip because it's so large, you can't knock it out today. So you're like so three or four days. But the thing about this is I remember it. So I went to the apple store. In, uh, in the mall of America. And this is going back to maybe like, I dunno, let's say six or seven years, eight years, seven, eight years maybe.

And what happens is, is I remember seeing that, and I remember shortly thereafter, Microsoft did an a 100% absolute apple store rip off. They try to same look, same thing. W because there aren't far from each other. Right. So Microsoft was trying to basically poach people who are in the, oh, there they're over there.

Maybe they'll maybe we'll catch some of it. And so the, so I walked by, I see the apple store is packed. Wall-to-wall packed. The Microsoft store is pretty sparse barrel it, you know, like almost no one. And, but what they did is they trained them and it was the stupidest thing in the world. That's why you can't, that's why you can't put.

In place of true humanity, true authenticity and true ingenuity. And so what they were, what they were taught to do, they were like, they did some, something like this. It's like a, a clapping pattern, like yep. And like, so all of these, so all of these Microsoft employees are standing there. If I had that as a job, I would right now feel like the smallest, most stupidest person in the country.

Cause I'm standing at trying to get attention and I can't even get attention because of what I'm offering and value. So maybe somehow someone thought that clapping a pattern like that by employees is somehow going to generate brand relevance. Are you kidding me?

[00:29:20] Luigi Prestinenzi: Absolutely. It's you know, this is, this is such an important, I think this is such an important conversation.

I can't wait to publish this because again, salespeople are looking for, they're looking for more tactics, right? And I think they're forgetting about the best tactic that they've got is being themselves and really understanding the value that they offer others and connecting that human live. And I've got something.

I know our listeners can't see this, but you know, this is something that somebody sent me a tiny, it's called a tiny message of inspiration. Right. And you open it up and it's. What made you believe in yourself? Right? Yeah. Somebody sent this to me and it sits, literally sits here and I won't make mention who sent it to me, but it literally sits here on my desk every single day.

Right. Yeah. And it was based on a conversation that I had with them. And I mentioned to them that I was going through that, you know, that, that imposter syndrome, like I was having that I was questioning some stuff that I was doing. And I've got a note from me. Uh, written note this in the mail all the way from the U S and man, it made me feel like it just made me feel incredible that he took the time out to send me something and it literally sits on my, and so for any sales pitch to go, oh man, what you want me to send me stuff, stuff to the prospect.

But I think this whole element of branding, and I know that we've got a good friend Ahmed and, um, he, he tells me about this as well. Right. It's when you know your values and you're very clear and your philosophies. Um, and you know, who you, you know, you know, who you're there to serve, then it's about how do we create that unique experience for people so that they can feel touched on the one-to-one level.

Right. Um, and, and, and that's some of the things that I've been trying, I've been, I've been racking my brains around this it's and, and, you know, having the opportunity to spend some time with Seth Goden who spoke about that whole, you know, you don't create a tribe. The tribe is already out there. Is you, you find them, you lead them and you inspire them or you inspire them and then you lead them.

And that, that, that has kind of tattooed in my brain. And I've been thinking about that time and time again. It's how do I engage? How do I create a brand that's going to engage with people? And the reality is it's not going to engage with everybody, right. Because some brands just are not right for everyone.

[00:31:41] David Brier: Oh, not at all. I mean, look, but look, there's no way that. That the loyal Walmart shopper who only cares whose only value metric is, is it the cheapest period, right? That's it. You know, what can I get the lowest price? Uh, that's the only metric you can't go to them. Hey, by the way, I've got some, a much better value, their value, their value, um, spectrum, you know, the most important thing on that is.

Whereas other people, other audiences who have different values that their most valuable thing will be experience, or it could be ease or it could be simplicity, or it could be luxury. I mean, it's whatever it is. So there, they all have the different things and there's no way, there's no way that you know, that a premium brand, a Bentley is not even if you were to say.

Even if you were to say to a Walmart shopper, I'll give you this Bentley for five bucks. They'd probably go, there's something wrong with it. They probably fight. It would be, it would be outside the reality. They'd go no way. It's like, can I get it anywhere else for four 50? What is this? You know what I mean?

[00:32:50] Luigi Prestinenzi: Again, this is right. And this is where I say. That brand, that, that, um, experience he's every everything we do in life right now, I'm renovating my house right now. Probably the worst time in the world to renovate. Cause we've just gone back in lockdown and I can't get some of the tradies here. Right. But as before this happened, I had some, I had to get my bathroom done and I had some, some tilers to come in.

I had three. I thought, you know what? I'm usually an impulse buyer, but I should get a couple of quotes, had three coming. I ended up going, and this is not because I've got money or anything like that. I ended up going with the guy that was the most expensive. Right. And there was a reason why, because he came in, he was on top.

Right. He actually came on time, which was just, I've had tradies calm. Like some of them don't even rock up. Right. He came on time. Um, he was, well, he was actually well-groomed for, for a Tyler. Right. Um, but he was really good manners. He came and he looked at the job and he was the only one to tell me things that I didn't know I needed to do.

So we actually said, when you do this, this is probably going to happen. You need to do this. I went in thinking I needed a Tyler. And he told me that all these things that I missed, that the other two didn't and I had to bring it up with them. Right. And so his quote was more, but I felt more confident in that, you know what this guy is actually going to help me.

And then through that, he said, oh, we also need to do this, but don't worry. I'll get somebody to do that for. And he gave me a feeling of confidence. He gave me a level of comfort going, you know what? This guy is actually going to do a good job. He's telling me stuff that I know, and it's not going to pop up down the track.

And so I'm going well, these more expensive. But actually I valued that for me, that's a key brand, right. That I valued that he was going above and beyond. Um, so, you know, I absolutely loved this discussion, David, cause I think it's, it's so important. And for salespeople listening right now that again, they've been slow to start that process.

Because everybody's already got a brand, right? Whether we like it or not, we're associated, we've tried it at

[00:35:01] David Brier: one question though. No question. Whether you, whether you like it or not, you got a brand and you're, and if you've done nothing about it, it has been, that brand has been defined by the people out there.

You have not in any way impacted that story. Um, and so you don't, you don't not have a brand because you haven't done anything. You don't lack one. No, you've got one. It may be, maybe you're lucky. Maybe it might be okay. Uh, or maybe it might just be, you know, your brand, maybe never heard of you before.

That's a shitty place to be as a brand. That's like, you don't know how you don't come in as an expert and go ahead. Oh, you're the, you are the expert. You're the best option that dah, dah, dah, how come I've never heard of you before? That's not a strong place to be.

[00:35:48] Luigi Prestinenzi: We've been there. I've been there. I've been there.

You know what? I've been there, time and time again, and I know it's not the best place to be. And, um, and so if you are that person that's sitting there going, all right, David you've compelled me. I've been on LinkedIn have been a. Stalker right. I've been using the platform to stalk and, and I've been embarrassed.

I don't want to share content cause I don't look silly or anything like that. But I know before I even start publishing content, what should I do if I, if I don't know what my brand perception and what the perception of my brand is out there, what should I do? Should I do a brand sort of ideation on what I'm about?

[00:36:26] David Brier: Oh, I, uh, super simple, super simple. First thing is, is if you were involved in, if you're involved in sales, you better be observing. I'm assuming that you're observing any salesperson worth their salt observes. They're listening and listening for the tells. They're listening for the pain points. They're listening for the frustrations, listening to the little red flag thing.

So listening, listening, listening, listening. Good. Take inventory of the stuff you routinely hear and encounter take, you know? So that's one thing you can talk about that. Okay. That's one thing we could talk about. Another thing is, is now, are you being defined by the industry or are you defining the industry?

This is an important question. I'm going to repeat this two more times because there's no way anybody got it with what I just said. I can already tell you, are you defining the industry or is the industry defining. Meaning, oftentimes many of us will be, we'll be whatever we are. We might be in a particular industry selling XYZ, or we might be in this industry selling this service or this product or whatever.

And with that industry comes baggage. Like if I were to tell you, Hey Luigi, I'm a lawyer. I wouldn't have to save very much. You'd already think, okay, this guy probably isn't, there's not a lot of fun to go out to drink with. And he makes stuff too complicated. He probably charges every 15 minutes. He's a miser.

And, uh, and you know, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, right. There's baggage. Right, right there. The industry, my industry has defined me. Well, the way that you can actually navigate as a brand is you could do this instead. You could flip it on sending sales. How am I going to improve my industry? What are the problems of my industry?

You know, from this viewpoint of either customers I serve or fellow professionals that I see that need to be fixed because in every industry, every industry has situations need to be fixed. Right. And we can agree on that. Yep. Good. So the thing is, is now all of a sudden, if you are now talking from that vantage point, you now have become a little bit, bit.

You're not now on, you're taking more of an offensive stance rather than a defensive stance. So just like, Hey, me too. I'm relevant to that's. That's just like crap. Right? So you want to come at it from the standpoint of, Hey, you know what? Having been in this industry for 10 or 20 years, There's a few things I've observed that actually I have found to be less than opera.

And one of the most common ones I've seen is blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, and, and w so actually what I'm doing is I'm the revolution that I'm not bringing to this industry is blank. Now you have a context of an interesting discussion.

[00:39:16] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's good. You know what, and I think that will resonate for a lot of sales pros because.

There is a lack of trust between buyers and sellers, right? There's heaps of studies to show there's a lack of trust between, you know, people don't trust, press releases, people don't trust, social ads. Like the data is I had to look at it the other day and I was just dumbfounded to go. Wow. Like there is a huge lack of trust between buyers and sellers and you're right.

Like, especially if you think in sales, There's movies, the Wolf of wall street, boiler room, right wall street. There are movies that depict a certain behavior and a certain way that salespeople have done business for such a long time. And, you know, and especially there are some industries, car sales, and one of the images that.

You know, that I referred to is, is, you know, there's a wall and there's a seller pushing all the pushing at the wall and the buyers pushing on the other side of the wall, they're pushing the wall against each other, you know? And that, that was a sort of, you know, the old school is that the buyer would go into the chaos and go, I'm going to get the best deal for myself today.

And the sell and the sellers is going to get the best deal for myself tonight. So they're both trying to serve each other's needs. Right. I think that's what you're saying. Is it, the industry has, it's a massive aha. The industry has baggage. And if I'm in that industry that has baggage, then how do I then elevate myself to focus on what that baggage is and actually flip it.

So that's, that's an incredible piece of advice.

[00:40:39] David Brier: Yeah. That's I mean, that's, that's the only way to do it. Cause otherwise, otherwise all this stuff that's happening out there is defining you. Yeah. I mean, no, no professional worth, no professional, no entrepreneur, no leader, no one. We look up. Ever got to that place where we were like, wow, I'd really like to be like that person.

They really inspire me because they allowed the circumstances or their industry or whatever to define them. They walked in and said, Hey, there's some shit here that stinks. And I'm willing to do something about it. I'm not going to sit here and just complain about it. I'm not gonna sit here and say, Hey, I'm entitled to something better because wake up call none of us.

Look, I mean, I could give you a laundry list of all the things it's like, I was the better artist that I should've gotten that scholarship. I was this, I was like that. And I could just go down that lane or I could say, okay, where did I fall short? What, how much more do I need to own of this to have the impact in the world that I need to have?

So it's a matter of ownership. It's a matter of how much space, how much space in our industry are we willing to occupy and take up and. And if we do that big enough, we'll have a big enough impact. If we don't transaction to transaction job, to job gig, to gig boring, not satisfying. Yeah,

[00:42:08] Luigi Prestinenzi: and I think you've summarized their conversation, you know, just in that it's differentiation the art of differentiation, adding the human element, adding the care.

And there's one word that really stuck out for me just then it's impact. It's not, you know, what is the impact that I'm able to have on my customers on my industry? And that for me is, is it just completely resonated with the brand. And maybe we could talk about this for hours, but before we sort of wrap up, I want to know w where, where can our listeners, I know you've got a book and we'll put it in the show notes, but where can they find you engage with you?

Um, after this.

[00:42:43] David Brier: Absolutely. Well, first of all, well, they can certainly go to my website where there's just, there is a treasure trove of content, examples, and the real stuff. Not fluffy crap, not like data, little data, crap. I mean, but just real, like, Hey, here's a company, here's the crap they were running into.

So they go to rising R I S I N G rising above the norm. Uh, dot com rising above the noise.com. They can certainly visit there. They could subscribe to the blog and get some good content and that's, that's one place. They could certainly reach out to me on LinkedIn. Um, and you know, and of course there's the, there's the book.

And if they want, I mean, and I'll say I'll just drop this. Um, not knowing when, when this is dropping, but I have even put together a masterclass mentoring. That's an eight that's an eight week program. That is absolutely going to slay every, I mean, it's so exciting. We're getting, we're getting new enrollees every day and it's just epically.

Awesome. So that's something they can certainly reach out to me on LinkedIn and such like that, but that's, those are some places they could certainly reach out for sure.

[00:43:49] Luigi Prestinenzi: Well, so when does that go live? When are you going over that masterclass?

[00:43:53] David Brier: That's going to that's happening the it's I expected the first.

Well the first week of September. Okay.

[00:43:58] Luigi Prestinenzi: Well, this would definitely be before then so that our listeners can engage in and come along to your masterclass. We might, I've really enjoyed this because again, it's just a couple of ahas that have resonated for me. You write like that brand that experienced that caring the impact.

Um, it's all going to help us separate ourselves from the sea of sameness, um, and help us be the best we can be made. So I want to say thank you for coming on the podcast. Thanks for the contribution you're making to the business, the marketing and the sales community.

[00:44:28] David Brier: No, absolutely. And so, um, and I'll just give you, and I'll leave you with this.

It's like a Luigi. This has been a grant to graduate. I have a love talking to you. You know, the only thing next time you offer me to bring your home. We'll be like, actually like the Danika, you know, so you

and me, we should've had it. We should have had a virtual coffee.

[00:44:53] Luigi Prestinenzi: I love the exit, man. So thank you so much, David.

My pleasure.

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This episode was transcribed digitally, some errors may be present.