Buying from People vs. Buying from Brands

Most of us have heard the phrase "people buy from people". When you're in front of that prospect or customer - nobody can sell your business better than you can. But what happens when you (or your colleagues) are not there for a face-to-face? You can't sell a million widgets just by networking and how much time have we all wasted talking up a prospect that results in nothing? Frustrating we know, so after spending some time in our think tank we've worked up a correlation between 'people-power' and 'customer not present'.

There are four points that makes "people buy from people" a solid statement:

1. Accountability
2. Trust
3. Recognition
4. Accessibility

By selling direct to buyers, we make ourselves personally accountable for any deal done. This in turn builds (or breaks) trust in the relationship, which is a factor we all pay close attention to in business. Over time, we build up recognition with our buyers and this makes it easy for them to get access to them. It works great until you have to do it over and over again for every prospective piece of business. For all it's power, it's one of the biggest bottlenecks in the sales cycle.

Brands fight your corner

Your brand is both a tool for your people advocates and a faceless tool that reinforces your proposition when the human element is removed.

Your brand says everything about your business when you are not around to either control or defend it. It rears its head in your web sites, emails, staff, offices, pr coverage, business values and visual identity. Smart businesses can leverage this 'outward pushing' voice to reinforce and support that magic that gives you the edge in person. It doesn't happen overnight and it doesn't have to cost a fortune, but planning your brand strategy in line with your business goals is crucial to sustained success in business.

We of course deal with brand management everyday; from conceptualising and creating them to developing equity and value in existing ones. After 10 years working with start-ups, SME's and multinationals we make ourselves Accountable for our advice, are Trustworthy in our experience and hope to gain Recognition with our clients over time by being Accessible to all of you.

Liked this article? Hated it? Got you thinking? Feel free to discuss it with us.

Next month: Ethical marketing is a big opportunity. Find our why and how you can use it.