Does Your Team Actually Represent Your Brand?

Companies spend a lot of time thinking about their brand.

They work on the website. They refine the messaging. They choose photography carefully. Marketing makes sure the logo is used correctly and the presentations look like they came from the same company.

All of that matters.

But then a prospective client sits down with one of your people, and that experience can tell them more about your company than the website ever will.

That's the part of brand consistency I think we need to talk about more.

If I met five people from your company over the next month, what would I learn about your organization from them?

Your Brand Doesn't Stop With Marketing

Think about all the places your people are representing the company without anyone from marketing in the room.

They're meeting with clients. They're at networking events. They're speaking on panels. They're having sales conversations. They're responding to emails. They're on Zoom. They're connecting with people on LinkedIn.

In each of those situations, somebody is forming an impression of the company through the person in front of them.

Can that person explain what you do clearly? Do they communicate with the level of confidence you'd expect from your organization? Does the way they show up make sense for the clients you're trying to attract? If the prospect looks them up after the meeting, does their online presence support the experience they just had?

None of this means a client is sitting there with a scorecard. They're simply deciding what they think about you.

And if the website tells me one thing but my experience with your people tells me something else, the experience is probably going to win.

I Don't Want Everyone to Look and Sound the Same

This is where I want to be really clear, because “brand consistency” can start sounding like everybody needs to fit into the same corporate mold.

I don't want that.

If you have 20 client-facing people, I don't want 20 versions of the same person. They should have different personalities, different strengths and different ways of building relationships. They should be able to develop their own professional reputations and be known for their own expertise.

What I do want is alignment around the level the company is trying to represent and the experience you want clients to have.

There can be a lot of individuality inside that.

One person may be more formal. Another may be naturally warm and conversational. One may love speaking and being highly visible. Another may build incredibly strong relationships one-on-one.

The question isn't whether they do it the same way. The question is whether both experiences make sense for your brand.

Can Your Leadership Team Describe the Experience?

One of the exercises I'd want to do with a leadership team is actually pretty simple.

I'd ask each person, “What should somebody experience when they interact with one of our people?”

And I wouldn't let everybody agree with the first person who answers. I'd want to hear the answers independently.

I have a feeling this could get interesting in a lot of companies.

One leader may say polished and professional. Another may say approachable. Someone else may say innovative or knowledgeable or responsive.

Those things aren't necessarily in conflict. But then we need to go another level deeper and figure out what those words actually mean in practice.

If we say approachable, what does approachable look like in a client meeting? If we say polished, what are we actually expecting from people? If expertise is important, are we giving our people opportunities to demonstrate what they know?

Until leadership can answer those questions, it's difficult to expect employees to somehow know what the standard is.

Sometimes the Gap Isn't Where You Think It Is

This is also why I wouldn't jump straight into team training before understanding what's really happening.

Leadership may think the problem is professional appearance and discover the bigger issue is that people can't clearly explain the company's value. Marketing may think everyone understands the brand while employees are describing the business five different ways. The team may actually be representing the organization well while the leaders themselves haven't updated how they're showing up.

You need to know where the gap is before deciding how to fix it.

And once you know, the answer may involve several things. Maybe it's messaging. Maybe it's professional presence. Maybe leaders need coaching. Maybe the team needs better tools for talking about the company. Maybe the people you want representing the organization as experts need stronger photos, LinkedIn profiles or video so that their digital presence catches up with who they are in the room.

Your People Can Make the Brand Stronger

This is the opportunity I think is really exciting.

Companies already have people with expertise, relationships, personalities, networks and stories. In many cases, those people are one of the biggest reasons clients stay, refer business and trust the company.

I don't want to hide all of that behind the corporate logo. I want to make it easier for the market to see it.

That's part of the work we're doing with teams at The Image Impact Group. We help leadership understand how the organization is being represented today, get clear on what the experience should be, and identify the gaps in image, messaging, communication, presence and visibility that are getting in the way.

Then we can determine what the team actually needs instead of throwing another generic training at them.

Your people are already representing your brand. The question is whether what they're communicating matches the company you know you're building.

If you're not sure, that's where I'd start. Let's talk.