The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
-Albert Einstein

“I’ve been in this business for over 25 years. I have run out of things to learn,” was one of the saddest comments I have ever heard from one of my recent seminar attendees. Stop learning? Don’t we need to learn from our customers so we can effectively serve them? Don’t we need to learn what our competition is doing? Don’t we need to learn how our peers and employees feel about working with us? Don’t we need to learn how much we DON’T know? Once you lose your hunger to learn, you lose the ability to positively affect everybody around you. And who would choose that? And it’s not enough to be open to learning; you have to aggressively seek opportunities to learn.

For example, this week try these three questions with your current customers…and family members:

•    What am I doing I should keep doing?
•    What am I doing I should stop doing?
•    What aren’t I doing that I should begin doing?

Because customers, peers, employees and family members won’t often seek you out to tell you how you can be more valuable to them, you have to ask. And when you ask, you show a willingness to learn. And once you create a habit of LEARNING, you will create a habit that creates some of the world’s top performers.

“All people know the same truth; our lives consist of how we choose to distort them.” -Woody Allen

How do customers and peers see you? Or a better question may be, “Do they see you?” Well if you feel as if your talents, efforts and ideas are going unnoticed and it is driving you crazy, it’s time to do something about it! It’s time to distort any vanilla image that your customers and peers may have of you. It’s time to create a brand built on PRIDE that will distinguish you. So let’s get to work with these five simple branding steps:

1. P- ick a brand. Take 30 minutes this week in your office and make a list of what makes you so special. If you aren’t quite sure, ask family and friends. Chances are they know your brand better than you do.

2. R- eal Imagination creates memorable brands. Once you have identified your special talents, think of something BIG to do with them. Because by dreaming bigger than everybody around you, you brand yourself as somebody with BIG plans. Who would you rather hang out with…a bore or a dreamer? By the way, a dreamer and a great brander named MLK changed the world. But he had to get noticed first!

3. I will listen. There is no brand better than that of a “listener.” Become the person famous for listening and learning both in and out of the office and watch how quickly you get noticed.

4. D-eviate. Jazz up your emails with an image representing your brand. Bake a cake, write your tagline in frosting and deliver it to a customer. Make your brand part of your voicemail greeting. Whatever! Just create a brand that makes people smile and you will not be forgotten.

5. E-nthusiasm. Branding is about getting noticed. And people with enthusiasm get noticed. Once you determine your talents, set goals built on imagination, become a better listener and find ways to deviate, you must then sell your brand with enthusiasm. Which means you can’t be shy about it. Is there a risk it will be perceived as self-promotion? Maybe. But if you aren’t willing to promote the special qualities in you, who is?

So good luck! And if you need help, drop me an email at bsullivan@preciseselling.com. Because I specialize in “Creating Top Sales Performers in 20 Days or Less.” Hey, I told you I believe in branding!

To listen to Brian teach the five steps of branding with PRIDE on his weekly radio show, go to http://www.preciseselling.com/Radioaccess.htm. To find out more Brian’s corporate presentations, visit him at www.preciseselling.com or email Brian at bsullivan@preciseselling.com.