TO DO OR NOT TO DO: THE BRANDING COACH

You’ve seen them all over social media advertising promises of growth in areas of your business such as online followers, even promises of increase in sales in as little as 30 days! Before you fall into the dream of high volume sales, with an endless amount of followers; here are a some questions you should ask yourself and your Branding Coach, before soliciting their services.

First, ask yourself this; what is your goal here? Are you looking to build an online community which translates into sales? Introducing a new product and or service to your customers? Revamping your brand? What is it that’s missing from your business plan that requires a Branding Coach? What methods have you tried on your own if you’ve tired any, that didn’t work and why?

You’ll need answers to these questions prior to meeting with your Branding Coach. This will help the both of you to come up with a clear and concise plan that will lead you into the direction you want your brand to go into.

My suggestion, is that you meet with at least 3 Branding Coaches to get a feel of each person. Of course, you can meet with as many as you want. The idea is to test your comfort level with each coach, to ensure that they have an understanding of your brand, your business goals, and to make sure you’re choosing the best Branding Coach that fits your business needs.

10 Questions to ask your Branding Coach:

1. Why should I work with you as my Branding Coach?

The key is to listen for a genuine interest in helping brands grow. Their response should resonate with you. What you want to know is what their knowledge is of the industry you’re in. There are literally thousands of Branding Coaches to choose from. The purpose of the interview is to ask questions to see if this person is the right fit for you and ultimately understands the direction in which your brand should go into. Your branding coach should be asking you questions regarding your brand more specifically, getting to know you as an entrepreneur and your company as a way to better serve you.

2. Do you offer a free consultation to determine if we are the right fit?

Before handing over that chunk out of your marketing budget, find out if you can have a free consultation. After a few minutes of talking with someone, you’ll have an idea based on their personality if the two of you or you and your team can work with the company.

3.What does Branding mean to you?

Yes, you want the technical response but what you’re also looking for is passion, the need and or want to be creative, most importantly for your brand to succeed.

4. How long have you been the business?

5. Do you have an educational background in Branding or Marketing?

Experience and credentials are important in determining if the Branding Coach has had any formal training or educational background.

6. Do you specialize in a specific area or industry?

I think it’s important to know if the Branding Coach will research industries they’re not familiar with as a way to create an effective marketing plan/strategy for your business. It’s also a huge plus if they’re familiar with your industry as they’ll know which practices and methods works best for your company.

Track Record

7. Ask how their work helped with customer acquisition, loyalty, increased sales.

Clientele

8. Do you work with entrepreneurs one on one or with large corporations?

This will give you an idea on what type of clientele they’re used to working with and how they may be able to assist you, based on their experience level.

Strategies and Process

9. Ask your Branding Coach what is their process?

It is imperative to the success of your business that you have a clear and concise direction in which you want your business to go into. Your Branding Coach should be able to provide various strategies for you to choose from based on your company’s goals. Implementing effective strategies will help you in areas of launching a new product, building an online community or introducing a new service.

10. Based on my timeline, results and budget, what types of results should I expect?

Understand what results you will expect based on your budget and timeline. This will help you to determine if your goals are realistic for what you’re trying to achieve.

The right Branding Coach will provide you with effective solutions that produce real results. Sometimes we have to work with those outside of our level of expertise in order to get the best results possible.