Saturday, September 26, 2009

PUTTING YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD

Putting your best foot forward connotes the concept of differentiating yourself from other Job seekers, business developers, vendors, and people in general. The understanding of how this is done is fundamental because so much of what branding is all about relates to reputations and personalities of people. Products, organizations, and services.
The literature on “Brands” and Branding is rich and diverse. Branding is an academic subject in graduate schools of business. There is a simple way to think about what a brand is, however: it’s nothing more or less than a reputation. It’s the shortcut to thinking about a product, a company, or a person and …. For better or worse, almost everyone likes to take shortcuts.
Your personal brand; your reputation is a capital asset, and should be treated that way. If you invest in equipment, you have to take care of or maintain it. Your brands is like your personal equipment; your hardware. You need to upgrade it every so often based not only on what you need it to do now but also on what you’ re going to need it to do in the next three to five years… your personal brand is a salesman on your behalf and sales persons represent the feet of every company or product.
People don’t have a chance to read your mind; they read off your actions and build notions about you from them. This calls to mind that rarely; close to never have a chance to make a second first impression, so it is your responsibility to communicate your deepest seated intentions bearing in mind that people don’t know you, they only have been made to believe they do from what they perceive about you. Simply put, your image is everything.
Furthermore, there are three phases involved in establishing your intentions, company goal and objectives or aims. I’d like to put them this way: Resolve, Dissolve and Maintain.
Before you set out to do anything whether in your individual life, business or as a company, do you take out time to count the cost? This is the phase of resolution. What do we hope to achieve? Whom do we hope to reach? Why do I want to stay on campus? When do I quit banking? How long do I want to do this business? Do I really need a partner? And so on. Until, all fundamental questions are answered, you’ll keep running back and back to the drawing board if you cared to make any in the first place. From experience, a well planned business or life only has about the ‘how to’ not the what or whom to no matter the industry it belong to. This calls to mind the prevailing epidemic in the nascent Nigeria entrepreneurial world where businesses or career span for only a short while before they phase out, reasons; the initiator changed his mind about business, his partner backed out into something else and the likes (you should be conversant with the sea of reasons by now), if these where settled from the beginning, the case would be obviously different. Putting your best foot forward start from nowhere else but deciding which foot is your best.
Interestingly, it’s a great idea to try to sell snow Eskimos or shoes to a legless fellow as we hear every now and then, in the real world however, it will take you twice the required effort to take a conventional sale. After you have resolved on which your best foot is, the pattern, method or medium through which it is put or communicated makes up your dissolution phase. Marketing or sales is twice easier when your target market is defined, in the same vein, a happy and fulfilled man is one who understands his vision and lives to be become it; this saves you time and the accompanying worries and futility of double or multiple mindedness. How do you wish to communicate your values? Putting your target (recipient or customer) into consideration, devise a suitable means of distinctly convening this. Don’t get cowed into the conventionally of listing all threaded mumbo jumbos realties to your business or career, get defined and absolute on your medium. Once again, don’t do without target in consideration.
“….hope to hear from you again”; this is what we told when your conservation has been enjoyed. Truth is, it’s just a routine statement for closing interactions or deals and nothing more; if there is, just little. It is your responsibility once again, to always register your best foot as recurrently as possible and as I know, it’s always possible. Don’t believe people know you, make them believe you are know. The rule here is, maintain the feet, it should be consistent. How often do you advertise? If you do, how distinct and recognizable is your method and style? These should not be over looked whether in your personal life or business. His is how to tell your success with your best foot- when people can recognize it.
Conclusively, every great journey business or any other sphere of life. Don’t take your reputation for granted, it matters a whole lot, build, protect it and maintain it, it’s you‘re a part of your prime asset for living and business.
Be perceived! Be understood! Be distinct! Be recongnised! Be vivid! Be the Best! Be original!

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