Part 22: Build Your Brand

Hello everyone,

Welcome back to another issue of the Partnership Pocketbook.

I hope everyone is keeping warm and dry given the crazy weather we are experiencing all over the U.S. currently.

Utah has been getting a ton of snow and that is a positive thing in my house! Even in snow, I love to get out and enjoy some fresh air with my dog Loki!

I have had many good conversations in the last couple of weeks, but one that stood out for me was a conversation with one of my consulting clients (hit me up for all your partner marketing, fractional leadership needs).


He made the comment that knowing the partnership niche so well made it a no brainer to hire me over another full service marketing agency.

Partnerships is still a developing discipline, so knowing it well is worth its weight in gold.

The majority of people reading this have the same skill set!

My advice to you all would be to learn to productize it.  There are plenty of opportunities that will open up for you.

This week's partnerships in the wild come from my friends at PartnerFleet!

If you don't know PartnerFleet they give partner managers the ability to create elegant partner marketplaces that drive impact.

They just announced a phenomenal integration with Chilli Piper.

Using the Chilli Piper and PartnerFleet integration, people that hit your partner marketplace can then book a meeting immediately with someone from your partners team, producing a seamless lead generating process.

A perfect match!

Onto this week's issue.

This week I thought I would write about a core skill development that not only helps your personal brand, but enhances your chance to partner with people.

I am talking about building your brand.

One of the best decisions I have made in my career to date  is building out my brand via LinkedIn and other formats.

This is what it has done for me:

• Helped me start a consulting business 🙌
• Enabled me to speak with CEOs of large organizations 🙌
• Given me multiple job opportunities 🙌
  

It also helped in my role as Head of Partnerships, where I had partner managers at large technology companies reaching out to partner with Help Scout,

It has benefitted me both personally and professionally.

So how do you get started? Here are three tips to start building your personal brand today.

1. Be Consistent

In order to build your brand you have to be visible.

To be visible you have to consistently post.

It can be hard for people to get started.

My advice is: break. it. down.

Set yourself a goal of posting every day for 30 days!

I guarantee you will see a significant improvement in traction.

There are plenty of tools that allow you to schedule posts ahead of time, so you don't need to go into LinkedIn every day in order to post.

Set aside an hour on a Sunday, create content and schedule.

Easy!

2. Add Value

Nobody builds a brand by just posting about their company and how great their products are.

Instead you need to add value in the content you post.

Gong is the guiding light when it comes to a value add content strategy.

Instead of just posting content that talks about their product, they take a look at their buyer profile (which in Gong's case is sales leadership) and ask “What do these people want to learn about”, they then create content around the answers.

The Gong LinkedIn page content covers:

🌠Cold call best practices

🌠How to create a great sales deck

🌠 How to structure commissions.

All these things are topics that their ICP care about.

Some content I've offered recently were "Saturday Partnership Snacks": short videos with quick partnership tisp and tricks.

In a similar way, you need to nail down your ICP.

What knowledge do you have that people want to know about?

What types of roles would find that knowledge useful?

Answering these questions will help you cater to your audience in order to build your brand.

3. Give Back

Building your brand is about giving back.

I started off this newsletter describing what I personally have gotten from building a brand, however I have also made sure to prioritize helping others.

Connect with people in your industry and swap ideas.

Offer to help those that are struggling.


For example, I opened up my calendar on Fridays for those who have been affected by the tech layoffs this year to lend and ear and give advice.

By becoming someone who is willing to give back, more people will support you and engage with your content.

The people that have built the best brands on LinkedIn, are also active members of their respective communities and are willing to help others.

Hopefully these tips will help you in building your own personal brands. I can attest that it 'll pay off.

For more personalized tips and tricks, feel free to reach out to me.

I am always happy to help!

Until next week.

Cheers,


Ben