Member Webinar: Creating Your Own Powerful Brand as an Interim Exec

What do you stand for – do you have a brand that’s recognizable to your clients?

Effective branding can help interim execs grab share of mind – the client’s mind.

Marketing guru and NYT bestselling author Bill Schley shares his how-to ideas on taking the traditional Mad Men approach and making it personal.

Schley says the most important question an interim must answer is, “Why do my clients need me?” This is the differentiator: what do you do better than everyone else? It’s what sets you apart. It tells clients why you should be their #1 choice.

“If you don’t differentiate yourself, you’re just a commodity,” Schley says. He uses Rackspace as an example of great branding. The managed computer hosting company promises the best customer service in the field. Their dominant selling idea was both superlative and measurable, two criteria that an effective approach must have. “Fanatical Support” was their tagline, and they promised to answer the phone on the first ring, no matter what. “Even at midnight on New Year’s Eve, someone will answer on the first ring,” Schley said. Rackspace had an idea of what they were going to do, articulated it, focused and followed through.

Schley argues that the narrower you focus your difference and your message, the bigger your difference grows and the wider your message goes.

Interims can drill into their practices and find that selling idea. After all, Nike differentiated air. What differentiates you?