What To Do When Your Clients Don’t Know They Need You
If you have a dripping faucet or a running toilet, you call a plumber. If your brakes are squeaking, you take your car to a mechanic. But how does one know if they need a brand consultant?
Henry Ford once said,
“If I had asked customers what they wanted,
they would have said faster horses.”
The point is people are often blind to things they don’t know until you show it to them. Unfortunately, asking the help of a branding expert is one of those blind spots.
As the tongue-in-cheek saying goes, “Good judgement comes from experience, and experience — well, that comes from poor judgement.” And when it comes to branding, it seems like clients have an ample amount of poor judgement.
There is good news, though. As far as brand-related matters go, your clients don’t have to screw something up to gain a vast amount of knowledge on what they should have done to avoid screwing up.
Here are the 6 most common scenarios when people need your expert help.
- When they are creating a new company or product
Every year, roughly 600,000 new businesses open, 30,000 new products are introduced, and 200 companies go public. All those clients need your help. You can offer them services such as research, strategy, naming, verbal identity, visual identity, business card and website design, customer experience.
Every year, roughly 600,000 new businesses open, 30,000 new products are introduced, and 200 companies go public. All those clients need your help.
2. When they need to change their brand name
Some names don’t age well; others don’t have a passport. Some words cause a trademark conflict; others mislead customers. Regardless of the issue, as a branding expert, you can help your customers overcome those challenges.
3. When their business evolves
The business world is dynamic. Some companies grow; some change their line of business; some expand geographically. Sometimes companies forget who they are or what they stand for. Other times their stock is devalued. If you find your client is in any of those situations, it might be time for a renewed strategy or brand.
4. When they need to stand-out
Some design works are immortal. Other… not so much. What was cutting-edge 20 years ago may be behind the times now. Maybe there is a new competitor on the block that requires your customer to up their game. Perhaps the company grew so big so fast that its visual identity is all over the place. That’s where you come in and help your clients realign their design.
5. When they have unhappy employees
Unlike the common misconception, a brand is not a logo; it is a promise of a relationship and a guarantee of quality! Products and services are the tip of the iceberg. That promise also extends to employees, who happened to be a company’s most important audience. As a branding expert, you can help your clients leverage their brand internally to build awareness and synergy.
6. When an M&A happens
Big fish eats small fish. That is the reality of the business world. Another truth is typically, 70%–90% of acquisitions are abysmal failures. To a certain extend, you can help your clients increase their likelihood of success. A merger creates a plethora of branding needs: brand architecture, identity design, naming, persuasive messaging, and stakeholder communications, to name a few. That’s your cue to offer help.
Your clients can’t hire you if they don’t know they have a problem. That’s why as a branding expert you should take the time to understand your clients’ pain points. To that end, you can use this article as a blueprint. Then, you need to become the best company in terms of solving their problems. How? Well, that’s a topic for another article!
