Listen Up! How Customer Feedback Fuels Brand Elevation

Hello and welcome to the show. Today's question is how do you elevate your brand by crafting the perfect elevator pitch? Now, some of you are not going to like my answer, and that's OK because you can go somewhere else to get a different answer. My own answer is that you don't. You don't elevate your brand by crafting the perfect elevator pitch. Well, it's not in the sense that most people mean when they're thinking about that.

And this is because brand is beyond projection, because when people think about brand, they're thinking about projection. You know, colours, logos, what else, profiles, designs, you know, all kinds of things. Things that you're trying to put before the world to project and to say things about you. You're trying to project stuff into the universe. You know, some people saying quote so, but when we look at things from a sales and business development perspective, the brand is the sum total of people's experiences when interacting with you.

So your brand is not just what you are telling the world that you are. It's not just your fancy logos and your colours and everything, But when customers interact with you, what do they think? When stakeholders interact with you, what do they think? The sum total of everything, what you're trying to project and the experiences, the impressions that people get when they interact with you. That is what we call the brand from the sales and the business development perspective.

It is something that I can speak on first hand because I've tried selling financial products in the past, specifically insurance and I know what it's like when the company projects one thing, but then when you're out in the market, people think something else entirely. So there are going to be times, if you're a career salesperson, where in fact the thing that people put out in the PR departments, in the marketing departments, people who are focused on the brand.

There are times when the things that they put out, quite frankly, not going to be helpful because you're going to be insisting that the company is one thing, but then people feel it to be something else. Another example that I gave recently on the show was about how the Abuja electricity distribution company, you know, the people who took over Napa, how they project one thing, but then residents of Abuja or residents of Lagos or residents of Port Harcourt, I mean we all know how we feel.

You know, when we see them in the clean vehicles and everything and how they say that they're customer focused, I know what not. But that's not entirely what it is that we feel on ground. Now of course, this is an extreme example that's to use these companies that have taken over from Napa, that's the former Nigerian Electric Electricity Park Power Authority. So yeah, that's an extreme example, but I was just trying to use that to prove a point that the brand is beyond what you project and it's the sum total of people's experiences when they interact with you or when they interact with people officials, your employees, you know, people from your, your company, from your outfit.

So the brand goes beyond your colours, your logos, your fonts and your design. If we're going to be serious about brand, especially from a sales and business development perspective, then what we have to do is we need to have a deliberate focus when it comes to customer acquisition processes. When we're going out to toast people is beyond, you know all the material that we'll put out there. But we need to be deliberate about how we find them, how we start conversations with them,

how we build relationship with them, how we close the sale, how we make sure that people are happy, how we try to get them back for repeat businesses and processes, make sure that we're listening to them. It's the whole thing. You have to focus deliberately on customer acquisition processes and not just on the branding, the marketing on the top side per SE. So when you have this deliberate focus, it's going to inform every other thing that you do within the organization and how you interact with potential customers and clients.

So we have to be paying attentions to channels where customers, stakeholders, you know, the public's, whoever it is, where they interact with us. So it's not just the website. You know, the logo, the designs, the fonts, the pictures. Yes, all of that needs to be on point. But then we're also going to be paying attention to the staff. So if you're one of these people who owns a restaurant, you're going to be paying attention to the what are they called in restaurants?

What are they called? Is it maitre-d' or something? So you're going to be paying attention to the maitre-d', you know, the head person at the restaurant who is welcoming people, making sure everywhere is clean, things like that. Is he properly trained up? Is he clean? Does he talk good? He or she? I mean, whoever is doing the job. So you're going to be paying attention to all these sorts of things because these are different channels where customers are going to be interacting with your business.

Now, I do understand that my own ideas about branding and stuff like that might be at odds when people. Sorry, my ideas about not elevating your brand by using elevator pitches, Yeah, that's a better way to put out. So I understand that it might be at odds with people in other industries, because people who are in the tech business, for instance, they might say that your elevator pitch is absolutely necessary for financing.

And in that sense, yes, you are correct. If you're going to start the fintech and stuff like that, then you need to have your elevator, your elevator pitch nailed down. So that's absolutely correct. But however, let's look at what the elevator pitch means. The elevator pitch is you talking about why your product or your service or your idea is great. Now there's absolutely no problem with that. It's just that usually in the tech space, when people are running around throwing out elevator pitches, they are talking about why they think the product or the service or the idea is great.

Instead, this is what you need to do. If you're in the tech space and you're worried about all these sorts of things, you know, elevator pitches, brand or what not, and your ability to raise finance, you need to try and focus more on understanding value. Now what understanding value means is you're trying to figure out the problems that your customers have, your stakeholders are trying to solve people who interact with your product, your service, your app.

You're trying to understand them and the the you're trying to understand them and the things that they hold valuable the problems that they're trying to solve. You're trying to understand those dynamics first. Now, if you do a good job of doing that over time with the conversations that you're having with potential customers and with app users and things like that, you're going to get a lot of intelligence and all that Intel.

All that data is going to crystallize into your USB for your unique selling proposition. You know, that's the reason why people are choosing to do business with your to use your app. Now when you have all that data and you have a clear sense of what your USB is, now you can flaunt this as your elevator pitch. This would not be you going around and guessing that This is why people love this app. It will be because you have concrete proof behind you that you have maybe 500 people that use the app.

Of the 500 people that use the app, you've had conversations with 300 of the 300. A hundred said this is the reason why they're doing business with you. Maybe 50 people think this is what can be improved, you know, blah blah blah. And so you can say confidently that this is your elevator pitch. So if you're on the tech business, yeah, sure, by all means go ahead and get your elevator pitch. But just do things in reverse.

Instead of coming out and beating your chest and saying, This is why my app is great, finance me rather come up with an MBP that's a minimum viable product and use that to test into the market first. What you're trying to do is you should be looking for product market fit or what I like to call market validation. You're just trying to figure out, is there demand for this idea? Do people think it is a good idea that this product or service is a good idea?

So you're going to be able to figure this out from the number of people who buy what it is that you have or who download whatever it is that you have, no matter how crude or no matter how simple it is. Of course you should be having conversations with these people because you're trying to get feedback from them. Then this customer feedback in their own words is going to inform how you craft your elevator pitch. So, well, of course we have to be open because if we go to the market with our minimum viable product and then we're looking for customer feedback, but then people think our idea is crap.

We have to be brave enough to just throw in the towel and then move to something else or pivot, as people like to say nowadays. But then again, if you're open to feedback and you hear something good, then you're going to be able to take this good data that you've gotten this good feedback and you're going to flaunt that as your elevator pitch. You're going to be able to say in a concise way. Now this app is the greatest,

it's the best, it's the whatever, because customers say ABC and XYZ. So summary, When we're thinking about these things, brand, elevator, pitch and all these sorts of things, we should learn to listen more and to talk less. Because when we listen, we get all the data, we get all the feedback, we get all the ammunition that we need to be able to craft our perfect elevator pitch or sales pitch or proposal or presentation or whatever it is that you're trying to craft.

So thank you very much for listening to today's episode. Please connect with me on LinkedIn. My name is Tavishima Ayede. I'm the host of the show. Don't worry about the spelling of my name. You can confirm it from the link. We're currently listening to this episode. Thanks for your time and attention. I'll catch you guys at the next recording.