What Differentiates You?

I discuss branding in the Certified Professional Career Coach (CPCC) program. A strong identifying personal brand and value proposition statement can significantly boost job search opportunities. It is a platform for a strong career management plan. 

I ask my students to think about familiar brands, such as Coke, Mercedes, Target, and McDonalds. Some branded logos are very prominent in our minds. Using the concept that products are branded, people may develop a personal and professional brand to market their best qualities and qualifications for career management, including job search, looking at lateral moves, making career transitions, seeking promotions, securing new clients, or seeking a committee or association leadership role. 

When coaching my clients to develop a brand, I begin by asking many questions. Diane’s Query System is a critical career coaching proficiency – that, when mastered – will coach clients to new revelations in the career management journey. Questions are part of the intelligence collection process, exploration, and discovery. Asking pertinent, open-ended questions is a key skill in career coaching. In the CPCC program, I ask my clients to define their purpose, values, motivational factors, and goals. 

• What differentiates you from others in your field? What makes you unique? What positive impact do you provide an employer? (Why does someone call you instead of the other experts in this field?)
• Together, we make an extensive list of differentiating factors and their impact on employers.
• What makes you memorable? (What is your passion; what makes people want to contact you repeatedly? What makes people want to hang out with you and listen to you?)
• We brainstorm and list my client’s most memorable characteristics.
• What makes you credible? (What is your track record? Where and what are the proof and metrics?)
• We review my client’s track record for the past several years and list all the significant achievements. This also begins the story development process for developing the résumé, social media profiles, and the interview process. 
• What makes you visible? (How are you more visible than your colleagues? What makes you different that puts you ahead of them?)
• Looking at my client’s competition and colleagues, we compare essential and desirable traits by employers.
• What value do you offer an employer? (This is a difficult question for many clients – as many people do not know how to answer it – but it must be addressed.)
• I ask my client to describe the value he/she offers an employer, like saving money, making money, solving problems, team leadership, program launch, and more. What are the most compelling value statements? 
• What is your area of expertise? What compels someone to call you? If someone calls you – and they ask, “Can you help me with _______________________?” (It might be about solving an issue concerning engineering, nursing, organizational development, addressing and resolving team dynamics, providing conflict coaching, providing guidance concerning leadership development, mediation, or legal matters. You might be an analytical person, a money-maker, or a decision-maker. You might be a subject matter expert in your field of expertise.)
• I also ask my client to describe his expertise. We list all the times people (customers, leaders, competitors) call my client to ask a question. We create a list of themes and focus on the themes and patterns to guide the brand development
• What does your brand stand for? (What are you an ambassador for? What is your personality – and how does that affect your brand?)
• These questions help my client pull the lists and responses from all the above questions into one. From this conglomeration, we identify all the similar patterns and themes and prioritize them in order of significance and prominence to develop the brand statement.

Prominent products and services are branded to communicate their differentiators and attract customers and clients. As job seekers begin to define and design their brand via personal branding, I coach my clients to learn how to best communicate, articulate, and convey their individual value proposition—that differentiating factor. The value proposition is used on my clients’ résumés, social media profiles, interviews, and the job. It goes where they go, and it represents them. 

To solidify the branding statement and create an actual “branded” image in the minds of potential employers, customers, reviewers/recruiters/hiring managers, and human resources professionals on social media or on résumés, clients can develop branded logos or looks. They may use a specific color, picture, or logo on a résumé or social media platform.  This look, color, and feel should accompany the written brand and create a seamless look through all written materials. 

Literal branding is a mark that is burned or frozen on the skin (yikes). However, that visual can be burned into one’s mind—just like Nike, Apple, or Columbia are universally recognized brands. We can even just see a glimpse of these branded logos, and we can recall the brand.  

• Nike’s brand statement: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete* in the world.” *If you have a body, you are an athlete.
• Apple: “To contribute to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind.”
• Coca-Cola’s brand statement: “To refresh the world in mind, body, and spirit and inspire moments of optimism and happiness through our brands and actions.”
• Disney’s brand statement: “To entertain, inform, and inspire people around the globe through the power of unparalleled storytelling.”

When writing the brand statement, avoid generalities and jargon. Instead, be specific. Offer numbers and impact/value. Include personality if appropriate, e.g., emphatic, emotional intelligence, wisdom, or other. Coach your clients to craft an indelible personal branding statement in the mind of the reader or hearer. 

The ultimate goal is long-term personal brand loyalty!