Industrial Firms: Attract Prospects By Leveraging Your SME To The Hilt

As an industrial firm, have you ever considered identifying an important member of your organization who can be used as a sales and marketing weapon? This could be a company owner, a company executive such as a President or CEO, a department head, or any other individual within the organization that you want to leverage and promote in some form or fashion. In the industrial sector, firms will often use a subject matter expert, e.g., an SME on staff, and leverage him or her as a strategic brand asset who has deep technical expertise in their field.

Key Person Can Act as a Memory Anchor

Leveraging a key person in your organization is a great opportunity to have that individual become the face or personality of your company, or the face of a specific department, product line, service or solutions team or a special offering. With sound planning and execution by your marketing team, this person can act as a memory anchor in the mind of prospective customers, which will strengthen brand recognition and recall. Singling out a key member of your company is a proven branding technique that you can use within your industry to promote and leverage value-added differentiation versus the competition.

Richard Branson of the Virgin Group is one of the most well-known and most recognized individuals in the entire business world. That’s because he and his company created a highly effective public persona that’s different from most owners and CEOs. As many of us know, he’s an extreme adventurer, racing around the globe in speed boats, hot-air balloons and spacecraft. In addition, he has a reputation for creating an exceptionally friendly and fun business environment for both his employees and his customers. And all his brands within the Virgin Group reflect this reputation. Branson once said, “Fun is one of the most important and underrated ingredients in any successful venture.”

There’s a consensus among many branding experts that his Virgin brand exudes the notion of fun at every turn in every one of his businesses. Today, when you see the man, Richard Branson, you’ll most likely think of one of his (46!) brands, maybe Virgin Records, Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Books or Virgin Mobile. The point is, you see him, and you think of his products and services. His face keeps his company in a top-of-mind brand position with his existing and prospective customers.

The same can be said for other people who have come to represent their company. For example, today, when you see a photograph or an illustration of Steve Jobs, you’re most likely to think of Apple, even though he passed away in 2011.

Apple established Jobs, widely considered a visionary genius, as a brand asset by making him prominent and visible at strategic touchpoints. Whether it was a TV commercial, product launch event, or an interview with a journalist, Steve Jobs, in his wirerimmed glasses and trademark uniform of black turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers, was as instantly recognizable as anyone on earth. He was the epitome of a person who functions as an effective brand asset.

Opportunity to Attract Prospects

Can we think of other people who function as brand assets for their company? Popcorn aficionados will be quick to suggest Orville Redenbacher. Redenbacher is famous for his white wavy hair, big, black-rimmed glasses, and oversized bow tie. He once described himself in an interview as a “funny-looking farmer with a funny-sounding name.” He was being modest.

Redenbacher initially introduced his product in 1970, and today, Orville Redenbacher popcorn is the best-selling microwave popcorn brand in the world. A likeness of him peers out at you from every box.

Brand recognition and brand recall using distinctive people in your organization as memory anchors is a top-of-mind awareness technique that’s highly powerful and should be used when it makes sense. Most companies, however, are oblivious to the effectiveness of leveraging and promoting an individual as a key brand asset — especially an individual with deep, specialized expertise — which means it's a missed marketing opportunity to attract prospects.

When selecting a person, he or she does not need to be the owner, CEO, or president of the company, like Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, or Orville Redenbacher. He or she doesn't necessarily need to represent your company brand as a whole. Keep in mind, it can be any individual within your organization who you deem appropriate in helping to meet your branding objectives related directly to the company itself or pertaining to some other aspect of your business.

Leverage Your SME to the Hilt 

Creating a brand asset out of a key individual is a big idea. Don't fall into the trap, as so many companies tend to do, that you're not able to find the right person. As a manufacturer or industrial firm, you’re likely to have a subject matter expert on staff, especially if you're products, services and/or solutions are complex in nature, or are considered advanced technology, or something similar. If you're not leveraging an SME, it's a marketing opportunity that's staring you in the face.

When I was Vice President of Global Marketing for nearly a decade at Ambrell Corporation, this is precisely what we did with our own Dr. Girish Dahake, Sr. Vice President of Global Applications. A world-renowned technical guru in his field, we made Dr. Dahake the face of Ambrell's applications lab to represent technical differentiation.

As a technical brand asset, we made every effort to tout Dr. Dahake's job title, his long list of impressive credentials, his many decades of experience, his industry patents as well as his proven ability to solve complex problems for Ambrell customers worldwide. Dr. Dahake became the face of Ambrell's technical prowess and its applications lab, but not the face of the company per se.

My marketing team positioned Dr. Dahake as a global subject matter expert in the industry. We leveraged and promoted him to the hilt. We did so by way of numerous verbal and visual cues, which act as memory anchors with the prospect to ensure brand recognition and recall. That way, come decision time when your prospect is finally ready to purchase a product, system, solution, etc., they think of your company first.

What I've described here regarding Dr. Dahake is available for the public to see firsthand, so check out Ambrell's website to get a feel for how he's utilized as a potent brand asset. Or you can view Ambrell's social media sites, blog postings, collateral materials, trade shows and events, webinar programs and more. As you'll quickly find out, we made sure he was leveraged everywhere!

Additionally, Dr. Dahake is featured prominently in the majority of Ambrell's YouTube videos where Ambrell has tallied more than 1,500,000 views and over 2,000 subscribers, which are remarkable results for a company participating in a niche industry. 

Next Steps for the Marketing Team

So, identify a key individual in your manufacturing or industrial firm who is a subject matter expert — an expert that offers true, value-added differentiation for your target market. Then leverage this SME as a sales and marketing weapon and promote him or her in a proactive, robust manner to help your company beat the competition, win new customers and grow your revenue.

Potential Next Steps: If your company relies solely on your sales team to promote your SME through their sales presentations, email communications, prospecting calls, trade show pitches, etc, you shouldn't stop there, and whatever you do, don't accept the status quo. This is where the marketing team can come in and augment the sales effort, i.e., by leveraging your SME at virtually every critical customer touchpoint. And in today's digital world, there are a myriad of touchpoints to attract prospects with the type of subject matter expertise that'll separate your company from everyone else in the industry.

To learn more about this topic or to discuss other brand management solutions from Hardball Marketing, use the link below to schedule a complimentary consultation with me.