Branding is more than just getting your logo right and coming up with a catchy slogan for your company. While these things are obviously very important, branding can also include things like the outward appearance of you or your employees, and how you comport yourself in all the various details of business dealings. The following story is something that actually happened to me, and proves the saying that truth is stranger than fiction. In retrospect, I am glad that it happened, because I think it contains an important lesson on how branding must extend to your business dealings.
I was introduced to a gentleman who wanted to have lunch and speak to me about corporate coaching. He knew that we are in the process of growing our business, and he was in the business of helping executives strategize and plan and look at the big picture. We scheduled a lunch, and when he came by the office and introduced himself, he seemed like a nice enough guy.
We picked a little Mexican dive, and over lunch he began asking me questions about my business and some of my goals. I asked him some questions about what he does, and he dropped some big names of people he\’s worked with. He also dropped a dollar amount. He said about $25,000, which I gathered was to get coached by him for a six to twelve month period to help me figure out what I wanted and how I was going to get it. I was initially interested, because I feel that that type of input is valuable.
We spoke for a good long while, had some lunch and a few laughs, got to know each other, and then the check came, and the check sat there. Now I am of the mind that when you invite someone to go to lunch, you buy. And remember, he invited me. We sat for awhile longer. For about fifteen minutes, the check just sat there on the table between us. When we concluded and stood up from the table, he pointed to the check and said, \”Do you want to split that?\”
This is not about the money. The check came to $16.88 for our two lunches.
This was just a huge turn-off on several levels. One, when you invite someone out, you pay. It\’s just etiquette and common sense. Two, he said he was coaching these high-profile executives and he\’s wanting me to invest with him and do business with him, and he\’s asking me to pick up my half of the $16.88 check? So I did what any respectable business person would do: I picked it up myself, and I paid for it.
I just knew there was no way I could do business with this man after the impression this made on me. If you don\’t have the good sense to buy lunch for a potential client whom you\’re asking $25,000 from, then you are not someone I want to be coached by. When he wrote me his follow-up email, I wrote back and I said, \”Hey I really appreciated our time together yesterday; you gave me some good things to think about that hadn\’t occurred to me. Unfortunately, I don\’t think we\’re a good fit at this time and I wish you the best.\”
Some people might see this as petty, but I think his actions that day exposed his character and called his credibility into question. If this man is really commanding the kinds of fees he was talking about with the kinds of names he was throwing around, and is still concerned about splitting a $16 check, then I have some serious reservations about his character. And I\’m way more interested in character than what you\’ve achieved professionally. I may want what you\’ve achieved professionally, but if your character is such that you don\’t have integrity or common sense, then all the professional achievements in the world won\’t help you.
Seen through the perspective of branding, this gentleman\’s mistake was that his actions did not jive with the story he was telling about himself. And that violates one of the cardinal rules of branding: you must deliver a consistent message across all platforms. At the end of the day, that mistake ended up costing him $25,000.
I would love to hear your comments, so please enter them below.
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This article appears in the October 2009 edition of The Top One Report. To receive a trial edition for just $1, visit Joel Comm\’s Top One Report