SALES & MARKETING

Selling in volatile markets

PART OF WHAT MAKES selling lumber interesting/fun/exciting is that the market moves. Our strategy will change as the market changes. Our job in all markets is to nd value for our customers and bring price discovery to our suppliers.

Down Market Selling

Many sellers shut down when the market trends lower. Here are some strategies that work in down markets:

Down markets are an opportunity. Do not commiserate with customers in down markets. Find value for them. Just because the market is coming o does not mean that our customers are going out of business. Our customers cannot run out of wood any more than we can run out of electricity. We need to think and talk about down markets as an opportunity for our customers to get a good deal.

Customer: “This market is coming o . I’m going to wait.”

Master Seller: “It is coming o , which is creating opportunities for us. We are always looking for straight 16’s out of ABC sawmill and we can never get them. Well now we can and at a great number. Let’s give them a number that works for us and see what happens.”

Aggressive numbers. If the market is a $900/MBF on an item and we go out and try to get rm o ers at $850-$875 we are going to waste our time. Our customers know the market is coming o and will wait if our number is not aggressive enough. We have to give them a number that will make them pay attention, e.g., $725-$795/MBF. If the number is not aggressive enough the customer will just wait.

We can take the order at this number if we feel that strongly about it or we can just take it rm, so it’s a no risk strategy.

This is more di cult when we own the wood at a high number in falling markets. Our bosses will not be able, emotionally (no one likes to lose money), to tell us to go out at that number. It is our job to bring back a number (price discovery). It is our bosses or our supplier’s job to take the order or not.

Note: We must give the customer a number. When we come in and say, “We’re at $900/MBF but can you give me a number?”, it just scares the customer more and they will continue to wait.

BY JAMES OLSEN

Down market philosophies. “The only way to buy at the bottom is to buy on the way down.” If we wait for the bottom, we will miss it because it will bounce $200/ MBF in two minutes.

Master Seller: “I am advising all my customers to make aggressive o ers right now. We are only putting about 7-10% of them together, because we are hitting the suppliers with aggressive numbers, but our numbers have to be aggressive to protect ourselves. The suppliers (or my boss) might not take these numbers, but with this low-risk strategy we will nd out what they will take.”

It will be more fun and more pro table to chase aggressive rm o ers than to listen to customers tell us the market is coming o .

Full Disclosure Selling is a must. We should do Full Disclosure Selling with our customers all the time, but it is even more important in down markets. The eight questions of Full Disclosure Selling: 1. Where are you in your buy cycle? 2. How much to you have on order? 3. How much on the ground?

4. Of those two, how much is already sold/spoken for? 5. What is your monthly usage of that item? 6. What’s your Buy-Back point? 7. What’s your average cost? 8. What are you paying out of distribution?

Master Seller: “Ok, Sarah, I don’t want to sell you something you don’t need. Let me ask you this. How long can we wait before we have to buy? Let’s take a look at what we’re going to need in the next three weeks and start making aggressive o ers on those items.”

Flat Market Selling

Flat market selling is the same as down market selling but less aggressive.

Up Market Selling

Chasing Inquiry is fool’s gold. In up markets we need to get Standing Firm O ers from our customers.

Customer: “Hey John, I’m looking for three trucks of 2x4 14’ #2 SYP for two to three weeks shipment. Go see what you can nd and get back to me.”

Master Seller: “Pete, why don’t you give me a standing rm o er for three days at $850/MBF?’

Customer: “Why do you need three days?”

Master Seller: “Because it will take me and my team of 10 pounding the phone for two or three days to nd those and by the time I call you, get your OK then call the supplier back the wood will be gone or one of my co-workers will have sold them.”

Ask for one (or ve!) more. The best time to ask for an order is right after we have gotten one, but this is even more important in up markets.

Master Seller: “Susan, thank you so much for the order on these two trucks of 2x4 10’ #2. They really are a good deal, and the market is moving, so if we can pick up two more for a couple weeks out, do you want to put them on? The market is moving.”

Susan: “Alright let’s do it.”

Many sellers only sell when they own the stock, and the market is moving up. This is a limited approach to selling and will leave us out of the game two thirds of the time. We must train ourselves to bring value and sell in all markets.

An old lumberman told me, “James, when the market is going up, they’re making 10 Cagillion board feet and they’re buying 11 Cagillion. When it’s going down, they’re making 11 Cagillion and buying 10 Cagillion. They haven’t stopped buying, they’re just buying a little less, so keep selling.”

James Olsen

is founder of Reality Sales Training, Portland, Or. After 20 years in sales, James started his own sales training business, devoted to helping companies and individuals achieve rapid sales growth. Contact him at (503) 544-3572 or james@ realitysalestraining.com.

Prep for a successful eld visit

BY DAVE KURLAN

THERE ARE IMPORTANT questions to consider when we discuss channels and actual customers. Whether you are a manufacturer selling to and through a channel, are a distributor (in the channel) selling to a retailer (an extension of the channel) or are the retailer selling to the end user, you should be able to nd some useful tips in this article.

The tips are in the form of conditions written from the perspective of a manufacturer’s rep going into the eld to work with a distributor rep. Apply them to your situation as appropriate.

These conditions should be in place prior to any two reps working together for the greater good, so whichever side of the channel you may be working on, make sure these 22 conditions are in place before a eld visit! 1. Identify which accounts you will be seeing and their primary focus. 2. Ask when this account has last seen or heard about our products. 3. Note how many units/projects/purchases they generate each year. 4. What type of products do they use? If applicable, have they speci ed our products in the past? 5. Does this company use other products that you carry or just our products? 6. Determine what the purpose of each presentation/sales call is. Example: lunch and learn, update, class, small group, large group, or speci c project/opportunity to discuss.

7. Will the decision makers be joining us? 8. Create a complete itinerary before the trip to ensure time is invested wisely. 9. Will there be any social events that could lead to business? 10. What is each rep’s relationship with these accounts? 11. How much annual business is generated with the accounts we are seeing? 12. Who are the top 10 customers by volume? Should we be meeting with any of them? 13. Who should follow up and how should we follow up on opportunities generated from the visit? 14. Send an overview of the two-day trip to appropriate sales managers. 15. How many new accounts are we calling on that you/we have never met? What is the potential there? 16. What selling tools do you currently have, and what do you need me to bring? 17. What are the biggest objections or opportunities with the accounts we are seeing? 18. Do you plan to show other products or will this be focused on only my products? 19. What did we learn from this call? Did you hear the same things I did, what could we do better or di erently? 20. Setting expectations, I’ll take the lead on a few calls and then I’ll watch you present. This way I can provide feedback and help where needed. 21. Helping the rep to better understand our product helps them di erentiate us from the competition. 22. Explain that we rank their accounts A, B, or C. Ask rep if the accounts we will visit are A’s, B’s or C’s. Some accounts that are B’s and C’s for other products could be A’s for our products.

The changes and improvements that will occur from requiring these conditions are dramatic but will take some time to bear fruit. Think about every rep at every channel partner and how long it might take for them to accept, embrace, buy in, and execute on some of these requirements. Raise your expectations but give it some time!

Dave Kurlan

is a top-rated speaker, author, radio show host, sales development pioneer, and founder/CEO of Objective Management Group, the leader in sales candidate assessments and sales force evaluations. Visit www. kurlanandassociates.com.

5 simple social media tips for industry professionals

BY SARAH VAN DOMMELEN

WHEN SOMEONE STARTS searching for a new contractor or company to work with for a building project, what is the rst thing they do before hiring them? They Google the business, read reviews, visit the company’s website, and skim its social media pages. In today’s digital world, and in our visual industry, it is only becoming more important to keep up with your business’s social media channels.

At 84 Lumber, we are on just about every social channel—from Facebook to LinkedIn to TikTok—and we’ve learned a few things along the way. Hopefully these ve tips help you get started or help you grow your existing social media pages.

1. Identify your goals & target audience

It can be overwhelming thinking about all the various social platforms and di erent types of posts you can do. To help narrow things down, rst identify what your goals are and which audience you’re trying to reach. Are you looking to connect with other businesses? Gain more customers? Hire more skilled workers?

There is no need to overwhelm yourself and jump onto every platform right away. Once you analyze who your audience is and which platform they are on, stick to one or two platforms that you can really focus on and engage with. Use the hashtags your audience is searching, follow others and comment on their content.

2. Post & respond consistently

Once you create your pages and start getting followers, it’s important to respond to them quickly and to keep them engaged. It’s more important that you’re consistently putting content out there instead of making sure the content is perfect. If we come with the mindset that everything needs to be perfect, nothing will get done. So, don’t be afraid to use real, unedited photos and of your work. Your friends, family and customers will love to see it!

3. Take and share before, during & after project photos

For us, it just seems like another work day, but the public loves knowing what’s going on behind the scenes! Don’t be afraid of documenting your day and taking before, during and after photos whenever possible. At 84 Lumber, we love sharing photos of vendor and customer projects—and our followers love it, too! The construction industry is visual, so make sure to leverage that.

4. Share tips, tricks & educational content

It might be tempting to try to sell your product or services with every post, but it is important to not turn every post into a sale. Instead, think about what people really want to see when scrolling through their feeds. Social media is a storytelling medium, and with each photo or video you post, you’re telling a story. Giving quick tips, “life hacks” and how to’s will keep people coming back for more, as they’ll nd value from your content.

5. Maximize your reach through targeting & paid strategies

Once you’re comfortable with your channels and posting consistently, you can start using the paid features to reach an even larger audience. Depending on the platform and your goals, you can boost individual posts or your entire page. Social media is becoming more and more of a pay-to-play channel—even as little as $25 a month can do a lot for your business pages.

If you ask ve di erent people about this topic, you will get ve di erent answers! There is so much to social media, and this is just scratching the surface, but hopefully this helps you feel con dent enough to get started. Social media is a great way to stay in touch with your network, build new connections and display your work. If you haven’t started a social media page or two yet, now is the time!

Sarah Van Dommelen

is public relations and social media manager for 84 Lumber, the nation’s largest privately held supplier of building materials and manufactured components, with nearly 250 stores, component plants, custom door shops, custom millwork shops, and EWP centers in more than 30 states (www.84lumber.com)

How well are your salespeople serving your customers?

BY DAVE KAHLE

THAT’S RIGHT. Serving, not selling. I know you are concerned with sales. It’s easy to determine how well your people are selling to your customers. That’s what sales reports are for. But your customers are more concerned with how well they are being served by your salespeople.

Why is that important? Because you are in it for the long run. You don’t want to just sell something to a customer, you want to build a relationship that lasts over time and results in years of sales. In one sense, your business is not really a sales business, it’s a relationship-building business.

And when it comes to developing long-lasting pro table relationships, it is not how well your salespeople present features and bene ts and overcome objections that counts, it is how well they serve the customers’ needs.

Which brings us to a couple of questions. First, what does it mean for a salesperson to serve the customer? And second, how do you know that it is happening e ectively?

Salespeople serving the customer?

Clearly, you know what it means for your company to serve your customer. Ontime deliveries, competitive prices, reliable service, competent CSRs, etc. But, what do your customers want from your outside salespeople? Ask each salesperson what it means to serve the customer, and you can expect to hear a variety of answers. Some de ne service as picking up purchase orders, others will de ne it as taking inventory, some will propose that following up on back orders or short shipments is part of it, while others will say that it involves visiting the customer on a predictable basis. That’s the problem. Few companies have any consistent description of what it really means to serve the customer. Generally, salespeople are left to gure it out on their own, create their own de nitions, and develop their own standards.

I have yet to meet a salesperson who did not believe they provided excellent service to their customers. Every salesperson perceives they are doing a good job. Not once has a salesperson taken me o to the side at a break in a seminar I was teaching, and con de in me, “You know, Dave, I really do a poor job of serving my customers.”

So, on one hand, we have vague and general de nitions of what it means to provide good service to the customer, and on the other, we have the often-inaccurate perceptions of the salespeople. The result? Inconsistent service, and lots of unmet expectations on the part of the customers.

I recently worked with one of my clients to gain a deeper understanding of what service means by, of all things, asking the customers! We gathered six of this client’s brightest and most insightful customers together for a half-day focus group. I facilitated the videotaped discussion, and the client viewed the tape later. What did we discover?

How customers de ne good service

Here’s how those customers de ned “good service” from the outside sales force. 1. Don’t waste their time. If there was one theme that popped up over and over throughout the day it was this: We have less time to do our job than ever before, so you better not waste any part of it. In other words, don’t come into my business unprepared. Have something of value to share or don’t come.

They need to see some value in the time they share with your salespeople, every time they see them, or they won’t see them. Don’t waste their time with idle chitchat, don’t take longer to do something than you need to, don’t be unprepared, and don’t waste their employees’ time. If you don’t have something important to do or something valuable to bring, don’t visit. And when you do visit, make sure you have all the answers. Know what the product does or doesn’t do, know what the pricing and terms are, and be prepared to answer all their questions. 2. Be empowered to handle things now. One customer talked about the salesperson as “victim.” He was referring to the salesperson who spends time explaining how the truck broke down, or the manufacturer

backordered the product, or it was recalled, or whatever. All of these were seen as the salesperson saying, “It wasn’t our fault. We’re the victims of someone else’s mistakes.” These customers weren’t concerned with whose fault something was, nor were they concerned with the reasons why something wasn’t as it was supposed to be. They only wanted solutions.

“Don’t be a victim,” they said. “Bring us solutions now.” One customer remarked that the Ritz Carlton Hotel authorizes its maids to spend up to $2,000 to make a customer happy, while the salespeople who call on him cannot resolve a problem over a $50 can of paint without several phone calls and days of approvals. Good service to these customers meant that the salesperson could solve the problem immediately, on the spot. 3. Know my business. Don’t waste our time or insult our intelligence by presenting products or services we can’t use. These customers expected the salespeople to know what their processes were, who their customers were, what their goals and strategies were, the limitations of their facilities, budgets and timetables, and take all of that into consideration before they present some product or program. “The best salespeople,” one remarked, “are like extensions of my business.” 4. Bring us solutions, not problems. These customers did not want to discover after the fact that a purchase would be back-ordered or short-shipped. Find the problems before we experience them, and then bring us solutions. Tell us what our options are, and we’ll decide what to do. In other words, the salesperson who says, “I’m sorry about last week’s back order, “is not serving the customer. The salesperson who is serving the customer is the one who says, “Next week we’re going to short ship this order. If you need the balance right away, we can do any of three things to help. Here are your options….”

While these weren’t the only de nitions of “good service” this group volunteered, they represent a good starting point.

If you’re like most of my clients, at this point you may be feeling a little queasy in your stomach. You may be doubtful that your sales force is really serving your customers like they want to be served.

Six Initiatives

What to do? Here are six initiatives you can consider. 1. Make sure your salespeople are thoroughly prepared to present any new product or program. Don’t think that just because someone presented a new product in Friday afternoon’s sales meeting that the salespeople are fully equipped to thoroughly present it. Role-play a customer asking questions. Don’t stop until everybody gets it right. Think through every possible question that a customer may ask, and make sure that every salesperson has an intelligent and thoughtful answer.

Give quizzes on the new products and programs. Don’t allow anyone to present it until they have passed the quiz. Hold the salespeople accountable for having accurate and thorough knowledge. 2. Insist that each salesperson have a plan for every sales call, and something of value to bring to the customer. Train them in this. Use your contact manager software to spot check sales call plans and reports. When you or your sales managers are traveling in the eld with salespeople, check for their preparation. 3. Empower the salespeople to x problems on the spot. Create some guidelines for the level of authority the salesperson has. For example, you may decide a salesperson can issue a credit of up to $500 on the spot to x any problem. Instill information systems that allow the salespeople to have on line 24/7 access to order status, inventory, pricing, etc. 4. Train and equip the sales force to” know their customer’s business.”

Create detailed account pro le forms (either electronic or paper) and require the sales force to use them. From time to time, ask a customer to come in and talk about their business to the sales force. Hold focus groups and show the videotapes to the salespeople. At sales meetings, instead of only discussing your products and processes, educate the salespeople on a typical customer’s business.

5. Teach and equip the salespeople to become proactive problem solvers.

Make sure they have the right information tools to proactively discover problems before they hit the customer. Train them in using them. When you and your sales manager ride with them, watch to make sure they are using them e ectively. 6. Finally, ask your customers. From time to time, personally visit some of your customers and ask them how your sales force is doing relative to other salespeople, and relative to their expectations. Take a form to make sure you are thorough. Ask customers to rate each issue above. Use that input to re ne your system. Then, nd out how else they de ne good service.

Do these things and you’ll begin to eld a sales force that the customers view as valuable. You’ll take a huge step forward in developing the kind of relationships you’ll need to prosper in the 21st century.

Dave Kahle

is an author, consultant and speaker who has presented in 47 states and 11 countries, improved the performance of thousands of B2B salespeople, and authored 12 books (www.davekahle.com)

The secrets to Big Fish Selling

BY JILL J. JOHNSON

A BIG FISH is anyone who is of a higher stature than you normally play with, and if you land them, it will move you into a whole new level of clientele. They may be spending bigger money and as a result, they will expect that you have the professionalism to satisfy their needs. Yet Big Fish have so many people who want to work with them that they are often even more demanding than most people anticipate when they are trying to reach this level of client.

Managing the Big Fish Sale Process

So how do you manage a Big Fish Sale? Keep in mind that this is often going to be a much more complex sale than where you have an initial meeting with the client, and they quickly say “yes.” Big Fish Sales are rarely rapid, unless there is an exceptionally dire situation and they know you are the one they need to help them solve it.

In Big Fish Selling there are typically many decision in uencers working behind the scenes who are trying to bring in their own vendors. Always remember that your prospect is also dealing with an internal power structure. Be on the lookout for those people on the inside of your prospect’s organization who may help you better understand what it will take to close the deal. They may be able to give you the fundamental insight that will help you reel the Big Fish in to close the deal.

Most importantly, in any complex sales situation with a Big Fish prospect, your primary goal is to keep moving the ball forward toward an agreement on a deal that works for you both. The secondary goal for your meeting is to try to close a part of your proposal. Something that will give you a smaller toe in the door to help them understand the value you bring and to convince them that you can handle the bigger deal. The ultimate goal is to close the whole deal. If they coalesce, it will be wonderful, and then you need to celebrate your win.

Never lose sight of that primary goal in a complex sale with a Big Fish. You need to stay in the game. But by having multi-level goals, you will have several ways you can “win”—and then not show disappointment or convey anything other than complete professionalism if you don’t get all that you wanted.

Focus on Their Needs

Remember, at its core a Big Fish Sale is just like any other sale. This is always about the client. Keep your focus on that. It is all about their needs, their desires, and their problems. Focus on how working with you will solve their critical issues within a budget amount that works for you both.

Pay attention to interviews the Big Fish has done with the media. Today you can access print and TV media interviews easily. But don’t forget to access other information such as interviews with industry publications or podcasts on which they have been a guest. You do need to actually read or listen to them. Blu ng to pretend you understood their point of view will lose credibility with them. Yet if you actually dive deep into the content they have appeared in, you will gain enormous insight into their pain points, concerns and view of the future. All of this insight is essential to your understanding the nuances of how to best position your products or services to meet their unique needs.

Often Big Fish want to test you rst with a something that is a smaller part of your overall proposal. That is why having the secondary goal is so critical in selling to this type of client, and it can be the key that gets you to your rst “yes.” Frankly, getting the smaller rst sale is often the tipping point that gets you the bigger deal and longer-term money. If you can, break your proposal down into several component parts or additional optional services. Give them choices in how to work with you.

Manage the Process... and Yourself

When you are selling as part of a team, it is vital for both of you to be in the same game. Use your time wisely to prepare while you are in the car driving to the meeting or preparing to go on Zoom. Determine who needs to reinforce what message and

when it will be key to tag team to reinforce your potential value to the client. Think about how you will respond to objections and who will handle it.

It is often extremely intimidating to try selling to a Big Fish. Look for ways to give yourself a mental boost to help you stay grounded in the moment when you are up close and personal. This is especially helpful if they get a terse with their tone, questions or response to your pitch.

Big Fish are extremely pressed for time and they do not have the time to care about your feelings. Take care of yourself. Reach out to a trusted friend and ask for a pep talk before you pitch. Write a note to yourself that only you can see with three or four phrases. These should be positive in nature and serve as reminders to you. A few examples of good reminder notes are: 1. They already like you (or you would not be in the room) 2. They want to work with you some day even if today is not your day, and 3. Breathe!

Final Thoughts

When the day comes and the Big Fish nally says “yes,” be sure to do your scream and happy dance in the nearest bathroom—just do not do it in front of them! You do not want them to know that you cannot believe you nally got them to a “yes!” You want them to only think of you as belonging in the room—not that it might be the rst time you ever were there!

Jill J. Johnson

is president and founder of Johnson Consulting Services, speaker, consultant, and author of the bestselling Compounding Your Con dence. For more information, visit www. jcs-usa.com.

Inexpensive branding strategies to grow your business

BY KATIE LUNDIN

IF YOU SUPPOSE that branding is a luxury and something you can do in the future, you’re not alone in thinking this way. In fact, some business owners struggle to understand how branding impacts their businesses. As a result, they have di culty justifying spending a part of their budget on branding.

The problem is that these owners often struggle to grow their businesses. If they’re lucky, they might see modest short-term growth. But, businesses that don’t invest in strong branding rarely see aggressive long-term growth. Bad branding undermines credibility, customer awareness, and customers’ trust. Bad branding harms your business in the long run.

Good branding builds credibility. It helps your best customers identify, relate to, and remember you when they need your product or service. Good branding builds trusted relationships with customers that pay you back in revenue and repeat business.

The sooner you begin to develop a strong, authentic brand and brand identity, the sooner your business will start to reap the bene ts.

Let’s examine these strategies.

1. Create an authentic brand

Whether you’re starting a business or growing an existing business, the most important branding investment you can make doesn’t cost a cent. It’s the time and thought you invest in de ning your authentic brand.

Every business has a brand whether they’ve made a single conscious branding decision or not. That’s because a brand is made up of the visuals, words, actions, and products that represent your business, as well as customer experiences and perceptions.

If you’re running a business, these elements exist. But, is your brand: 1. a confusing, misaligned mess, or 2. a carefully contrived façade, or 3. a consistent customer experience that communicates an authentic core identity of your business to your target market.

The best brands are authentic. Authentic brands ring true for consumers (winning their trust and loyalty) and can be maintained with less e ort because you don’t have to lie or put on a show.

Authentic branding choices will come naturally because they’re motivated by your actual values and genuine personality. So, take the time to think about: • what makes your business unique, • what makes your products or services unique, and • which guiding personality traits and values best describe your business—as it actually is.

Then, use the brand traits you discover as a guide for literally every other decision you make in your business. This step is free. And it is VITAL. So, take the time to gure out what your brand really is.

2. Get a strong brand name

Your business name is the most fundamental representative of your brand.

While it’s impossible to control the entirety of your brand (remember that a brand is made up of public perception as well as the conscious branding choices you make), you do control your business name.

People will identify and remember your business by its name. They’ll search for your business online by its name. They’ll recommend your business (or not) by its name.

And, your business name (ideally) should communicate “who” your business is. A business name that doesn’t align with your brand will cause cognitive dissonance for your audience. This will make your brand name harder to remember and harder to trust.

But, a brand name that clearly communicates the essence of your business will resonate with and attract your best customers. Your business name is absolutely a place to invest in your brand. Some people invest time.

And, if you’re struggling to grow an existing business, consider whether your brand name is holding you back. This may

3. Build a unique visual brand

Humans are visual creatures. Most of us rely on our eyes to navigate the world and our lives. So, every business bene ts when it presents a visual brand that people can recognize and identify.

In fact, if you’re starting a business and working on a business plan, potential investors and lenders will evaluate the strength of your visual brand when deciding whether to make an investment or a loan.

But, not all visual branding elements are equal. Let’s take a look at the visual branding elements with the biggest bang for the buck…

Logo

People identify other people by their facial features, body shape, posture and style of movement. But, most businesses don’t have a single face or body by which they can be identi ed. So, we create a company logo people can use to identify and remember our business.

Your logo is the primary visual identi cation tool for your business. It’s your business’s face! We can’t overstate how important your logo is.

Invest in a custom-designed logo that e ectively captures your authentic brand. And, remember that you get what you pay for. Be wary of free logo generators and $50 “original” logo designs. These free and cheap options will cost you more in legal fees (you can’t trademark stock art and generic templates, which you’re getting from generators and discount logo purchases).

Real custom logos can be trademarked. And, computers don’t understand human emotion, color or shape theory, or psychology. Real logo designers understand how people think and how to create emotionally powerful brands. Brand Color Palette

A logo is the cornerstone of a visual brand. But, it’s not the whole visual brand.

A complete visual brand provides a broader visual context that people can relate to your business. And, no visual brand is complete without a dedicated color palette.

Color is a major branding powerhouse. Colors resonate with people, capture attention, and communicate emotion. And, when colors repeatedly co-exist in combination, they take on an identity of their own. Red and yellow conjures McDonald’s. Forest green and white evokes Starbucks. Looking for Best Buy? You’ll recognize it by the royal blue and yellow sign long before you can read the type.

Your business can also bene t from brand color recognition. And, the best news is that this powerful branding tool should cost you very little—just a bit of time. So, invest the time to develop a brand color palette.

Your logo should inspire your color palette. It should include your logo colors, some neutrals (black, white, gray, taupe, etc.) for exibility, and possibly an additional complementary color or two (based on how many colors are in your logo).

Don’t go overboard with too many strong signature colors. Balance strong colors that draw focus with calmer, more recessive colors to ensure your ads, social media content, website (and more) are easy to read. Illustration System

For businesses with a bit more wiggle room in their branding budget, consider an illustration system. An illustration system is a series of illustrated graphics that can be used, re-mixed, and re-used throughout your website, social media posts, business cards, blog graphics, and email templates.

Good illustration systems visually complement your logo. And, together with your logo, they create a bigger visual context by which people can recognize your brand.

This investment will deliver branding bang for your buck in three ways: 1. It’s another way for people to visually recognize your business, increasing the likelihood that they’ll get to know your brand. 2. Providing a broader visual context creates a larger neural network dedicated to your business in people’s brains, so they’re more likely to remember you. 3. Illustration systems can be used and re-used in countless contexts. So, you’ll always have versatile resources to use for branding visuals without spending more after the initial cost of creation.

If you can’t a ord an illustration system now, set aside money to invest in one later. It’s an investment that will keep paying you back.

4. Create a strong online presence

When deciding where to spend money for your brand, prioritize your website. A website is not only a major brand representative; it’s also a functional sales tool. So, this investment pays your business back on multiple levels.

Every business website should be quick to load and easy to navigate. But, vital functional details like these are only part of the equation.

Your website also needs to act as your brand ambassador—helping people get to know your business, educate them about what you do, and reassure them that they’ve found the business they’re looking for. Luckily, if you’ve invested in a unique custom logo, a memorable and brand-appropriate color palette, and an illustration system, you already have all of the building blocks you need to create a fantastic, on-brand website.

Because most prospects will see your website before interacting with your business in any other way, you cannot a ord to cut corners on your website. Like your logo, place your branding dollars here.

5. Develop a unique brand voice

Brands don’t only communicate with graphics. They also communicate with text and spoken word. And, the words you choose must align with your brand personality and values. This creates the impression that your business has a consistent identity. Trust grows from repeated exposure—but only when each exposure con rms our initial impressions. It’s hard to trust people or businesses who are erratic and unreliable.

So, your website copy, social media posts, email messages, packaging design (if applicable), and customer support language should all sound like it’s coming from the same “person.” Your brand.

Identifying and consistently using a speci c brand voice is a core pillar of your brand identity. And, it’s free. But, it does require a bit of thought.

De ne a few adjectives to describe your brand voice. Keep these handy whenever you’re writing new copy. And share them with anyone who interacts with your customers. A consistent brand voice will pay you back in customer trust and additional sales.

Your brand is an invaluable tool that can lift your business—or hold it back.

Katie Lundin is a marketing and branding specialist at crowdspring, a leading marketplace for crowdsourced logo design, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. Visit www.crowdspring.com.