"So what the F*ck are we all doing?!"

- asked Stanley, a well-seasoned, ball-breaking business owner in his 60s...frustrated over how quiet the office was at 10am on a Tuesday. The team had been way below target for months now. 

Sales rep, Adam replies: "I'm just building my personal brand."

Stanley: "Personal what??"

Adam: "My personal brand on LinkedIn, so prospects know who I am and I build trust & and credibility..."

Stanley: "Who do you think you are, bloody J-Lo?"

Adam: "It's 2024 - it's what people do these days, influencers & gurus talk about the importance of it all the time."

Stanley: "We sell photocopiers for F*cks sake!"

Adam: "Doesn't matter - I need to build a personal brand around it."

Stanley: "See that thing on your desk? It's incredible - you pick it up and real people are on the other end. You can then have an interactive conversation and ask them questions. Who knows...they might even buy."

Adam: "Tell you what, let me finish working my personal brand for 2 hours & then I'll send some personalised cat videos to make my prospects laugh...and if that doesn't work how about we send them some boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts along with some £100 Amazon gift cards?"

Stanley cracked.

Enough was enough!

He then proceeded to take away all his sales reps' computers.

He gave them all a phone and a list.

And after a lot of blood, sweat & tears (and various mental health issues) the unbelievable happened...

Sales went up. 

...it begs the Q - has 'personal branding' gone too far?

#sales #sell #phone