Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Best recco - word of mouth

They say word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising. If you think, it applies only to brands and not to people, think again. People are also a brand. Right? We all have a very important brand whose brand equity we need to continuously improve and grow. Our most important brand is 'I'. We have to take excellent care of this brand.


Now, let's not get paranoid about preserving and growing our brand in a hurry. No brand, be it Honda or Sony or Nike, did not attain its brand equity in a day. So, we too need to be patient and grow our individual brand one day at a time. Slow and steady wins the race. If not in this life, next life and after for sure.


Now coming to word-of-mouth form of advertising. Look at the real successful people around you. What is one thing that is unique about them? Unique thing is most of the people say good things about them. Even those die-hard cynics of all cynics too say good things about these people. If not, they at least bitch and moan about these people when they do that about virtually everyone.


Sometimes we think if we do not toot our horns, we may not get the recognition for our work even when it is due. Best thing is to have other blow your horn. Be nice to people and you do not even need to give your horn. They will come to you, beg for your horn and toot it to the whole world. You go and play golf. Now do not expect people to do that big favor in your initial days in a professional place. You have to have patience. The period to establish this kind of reputation takes a long time. Take a lot of patience and fortitude.


When people get the best impression of your? First impression is the worst impression for most people. Because first impression goes by our looks, mannerisms etc. which only a few are blessed with. Most of the others are ordinary mortals in terms of looks and personality. But, regardless of how we look to others, we all have inherent divinity. When we let our divinity shine, it is glaring and people get impressed by it and bask in its glory.


People gradually develop good impression of you when you learn to live with them and their idiosyncrasies it may feel like people are taking advantage of you. They may even be taking advantage of you. Regardless of how cunning they may be, your goodness will slowly win them over and they will start feeling bad about taking advantage of you. If you think people are walking all over you, let them. When they realize they are walking over precious velvet, they stop doing that and hold the velvety smooth velvet to their hear and you have won a place in their heart.


These people then start singing your praises. That's is the best form of advertisement and gets you noticed by people. In my experience, bosses hate when their subordinates copy them on e-mails or forward e-mails with minor achievements etc. On the other hand when bosses hear someone else singing your praises, they have some kind of epiphany and that impression that happens indirectly of you is what your boss going to remember and reward you by. So, be nice to people, bear with them, understand them, forgive them even when they treat you unfairly and see the difference it makes to your career.


Bosses are always on the look out for people who can get along with people easily. As such they have so many things bothering them that the last thing they want is some difficult-to-get-along with kinda guy who wastes their bandwidth and slows down the team's speed. When they hear from others that you are one of the easiest guys to work with, they will think this guy has great potential and give you more responsibility. It's now up to you to put one notch up and deliver even more goodness and the cycle repeats.


Best way to grow your brand equity is by being nice to your fellow beings.


Cheers!


Powered by Qumana

No comments: