I just got my lunch handed to me by a business prospect and will be eating “humble pie” for months to come. It was a humiliating lesson, exacted upon a careless and overly-casual “professional” by an astute and thoughtful company leader. In recounting the experience I hope that, through my shortcoming and poor behavior, you may better consider the words you use and the actions you take to bolster and protect your professional brand. File this under: “Do as I say - not as I do.”

Month after month, I share creative insights and strategies on how to raise your visibility in a competitive marketplace.  Well, this month I’m going to take a departure from my normal e-zine to share a remarkable story of INvisibility and ask something of you. Yes, we’re all busy, but I ask you to please consider the following brief story:

It was Homecoming in the fall of 1982. I had graduated high school the previous spring and had started my freshman year of college. My girlfriend was still back in high school in Denver and I drove the sixty miles, like I did every weekend, this time to take her to the Homecoming dance. Yeah, like I was going to let anyone else take her!

I don’t know if it’s true for you, but people always seem to come up to me and say “Hi!” Some believe rightly, or wrongly that they know me, while other recognize me from “somewhere.”  It’s excruciating as I search my memory banks trying to put the face or name in context.  I tend to respond to the greeting with feigned recognition and an innocuous: “Hey!  What’s new and exciting in your life?” hoping that in the ensuing moments, a comment or reference on their part will provide the clue necessary to make the connection.

Of course, I’m not alone in this dynamic. Perhaps it is the public nature of what I do, that my face and name tends to get out there. But the truth is that I recognize how essential it is for my business success that I both preach, and personify a high public profile. My work is all about touting the benefits of becoming, and remaining highly visible – and in doing so, I have to be visible as well. I would suggest that the same holds true for you.

It’s a reality that every business faces: there will be good months – and there will be not-so-good months.  Basic economics dictate that the key to profitability and survival in business is to ensure that the good months outnumber the bad ones. For small businesses this fact is even more crucial as you, (we) tend to lack the substantial financial reserves that multi-gazillion dollar companies have access to.

So how do you help to ensure that the good times continue all year long? You have to find a way to remain top-of-mind with your top prospects!  You know the old 20-80 rule, which suggests that 80% of your revenue is going to come from 20% of your clients.  So the lesson is: while you are always prospecting for new business, never lose sight of the importance of keeping visible with your current clients and key contacts.

The opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens, is among the most familiar of all literary passages: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”  And these words ring so true when it comes to effective brand marketing as well.  On one hand, we live in an amazing age where the promotional options, vehicles and venues are more vast and creative than in any time in human history.  But on the other, the competition for the eyes, ears, thoughts, time, attention and wallets of business prospects is almost overwhelming.

So how do you turn that head, perk up those ears and command the attention of consumers when so many are competing to do the same thing? One of the best tactics that I share with my audiences is using the power of the unexpected.

There is much that has been written about the importance of crafting the right company name, the perfect product moniker, or inspiring, professional title. But equally important, and often short-changed, is a creative, memorable and impactful tagline. While your company name, your logo and service mark is the public face of who you are, the tagline should tell people what you do and why you are different than the competition.  Like peanut butter and jelly, both can be darned good on their own, but put ‘em together – magic!

Unfortunately, the marketplace has experienced a rash of very poorly considered, but likely very expensive, campaigns pushing meaningless and forgettable taglines.  Most of these ill-conceived messages undoubtedly make a great deal of money for the high-priced ad agencies, but do little for the client.  In these agency conference rooms and company boardrooms, executives fall all over each other with self-congratulations, thinking they’ve invented the cure for cancer that tastes like chocolate, but in reality, most have simply added another forgettable, non-specific message to the mix.  In their quest to be different and clever, most forget the most important element – the message needs to lead to actual sales.