Benefits of building a personal brand for your key executives

It has always been believed that it’s the people who make the company, and in this day and age of communication clutter it is important for a company to express the people power. Yes, I am talking of building personal brand of the people who lead the businesses for the companies.

A personal brand reflects who you are and what you stand for. Organizations of today, specially start-ups, must engage in branding with a modern mindset and understand the power of personal branding of their key executives. It is increasingly becoming important for companies to be seen being led by executives whose opinions and values are visibly expressed and resonate the values of the organization they represent. It not only increases the companies’ influence, but also outclasses the competition.

To rest my case, I am listing below a few benefits of building a personal brand of the key executives for an organization:

1. Attract better deals and relationships: It is important for the key management to be networking at the right levels in your clients’ organization. If your executives have a strong personal brand, people would want to connect with and do business with them.
2. Build influencers: Your executives can become a voice for the sector you operate in. It matters when your clients want to commit a business to you and / or make purchase decisions in your favour, their confidence in people could be a differentiator.
3. Free publicity: If your people are strong personal brands, they will get invited to industry events for possible speaker opportunities and such opportunities offer great marketing for any organization.
4. Attract better talent: Candidates who share the same vision and work ethics as your key people, would want to get associated to work for your company. You will be able to attract better quality talent that comes with a belief and faith in your management.
5. Emotional connection: People and companies are looking for an emotional connection with the companies they work with. You build credibility and awareness for the work your company does through your people and their personal brand. Clients and potential customers are always looking for a brand value proposition through a working relationship with influential people, and it is known fact that people tend to trust individual recommendations over corporate brands.
6. Build leadership: Most companies that succeed are led by leaders who believe in the vision of the company they lead. Personal branding of your people helps you create brand ambassadors who will in turn be influential touch points within the sector your business operates in.
7. Better engagement: It has been seen that people engage more with people than with corporate brands. On social networks, your customers are more likely to engage with your people than with your corporate brand and business leads generated through such personal networks will convert more easily than otherwise.
8. Retention: Executives who become personal brands having an association with the company they represent in the visible media, are less likely leave for smaller gains.
9. Reputation Management: People who have a brand association with the company will not only be protective about their brand association but, also of the brand of the company / organization they represent, as both go hand in hand.

While I have listed the benefits of personal branding, it comes with a lot on stake. There are risks in building personal brands of your key people associating them with your corporate brand, as their behaviour will directly impact your corporate standing, and that is why investing in personal brands is restricted to only a select few, mostly the founder, owner or a few chief executives.