There’s an old adage; “Perception is reality”. Simply stated, perception of a brand lies in its ability to influence a client’s behavior. When you have successfully branded your business, in client’s eye there is no service in marketplace quite like your service.

All consulting businesses should have a distinct, sustainable, and competitive advantage to differentiate their services from competition. I call this process of identifying your advantage “Brand Your Consulting Brilliance”.

Here are six simple steps to brand and differentiate your services in current business environment.

1. Think client focus first.

The client’s reality: Consulting businesses exist to serve clients. Develop a client visitation calendar and schedule in-person visits. Look client in eye and say, “I am here to serve you.” Follow up and follow through on all client related matters in a timely manner.

Create a client questionnaire so clients can rate performance of your services. You want them to tell you how you’re doing and what you can do to serve them better. It’s also a way to discover what challenges they are currently facing. Be relentless in your client retention efforts.

2. Discover a distinct advantage that will set you apart from competitors.

Start by articulating your “unique marketing proposition”, a statement of all of qualities and characteristics that set your services apart in marketplace. Analyze your services: What skills and services do we provide that are distinctive, measurable, and add value? Which of our past successes can we leverage in marketplace? And don’t forget to ask colleagues what they see as your competitive strengths.

Something “New” for Managers?

A new public relations blueprint could be a good idea if you’re a business, non-profit or association manager who’s not getting important external audience behaviors you need to achieve your department, division or subsidiary objectives.

You know, behaviors like more people interested in your services or products, or more capital contributions coming in door, or more corporate membership applications hitting your desk.

While those kinds of behaviors may warm cockles of a manager’s heart, they’re not going to happen for you if you encourage, or allow public relations team assigned to your unit to concentrate on simple tactics to exclusion of a workable and comprehensive action blueprint.

In other words, a strategy, say, like this one: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.

Now that’s not only a blueprint, it’s a foundation for a public relations effort that can persuade those important external stakeholders to your way of thinking. Then move them to take actions that lead to your success as a manager working for a business, non-profit or association.

Here’s one way to do it. Decide that you’re going to spend some quality time with your PR folks and tell them you really want to find out what those outside audiences, those with behaviors that really impact your operation, actually think about you. Next, put your target audiences in priority order so we can get to work on your #1.

By way, because your PR people could be surprised at this kind of public relations blueprint, you had best stay personally involved as effort gets off ground. Another good reason to do so, is that actually doing something about key audience behaviors can have a positive effect on your own organizational success.