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See this post on LinkedIn. Chime in or give it a đ.
I saw someone giving the advice on LinkedIn that you shouldnât scale your sales team until youâve built your brand.
Yeah, well, revenue is what keeps you employed, not building brand. This is coming from a reformed brand evangelist.Â
The reality that some folks fail to grasp is that the category leaders had their brands built for them by the market. These companies went to market with something people needed and were willing to pay money for. They dominated their fields, rose to the top, and as a result, became household names in their respective industries.Â
They werenât sitting around âbuilding their brandsâ. Their brands were built due to people using and loving their products.
The competition will never âout brandâ the leadersâeven if their products are superior to the incumbents. (And some of them certainly are better.) So if youâre not the category leader, you have two priorities: Create demand and sell.Â
Do those two things well and you have a shot at becoming a recognized and recommended name in the proper channels and amongst the right people.
My opinion: Donât wait around to sell anything. Scale your sales team when you need more salespeople. AKA, youâre selling so much of your thing that you need more people to sell it.
And that only happens when you focus on revenue.Â
Side note: For all the sales and marketing leaders who are planning to take the LinkedIn advice of building brand before growing a sales team, start looking for your next gig now. Because your CEO and investors care about one thing. And that one thing is what youâre measured on.
Related: This is why employer branding doesnât work, but recruiting does.