Impact of Executive Brands on Customer Perceptions

Arjun Sundararajan: I think that makes for a really good balance, which is kinda like I wanna double click on that a little bit more over here is this, like, your brand and it's pat on, like, customer perceptions, especially for someone who's, like, phasing, people over here. So, like, you you were spot on. Right? Like, almost everybody when they're going on to a meeting with, like, an unknown, company or, like, in a comp I mean, unknown people in a a company they are doing a little bit of scouting, just looking at, like, LinkedIn profiles and making sure that they know a little bit about this person to form that connection over there So there is a lot of your brand that comes into play. Here, the podcast was a great connection for you. Do you think is this something that, like, consciously other executives should also be paying attention to to, create a brand for themselves that they would be, perceived upon when, like, they come into customer consum conversations. I think so. Right?

Anand Sundaram: I, and I I, again, I think we've talked about this in the past. We are all salespeople. Right, whether you're an engineer or an operations or a doctor, or whoever you are, right, we're all salespeople. We're selling ourselves, every day. Right? We, again, going about talking about the perceptions, we wanna make sure that we're feed well in front of the other person. So we're selling, something every day. And then as executives, I think that perception creation becomes even more important because they're representing that organization that they're working for. They're the leader. So so as they go in, they're representing the organization. So making sure that their brand is is original, and authentic, I think becomes very, very important. I think the authentic part of it is really the most important. I am who I am, and, you know, I've got positives. I've got negatives. Of course, on my LinkedIn profile or or when I'm talking to people, I'm I'm always conscientiously trying to make sure that I I'm I push out the positive attitudes that I have and try and manage my negative attitudes. Right? Some negative attitude could be maybe I fumble a lot, or I say a lot. Right? So, stuff like that. It's a I'm always conscientiously making sure that the brand that I'm presenting is is always positive. So I think having executives present their brand or think about their brand is is very, very important.

Arjun Sundararajan: I really like that. No, I I I think this is something that is probably, like, common sense in, like, the sales world and everything where they are often in front of people, but, you know, coming from, like, product or engineering or, like, know, other words where, like, you don't think it's important for you to, like, have a brand presence or so.

Anand Sundaram: Most executives don't even think about this, especially, like, the smaller the company, the earlier this product that you're working in, it's so much more important that, like, you have this. Yeah.

Arjun Sundararajan: No. Okay. I'm sorry to interrupt you. I was just saying thinking, I'll give you an example. It was very interesting. It was quite a few years ago.

Anand Sundaram: So like I said, I'm in sales. We had gone to meet, our customer and our customer is a is a, you know, top 10 fortune 500 company. Right? It's very big. So I gotta meet our customer. And I kick in my operations VP with me. So he's the VP of operations. He's a leader, because this was gonna be a technical discussion. Right? So I can talk at the high level, but I need my my operations need to talk the technical stuff. And then, you know, he brought a couple of his other operation, people too. When I go in, to the meetings. Now, you know, I've worked with my customer long enough that I know how they dress and all of that. So I'm not in a student tie. I'm I'm well dressed, but I'm I'm, you know, with a jacket and a and maybe a sweater and and jeans, right, and nice shoes on. He came in just as if he, you know, walked out of his house, you know, just just casually. Right? Like, oh, okay. I didn't wanna say anything. That's fine. And then we we talk. He he presented well. All of that was fine. But then, we don't know, actually, one, he came in pretty late the meeting. He was local to the meeting. He came to relate our discussion. We're already happening. And if coming in late is is perfectly fine. Right? But when you come in late, you go take the seat that's closest to you. He didn't. He walked all the way across the room and sat between me and the customer as we're talking. I'm like, what is happening? What else could go wrong here? So that's fine. Right? We we we have the conversation, and that keeps going on. We finish the conversation, we say our goodbyes, we walk out. And as soon as we walk out of the door, he takes out a cigarette and starts smoking it. And I'm like, I think we should not be doing this. Let's go somewhere else. And, unfortunately, as those words were coming up, the per the people we were talking to, at the customer walk out at the same time. And and and, again, it's another place. Like, why? Right? Timing was off everywhere. So and and so that's where I think, you're you're very right. Right? I mean, for Although I am an engineer by education, right, I've I've, you know, got a master's and worked for the longest time in operations, but I think inside, I've been a salesperson. I've been a people person kind of all my life. I just fell into engineering because, you know, back to our original conversation. That's the path I took. But I'm a salesperson and people internally. So for me, it comes as common sense. Right? Don't do this. Do that. Don't do this. Do that. But for him, and, you know, unfortunately, very smart person, technically, so, you know, technically, he was able to present everything well. But socially, he needed guidance. Right? And and so there were a lot of wrong things that happened, but but that that's exactly, you know, what you were saying. Right? So you have to make sure that you put yourself in the other person. You always, whether it's personal or your business, you put yourself in the other person's shoes, whether it's a customer's shoes or my shoes when we're there and say, hey. I'm walking into the door. I wanna be as quiet as possible. Let me find the closest seat. Right? So I don't bother them. Or, hey. We walked out of this, this office. You know, to each his own, if you wanna smoke perfectly well, but let's do it privately somewhere else. Right? Let's not spend too much time. So those are things I think you've gotta really do is put yourself in the other person's shoes and and and see what the perception of this individual would be. They were doing those same, same, same things. But no ex executives having an understanding of the brand becomes very important then. No.

Arjun Sundararajan: I appreciate you sharing that story. That was actually really good. And you were kind enough to tell me that, like, being late is okay or, like, doing that is okay. Maybe that's not all okay. I mean, I think I completely, see how you are a very people person, but I think, like, the the executive brand part of it or at least, like, what people perceive a few or make all these micro actions all makes significant impact on every conversation. Like, you know, whether it's internal especially when it's external. Right? So, one other thing, which is kinda like going back to, your