Practical Sales Training™ >How to connect with your buyer > The Rename Effect

What is it?

Renaming people, places and things so that they match your branding and messaging.

Why does it work?

It works because it allows you to dictate the vernacular that your buyers use and also to potentially become eponymous in the space you operate. In the same way we Hoover (even if it’s a Dyson), renaming things (like a hot chocolate vending van called a ChocMobile) can become the standard and mean that even your competitors are referred to with YOUR names and messaging which is a powerful commercial tool.

How can you use it?

This isn’t for every business or every offering, but consider the people, places and things you use in the course of your business and how you could rename them so that they match your branding / messaging.

You can name things like:

A feeling / situation / behaviour
Equipment / tools
Your staff / fans / followers
The problem you solve
A unit of measurement (Hunk of Pizza anyone?)
You could have a family of names where everything is named in a similar way

It’s also important to have a named process of working to articulate “how” you do what you do.

We have a book dedicated to naming things which will help.

Example:

Brand: Lush Cosmetics

Instead of calling employees “staff” or “sales assistants,” they call them “Lushies.”
This builds internal culture and external identity – customers start using the term too.

Brand: Disney

Disney doesn’t call visitors “customers.”
They call them “guests.”
Staff? They’re “cast members.”
Every role, every place (e.g. “on stage” vs “backstage”) matches the magic of the brand.

See also