How to Get Clients With Branding (Without Faking It)

Tom Land represents companies in commercial real estate. His clients sign leases worth millions of dollars. Nobody hands that kind of decision to someone they don't trust.

So I asked him what makes a firm look trustworthy online. I expected an answer about design. His answer was about honesty. Most of it applies to any service business.

Don't brand yourself as something you're not

Tom's biggest warning was about firms that present themselves as a "global titan" when they're really a 10 person team. The website and LinkedIn say one thing. Then the client gets into the work and finds email and Excel.

He said misrepresenting yourself is even worse than having a bad or old website. You might win the first deal. But the client finds out quickly, and that's the story they tell other people about you.

His advice: boutique firms should lean into being boutique. Big firms should lean into being big.

I agree with this from my own experience. We started putting the word "boutique" in front of how we describe our agency, because we're a small, select team. It's more truthful. And the people who want that kind of team find us.

Tom's own firm does something similar. They're Texas only and faith based, and they say so. They don't pretend to be in 50 states. That's a different pitch than "we're too big to fail," and for the right client it's more appealing.

Consistency and detail are part of the brand

If your branding looks like a tech company in one place and a law firm in another, people don't know what they're looking at.

But Tom made a sharper point. If your website and LinkedIn look like you didn't put in much effort, a client starts to wonder about everything else. He put it like this: "I've got a $4 million lease obligation here. Are you going to actually negotiate it?"

The care you put into what people see every day is a signal of the care you'll put into their work. That goes for your website, your social profiles, and the documents you send clients.

Write like you're talking to a busy person

Tom said CEOs don't want to read a long, polished article when they visit your site. They want to get it quickly. He suggested writing at about a third grade reading level, using plain terms, and leading with who you are.

Most executives have only negotiated an office lease once or twice. Jargon like "triple net" loses them. Save the detail for the conversation.

This matches what we see on almost every website project. A lot of our work is taking a client's message and making it simpler so people understand it.

Pick channels that fit how buyers act now

Tom started his career knocking on office doors, floor by floor, until someone kicked him out. He walked me through how that's changed.

Door knocking. The upside is that everyone behind the door is a qualified lead. And in a world full of spam, a real human shows up. The downside is it doesn't scale. Many CEOs work from home most days now. More buildings use badge access for elevators, so you can't even get upstairs.

Email. He described two kinds. The first is specific to one prospect, like noting their lease is up in a year and rates have changed. That's hard to scale but the hit rate is high. The second is broader, sent to people you don't know much about. For that, he said to send proof that you're good at what you do. He sends a "deal of the week" style update about a real client win.

Social media. This is where he sees the biggest shift. He said buyers now think, "I know who you are. I know what you do. I'll reach out to you if I want to." Your job is to be visible and consistent for a long time so that when they're ready, they already know you.

Keep cold outreach to two sentences

When young brokers send cold emails, Tom said they write four paragraphs about why the CEO should hire them. That's the fastest delete.

He suggested two sentences. Who you are and why you're reaching out. Skip the "can we hop on a call." Something like "I thought this might be helpful" is enough.

I've seen the same pattern in my own business. Some of our biggest website deals have been worked out in one or two sentence emails back and forth.

Give away the how-to

Tom makes educational content, like checklists for buying a building so you don't get burned. You'd think that teaches people to do it without you.

His view is the opposite. The people who want to do it themselves were never going to hire you. Everyone else sees how much work is involved and decides they'd rather hand it to the person who explained it. He mentioned one client relationship where the work ran from February of one year to June of the next. When a CEO sees that kind of timeline, they don't want to manage it themselves.

Use video so people know it's really you

Tom wants to do more video. His reason was interesting. When you post a long text post on LinkedIn now, people assume ChatGPT wrote it, even if you didn't. Video adds a layer of trust because people can see and hear you.

He also said your personal brand and your company's brand need to line up. In B2B, people hire a person. If the person they've been watching doesn't match the firm they sign with, that's a problem.

Small things still count

A few smaller tips from Tom that I liked:

• Business cards. Skip the glossy finish and dark colors so people can write on them. Leave space. Write a short note on the card when you hand it over so they remember who you are. He likes a QR code that goes to your LinkedIn.
• Send things in the right order. Don't overload people up front. When he shows a client 30 buildings, he sends only what they need to cut the list down, then goes deeper on the few that are left.
• Events. Go where your buyers are. An event full of your competitors may feel good, but it won't bring in clients.

The takeaway

Branding that gets clients isn't about looking bigger. It's about saying exactly who you are, making it easy to understand, and showing proof over and over until the right people reach out.

If you want help getting your own positioning and website to say that clearly, I do 1-on-1 consulting for business owners working on exactly this.

Watch the full interview with Tom Land for the rest of the conversation. And if you want more on how buyers use your site, read Nobody fills out your form. They check if you're legit.

Questions people ask

Should a small business try to look bigger than it is? Tom's answer was no. If clients find out you're smaller than you claimed, it damages trust and that's what they repeat to others. Leaning into being small and focused can attract the clients who want that.

How long should a cold email be? Tom suggested about two sentences: who you are and why you're reaching out. Long pitches get deleted.

Does giving away free advice cost you clients? Tom doesn't think so. The people who want to do it themselves weren't going to hire you anyway. Everyone else sees how much work is involved and is more likely to reach out.