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Steve Jobs is a whirlwind force of personality. When he left Apple, their sales dropped. When he returned, out came the iPod. When it comes to branding, and subsequently, creating die-hard fans: only Harley-Davidson and NASCAR rival Apple’s ability.

Apple’s are difficult to upgrade, over-priced, under powered, and many of their internals are sealed. If the battery dies out on an iPhone, the one recourse is to buy another iPhone and start all over. That isn’t to say Apple’s products are awful. They’re easy to use, intuitive (mostly), stable, and well put together. And everyone loves them!

The marketing of Apple is genius, pure genius. 20 plus years ago, only geeks owned Apples.(For reference: Nerds owned IBMs, dweebs owned Tandy’s.) Now, Apple is the coolest thing on the market. With a ravenous, cult-like following, and their products resembling art more than anything else.

Bottom line: When developing a brand, elitism works.

What can the professional salesman take from Apple? Plenty!

1) Fake exclusivity! Millions of people have purchased Apple products, but they all feel like the only one who’s done it. People love to belong to groups. From fraternities (Sygma Psi Omega for this author) to unions, people love a sense of belonging. Especially if it’s limited in membership, only auto workers can join the UAW for example. Exclusivity by itself is neither good nor bad. It is simply a select group of people with a common interest. They belong to a group, and the group takes care of them. Isn’t that how clients should feel as well? If they buy from a certain salesman or company, they should feel a sense of exclusivity.

2) Form Follows Function, but that doesn’t mean it should look ugly. iPod, iPhone, iPad, MacBooks: all of them work well, and all of them look amazing! Absolutely amazing. And their design enhances their function. It’s a symbiotic relationship between the two; function wasn’t sacrificed in the pursuit of cool, rather the two work together and enhance each other. Are clients continually impressed with the form and function of what they receive? Do the offerings create a gut reaction, play into that “I need this” mentality?

3) Intuition! Give an iPod or iPhone to anyone across the world, and after a few minutes they’ll be able to use it. The learning curve on most Apple products is so small because it’s based on natural motions and inclinations. Sliding a finger across a screen makes the screen move. Turning a wheel, selects a song or controls volume. Everything makes sense, very few things are confusing. The Apple interface is the epitome of a streamlined process. Can the same be said for a sales process or product line?

4) Pleasant Surprises. Turn an iPad sideways, and the entire screen switches. The same is true with iPhones. There are pleasant surprises strewn throughout Apple products. Their laptops come with pro-am movie and audio editing software. It’s the little touches that make Apple products so great.

5) Learn to get out. For years Apple tried to compete head to head with IBM and Microsoft in the personal and business computer game. And they just couldn’t do it. Microsoft had licensed itself out, and IBM had saturated the business market. Apple’s tendency to keep everything Apple, kept them from reaching the production numbers neccessary to compete (This still is an issue for Apple to this day). So Apple limped along through the early 90s, until the personal electronics market started; specifically MP3 players. Steve Jobs saw an opportunity and took it. Sometimes it’s best to use the side door to achieve success.

There it is, five key principles to take from Apple and apply elsewhere. Learn from their success, tailor it, and implement. But remember one caveat. Apple has been described as a broken watch, meaning they’re right twice a day. While humanity has a naturally short memory, and Apple is happy to encourage the false assumption that they’ve always been successful: This might just be the time that their broken watch is right.

Extra! Extra! A bonus entry: Awesome Marketing! From the iMac onwards, Apple has had one of the sweetest brand-wide marketing campaigns. From the “I’m a PC, and I’m a Mac” to the trippy iPod Nano commercials to the “There’s an app for that” with a set of commercials and advertisements that cool it doesn’t matter what is being sold! Decent products with a great marketing campaign become good products. Great products with great marketing become legendary.