Uncategorized 23 Jan 2009 05:57 pm
Personal Styles Matter in Sales
I studied a sales program that taught us how to identify people’s styles and sell to what they needed to hear because of their personal style.
The course was called Meyers and Briggs and it featured four “styles” of people: Thinker, Intuitor, Sensor and Feeler.
I have discovered over the years that if you figure a person’s style and can appeal to the kids of thinking that style contains, you often move a sales opportunity along nicely.
I recently have relearned this technique with a program run by Joe Marr, a former vp of sales and marketing for a $100 million filter company, now a savvy sales training consultant.
Joe covers personal styles with DISC.
D is dominant — decisive, competitive, results-oriented. Move fast. Take risk. In control.
I is an inter-relater — sociable, talkative, lively. Good team player, eager to help.
S is a steady-relater — stability and security, needs help with change.
C is compliant — logical, analytical, precise.
Your job is to figure someone’s style, adjust your own to match it so the person will feel comfortable with you. This will tend to make the discussion more open and honest.
You can do that simply like this:
* Assess the kinds of question someone asks. Determine what a respondent means by an answer in discussion.
* Get a sense of where the person is in a decision process.
* Check out the person’s office to see how it is decorated. Family photos. Photos of self. Graduation of other personal recognitions.
* Discuss what the person likes to do.
If you get vague or weak replies, best move on because this is likely someone who just drives hard all the time … or someone who wants to get back to work and thinks your discussion is wasting time.
We will next discuss doing business with companies that find you on the Internet – and with whom you have no face-to-face contact.
Larry Eiler
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