Understanding Personality Types - Does it matter?

How would an understanding of different personality types help you close more sales? -Community Mailbox

Well you're going to have to deal with whatever you have in front of you now aren't you. Personally I'm not sure I do anything, but try to get to the bottom of the reasons we're there. Did I initiate the meeting, then I'm still going to have to determine through exploration what they do and is anything I do relevant. If anything is relevant, then discuss different means of utilizing my product or service in his life, and then determine what is best and come to agreement.

Aloha.... :cool: -rattus58

It's not a prerequisite. However the ability to recognize personality types would be an asset in sales. The reason has to do with recognizable patterns--much like in so many other areas of life from gardening to weather forecasting.

Understanding human behavour and personalities is a different topic and even among psychologists, there are conflicting viewpoints. -Ace Coldiron

I am in complete agreement with Ace. When I am able to get enough information I can usually discover the how and why they choose to own. I am able to find out how they feel about change. -rich34232

Ok.... Question here.... Ace said that when he is able to recognize personality types, he can figure out "recognizable" patterns. You, on the other hand, say that with enough information you can usually discover how and why they choose to own.

I'm thinking you two are talking about two entirely different things. Recognizing a pattern and proceeding accodingly is IN MY OPINION much different than a "seek and destroy" sn; approach you are saying you employ...

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Tom, what percentage of people that pass through your life in various capacities would you classify as predictable? -Ace Coldiron

Dang... I've never thought of it. I'd say off hand, probably not many, but I've not given this much analysis.

Once I start working with someone, things become clearer as to who I'm dealing and how I'm going to proceed, but this is sort intuitive isn't it? Smile, Be Sincere, Take the First Step.... my rules of engagement towards EIRA.... Explore, Identify, Recommend, and Agreement....

Geeze Ace... I don't think of this stuff... wife spins me around in the morning and... whatever direction it stops... well off I go.... lagh2;

I think experience sorta makes this all work doesn't it? I mean if you wind up talking to someone who is gruff, doesn't smile, looks like he belongs on rushmore, and offers as much information as a giant clam, what do you do.... I guess you can say... "hey look... should I be calling 911 here?" sn;

Ace... the difference between you an me is that you are an both an receptor and an incubator of the sales processes. I'll never be able to do that, I'm frankly too simple an individual, not that that is a bad thing, I'm just not going to be reciting the major league players with a .300 ERA any time soon... actually I'm probably not goin to be reciting ANYTHING soon... But I do LOVE people and finding out what they do.

Much Aloha... Tom :cool: -rattus58

Seek and destroy I did not say that or imply that.
Recognize a persons patterm. Discover their emotion that guides how they feel and why the feel that way is fairly close to one another.It is dealing with their personality that is guided by their emotions.Understanding how they feel and why they feel motivated to own .

Recognizing the pattern and discovering the emotion is gained by more information whether it is from observation,listening , and questions.There are many more ways to discover the personality of any person.

I agree I used different terminology -rich34232

Seek and destroy..... well let me reiterate the concept then... sn;

You said... "I am in complete agreement with Ace. When I am able to get enough information I can usually discover the how and why they choose to own. I am able to find out how they feel about change."

You seek out information from people in order that you can discover how and why they choose to own..... The SEEK! Because you gather information relevant to their choice of ownership, you are overcoming through questioning, and LISTENING any objection, stall, or inhibition to ownership... you have DESTROYED the negative thought patterns that he might have been harboring.

I thought it was pretty succinct myself.... :) It was not meant to be a indictment on your approach, rather, in fact, it is an endorsement of your process!

Aloha... :cool: -rattus58

Tom

I have been fortunate working with clients. I hav fantastic clients that allow me to experiement with ideas and concepts. I listen for them to speak on any item that they believe is important to them.Normally it is not about the product or service and they open up and show me thier personality. I adapt my proposal ,presentation to their bullet points(motivation emotion).

This by passes quite a few stalls,objections due to them informing me to what is important to them. I love what I do and really enjoy helping others get what they want, need and desire.

This helps with my relationship building. Quite often my clients tell me more than they should and they ask me not to let their partner,spouse or any other person know what they have just told me. -rich34232

But isn't the whole game about predictability? Or probability as some would call it? Would you consciously use a methodology over and over without the element of prediction present? In other words I might say I use a particular format because my experience and (to some extent) instincts have shown me that positive results are predictable.

How does that apply to the specific topic here? When you are able to RECOGNIZE personality types, it increases the predictability factor.

Take predictability out of the equation and all sales education and training and methodology would be worthless.

I'll look at someone's suggestion here, or from a sales author, etc, and think does that sound like "real world to me." Then--is it strategically sound based on my expertise on strategy? BUT--the other filter--just as important is "Could I predict positive results from that method or action?"

One of the differences between a novice in selling and a really good salesperson is that the novice hasn't gained the experience to predict what will happen next.

You might describe yourself as a simple person, but you're no novice. Just for fun, rethink it from those aspects.

One myth that occasionally rears its head is that Sales suffices as an education in Psychology. It does not. However Sales does give us the opportunity to interact with many personality types through which we can form impressions that will help in our ability to predict the outcome of engaging those types. -Ace Coldiron

I've heard of this before.... doing the same thing repeatedly but expecting a different result, defines insanity. So conversely, yes, I expect some sort of predictabiity/probability with each sequence I engage in with clients.

So Ok... the more I'm thinking of this... I find pillows about my head and shoulders every morning.. predictably from my wife and hear her muttering "No officer, I found him just like this... I think he has Apnea" over and over... :) I'm trying to relive my last two weeks of presentations to determine how different I may have approached different employees and I'm shocked to report, I don't think I'm doing any "selling"!! Ok... maybe not entirely accurate, I introduced urgency with my personal insurance policies for life insurance.. but what I did with this group is essentially take a powerpoint and focus them on that which itself was doing some "selling".

I ask the question, "what is your most important asset". I expect, my home, my family, sometimes "my health". I use an illustration to question whether one would buy mechanical breakdown insurance. I expect "yes". So... I'm in agreement with you I do go through this with a certain level of probability. I do use a "methodology" with my powerpoints to elicit a predictable response, so again I'm in agreement... so i guess "I got it!" thmbp2;

Aloha... Tom :cool: -rattus58

As a follow up to the original question - do you feel an understanding of personality types would help you relate better to others? -Community Mailbox

Yes--along with recognition of personality types. I would change the word "would" to "could" though when you consider today's headline---a psychologist the central figure. -Ace Coldiron

Of course it doesn't matter because no one sells to "personality types". Psychology 101 will explain "personality". I would suggest that personality goes to the Id.
What we sales people sell to is Observable Behaviour Types. For example, when you go to a party at the beginning of the evening you may behave one way. As the chemical imbalance sets in you may behave another way. Has little, if anything, to do with your personality.
So a customer/client may behave in a particular way according to the way we interact with her. She may behave in a different way with another sales people. Nothing to do with her "personality". -Market People

First of all, personality does not "go to the Id." It develops along lines of the Ego and Superego. The persona is mostly connected to the Ego, not the Id. It is formed largely from heredity and environment. THAT is Psychology 101.

Second, if you put yourself in a situation where booze causes you to behave in a particular way, that has MUCH to do with "personality" and individual behavour pattern.

The reason I'm responding to your post is that you have taken a topic of sales where "personality type" has meaning and context in this discussion, and are sharing some information about how you think "personality type" is defined in "psychology." -Ace Coldiron

Can you divorce id from the ego and the superego? Id is the inherited instinctive impulses of the individual, forming part of the unconscious and, in Freudian theory, interacting with the ego and superego.
“Personality type” may have meaning and context in this discussion, but selling does not operate in a vacuum. When such expressions are taken into the wider world by sales people it serves little purpose other than to give the impression we are “flim-flam” people. The danger of the use of “personality types” is that sales people may try and determine the customer’s “type” and put them in boxes, as evidenced in previous postings on this topic. Why not use the term “Observable Behaviour and Communication Styles” because that is in what the sales person is engaged?
When coaching and training sales people I find it easier to elicit a more objective view (and the sales person finds it easier to relate their experience) when I ask “What style of behaviour did the client exhibit?” rather than “What personality type were they?”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for developing information on customer styles, many of which include Jungian theory. But why use the term “personality type” when it is not that? Why not get it right in the first place, that is what quality control is all about? -Market People

I agree with your thinking on that.

Psychology is a familiar word and--yes--an understanding of some chunks of knowledge can help us. But that can't be a prerequisite for selling or very few people could sell. Jung was once asked if a person could truly understand himself without an understanding of Archetypes. His answer was no. I believe he was right.

But survival and understanding are two different things. The same holds true in sales to some extent. -Ace Coldiron

When I'm selling, I want to be confident and I want to use professional sales skills. I don't want the customer to sense that I'm attempting to manipulate him or her. They bolt when they feel like they're being played. So I think making adjustments to a customer's personality is likely to bite you. I think making any significant adjustments due to the buyer's personality undermines my ability to exhibit my sales confidence. Let the buyer make his own purchasing decision with whatever tools and personality he has. -ToddR

I would say that understanding the personality type is an often overlooked aspect of the process. You certainly can sell without taking it into account, but if you do make an effort to recognise the personality type of your customer it can give you an insight into their likely priorities and objections.
Wilson Learning have done a lot of work on this, classifying people as either Analyticals, Drivers, Expressives or Amiables (I'm an "Expressive" by the way!)
--
Mark
RealLifeSelling -markg

I look at sales as a beautiful dance. The beginning of the sales process I am just learning the music and the steps and the client is leading. Or, I should say, I am allowing him to lead until I learn the dance steps or what type of personality he is. It is such a smooth process and I have learned his movements so well the first thing you know I am leading and he is following. It is like moving across the dance floor in a beautiful waltz!
At least that is my opinion! -MPrince

I've been to enough seminars/workshops about DISC and other personality measurement techniques that I am convinced that being able to recognize a prospect's personality type ("He's a high C"), its implications, and then being able to adjust accordingly.

The problem for me is that I have not found an easy way to be able to recognize someone's personality type within those initial few seconds. -DaveB

Dave...for me it is not that important to know my prospect's personality right away. As a matter of fact I need to listen, ask questions and listen some more. This way I feel much more comfortable with the sales process because I have listened and learned. Not just guessed. At least that is my opinion. -MPrince

I agree with your thoughts. I'll add that, in my view, the DISC model is not something that is required learning for success in sales. Selling is not a branch of psychology. I have a strong knowledge of Jungian Psychology complete with its constructs, i.e., archetypes. That knowledge helps me in life no more and no less than if I made my living in another field.

What I draw from Martha's post is that she enters with a clear and inquisitive mind. -Gary A Boye

While you make an excellent point as usual, the answer is a matter of perspective.

We are all in the business of predicting behavior. In fact no one would be in a relationship of any kind, if there was not something inherently predictable about those with whom we have a relationship with.

Regardless of the quality of the relationship, to relate to another is to share either an inherent quality that generates predictability or to share an activity that generates predictability.
A seasoned sales sales rep is in the business of predicting behavior which is exactly why he or she can make a living at it while others leave the profession.

Ironically, however it is not predictive in the normal sense of the word. This type or aspect of predictability occurs as the present predicting the past.

That is, the prospect in the present is the linguistic catalyst that elicits the appropriate technique from the past that will best predict their future behavior. All of which has been master intuitively by the sales rep.

That is the present is the cause of a prior effect brought into the future as predictive behavior as potential. -John Voris

You can waste a lot of time trying to be a psychoanalyst. You'll probably get it wrong anyway. It's much more important to learn professional sales techniques that apply in all situations. -TonyB

I appreciate your perspective however, interestingly enough, nothing I said above is psychoanalytic by definition but still reveals the cause as to why certain sales techniques work and others don't. We function based on symbolic interpretation first then pathologies may enter.

Knowing the symbols that define the human condition affords us all with the groundwork from which your own successes and failures can be understood at the deepest possible level without going into formal psychology.

Most successful sales people can only surmise why they are successful. The multitudes of books on selling techniques demonstrate the lack of consistency on the subject. That is because they are not including their own symbolic motivations hidden beneath memorized commercial sales models.

Knowing sales techniques that others use all too often demand a temperament and personality far too alien for me to implement. That is why sales techniques naturally become personalized over time ultimately forging the seasoned sales professional in the end.

Studies show that techniques void of humanity are vacuous gestures without meaning.

Thanks for your input. -John Voris

As an old Roman once said "Quanti est supere" (or words to that effect). How desirable is knowledge. We can never learn too much.

However when it comes to sales, I've seen far too many sales people, even old hands, losing business because they fail with the basics. For example, talking too much without asking questions in order to understand a prospects needs; or panicking at the first objection, without realizing it's a buying sign.

When you are an expert who not only knows but practices the basics, then move on to more complex techniques. By that point you will be a sales millionaire anyway. -TonyB

I agree with you TonyB...I have found it is much easier "for me" to Ask Questions, Listen and ask more questions. I do this as Gary said, with and open mind and no preconceived ideas. I can trust my being able to determine who this particular prospect is and what it will take. I have asked, listened and formed an opinion on what he has told me. Often I have watched a prospect talk himself into the sale and all I had to do was ask and listen. It is a beautiful thing!

I envy you guys that have the ability to analyze a prospect and know how to sell to them. For me, I am way too simple for that. -MPrince

It seems to me that adapting for others is an entirely innate and automatic process, providing we start with the right thinking. It seems unlikely that the others (people we are selling to) have any motivation to adapt for a sales person.

I suppose some do. Some people are just so accommodating.

My experience:

When I am not open to the process of recognising and adapting for differences, I only get on with people who think and communicate the same way I do. This severely restricts the number of people who find my style appealing and convincing. -Clive Miller

Of course you have to adapt to others. If my prospect is from the Mountains I pull out my Mountain Dialect. If my prospect is laid back so am I. If my prospect likes to tell jokes I laugh like crazy. However you have to be able to adapt sincerely. You must be believable and that comes from your sincere belief in yourself, your product and your desire to do what is best for your prospect/client. At least that is my opinion. -MPrince