Be Aware of Your Sales Personality to Adapt Your Selling Approach

In the world of sales there is no “right” personality that will work for everybody. After all, many great sales people have an extrovert personality while many have an introvert personality. Likewise, many great sales people are highly technical in their approach to selling while other salespeople achieve great success from a non-technical approach to the way they sell.

One thing is for sure, however. The best sales people are consciously aware of their natural sales personality. On the one hand, they identify aspects of their sales personality that work in certain situations and actively seek to do more of the same under similar conditions. On the other hand, they identify aspects of their sales personality that is limiting their sales performance and actively seek to change their selling approach in these areas.

The best sales people are also consciously aware of various buying personalities. They prepare for every aspect of the sales process by identifying each prospect’s natural preferences and habits. They then adapt their selling approach to suit each prospect’s personality and increase their chances of closing the sale.

Although it is important for every sales person to maintain an air of authenticity, a greater awareness of your own (and your prospects’) preferences and habits is crucial to a clearer understanding of “what works” and “what doesn’t work” in certain situations. It will enable you to focus on (and repeat) “what works” and change (or adapt) “what doesn’t work” in certain situations. In turn, a greater awareness of your own sales personality and your prospects’ buying personalities will allow you to adapt your selling approach to suit different situations, enabling you to significantly enhance your sales performance.

Here we take a look at some of the most common sales personality traits to help you identify your own preferences and habits, providing advice on how to turn a greater self-awareness into a better sales performance.

Proactive or Reflective?

A proactive sales person is typically great at making calls, booking meetings and following up on any agreed actions with buyers. They are known for making things happen without being pushed into action by their peers. They are highly driven to implement their actions and tend to be highly energetic.

Yet proactive sales people can suffer from a lack of planning and are often accused of taking action before giving things a lot of thought. This can lead to proactive salespeople failing to uncover their prospect’s greatest needs and desires and frustrating prospects that have a preference for planning and a high level of detail.

In contrast, a reflective sales person is normally great at planning and thinking things through. They take time to carefully consider the right selling approach and any issues that may arise during the sales process. They are also good at gaining a great deal of information through their conversations with prospecting, making it easier to close the sale later along the line.

However, reflective sales people are often accused of failing to follow up on discussions with prospects. They can spend too much time discussing and over-analysing the “right” selling approach when they should really be taking action to ensure that they meet their sales targets. In turn, reflective sales people can irritate action-oriented buyers and can be susceptible to missing out on sales opportunities by failing to meet deadlines.

A greater awareness of whether your sales personality leans towards a proactive or reflective approach will enable you to make outstanding changes to your selling approach.

If you see yourself as more of a proactive sales person you should consciously make an effort to pay greater attention to those parts of the sales process which you tend to rush in certain situations, such as when planning for a sales meeting or writing a sales proposal. When selling to a reflective prospect, this is particularly important as they will most likely feel uncomfortable and become frustrated if you try to rush them through the sales process.

Likewise, if you see yourself as more of a reflective sales person you should make a conscious effort to be a little more proactive in certain situations. To avoid frustrating action-oriented buyers and missing time bound deadlines, you should be more willing to make decisions without thorough preparation beforehand.

Visionary or Analytical?

A visionary sales person likes to look at the “bigger picture”. Similarly to proactive sales people, visionaries prefer to summarise rather than pay a high level of attention to detail. They tend to be good at putting things into perspective and interconnecting aspects of a sale to provide the prospect with a compelling overview of their solutions or proposals.

But looking at the “bigger picture” can also prove to be the downfall of many visionary sales people. When dealing with prospects that prefer a high level of detail, visionary sales people tend to be seen as lacking attention as they can neglect to mention crucial details in their sales proposals and conversations with buyers.

In comparison, analytical sales people prefer to pay a high level of attention to detail. They feel more comfortable when they know all the facts and other information that might be required during the sales process. This high attention to detail can provide for a more comprehensive and complete approach to selling and is likely to be highly effective when dealing with like-minded prospects.

However, analytical sales people can fall into the trap of paying too much attention to details that are unimportant and may focus on the wrong information. When dealing with visionary buyers that prefer scope to depth, this high attention to detail can irritate “bigger picture” prospects who have little time to comb over the finer details.

If you see yourself as a “bigger picture” sales person you must keep in mind that analytically-minded prospects need more information if you are going to compel them to buy. When selling to analytical prospects you should think about which aspects of your sales process would benefit from a greater deal of information. Sales proposals and sales presentations often benefit from a higher attention to detail when dealing with analytical prospects. During sales presentations, you should use handouts to provide prospects with additional information. This will allow you to present the “bigger picture” to your audience while, at the same time, facilitating the comforts of analytical prospects with calculations and finer details in the handout.

If you see yourself as an analytical sales person you should make an effort to focus more attention on the most important details during the sales process. When selling to prospects that prefer the “bigger picture” you should try to summarise messages in your sales proposals and sales presentations. Think about including diagrams that help you articulate complex ideas on just the one page or slide to maintain the attention of visionary prospects.

Driven By Desires or Fears?

Most sales people can be distinguished between those that are motivated towards their desires and those that are motivated away from their fears. On the one hand, those motivated towards their desires tend to position their actions in terms of compelling objectives that can be achieved. On the other hand, those motivated away from their fears tend to position their actions in terms of problems that can be avoided.

Sales people who are motivated towards their desires usually set themselves goals around their ambitions and seek desirable outcomes rather than avoiding problems. This may be great when dealing with like-minded prospects who are also driven by their desires. However, these salespeople often fail to see the potential dangers that ought to be avoided. By chasing their dreams they neglect these dangers and encounter problems which they have not prepared for later on in the sales process.

In contrast, sales people who are motivated away from their fears are determined to avoid problems and the negative implications that may result. In doing so, they tend to be better at foreseeing problems that may arise during the sales process and are relatively successful at avoiding them. However, an overriding focus on fear means they often lack clear and compelling goals in terms of each sale and their career. Furthermore, they tend to be perceived as too negative by buyers who are motivated towards their desires.

If you are motivated towards your desires, you need to take a step back and take greater care to think about the potential problems that must be avoided to successfully close each sale. This is particularly the case when dealing with buyers who are driven by their fears. These buyers will feel uncomfortable if you neglect to raise concerns about potential pitfalls, potentially hindering your success in such an environment.

On the other hand, if you are motivated away from your fears, you should take a step back and start thinking instead about the compelling objectives that motivate you and your prospects. When dealing with prospects who are driven by their ambitions and desires, you need to ensure that milestones and objectives are predominantly expressed in terms of strategic desires to avoid being perceived as too negative.

Summary

The best sales people are consciously aware of their own sales personality. They are conscious of their natural preferences and habits that affect the way they sell and, with this clear understanding, they actively repeat the positive aspects of their personality that work in certain situations while actively seeking to change the negative preferences and habits which do not work under certain circumstances.

The best sales people are also highly adaptable. Having established a clear understanding of their own sales personality, they seek to identify their prospect’s preferences and habits from the moment of their first conversations. They then adapt their selling style to suit the personalities of their prospects to increase their chances of making successful sales.

Although the above observations are somewhat generalised and, in reality, there is a vast range of sales personalities, a greater awareness of these selling and buying preferences and habits will make it easier for you to adapt your selling approach on a deal-by-deal basis to suit certain circumstances and will dramatically enhance your sales performance.

Although the above observations of differing sales personalities are generalisations, an awareness of these preferences and habits in yourself and in your prospects will enable you to appropriately shift your selling approach on a deal-by-deal basis and will dramatically enhance your sales performance.

Written by: Steve Eungblut, Managing Director of Sterling Chase