Who is a customer? Are customers still king? How does your business treat customers? Would you want to be treated the way you treat your customers? If you were to switch roles with them? Do you realise there are different personality types and that your customers fall under these different personality types?
Often here we talk about selling to people and all that, but what we have not talked about is that people vary. People are different. You are different from me. The way I make my buying decision is different from the way you make your own buying decision.
Some people want and love small talks while others don’t want small talks at all; they just want to get on with it. And, when you use small talks, it irritates them. Me, I will think you’re cheating me or you want to ‘bobo’ me.
Over the years through research, I have found out that there are four kinds of people. It’s called 4 types of people model. Carl Jung came up with it and now lots of companies teach it to their team especially, their sales team.
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Different Personality Types
It basically says that there four different personality types:
- The Analytical
- The Controller
- The Amiable
- The Enthusiast
The analytical and the controller are logical people. While the amiable and the enthusiast people are more emotionally driven people. We can say they are ruled more by their heart than their head.
The analytical people and amiable people are more introverted, more thoughtful, and quiet people. They are perhaps better at listening as well. And, the controller and the enthusiast are the more outgoing, talkative, decisive type of people.
Now, let’s get it straight. There are no rights or wrong people here. And you can’t also say things like, this personality type is better than that personality type. No. It just means that people are different and that’s fine. They just need to be treated differently when you want to sell to them, that’s all.
In fact, they need to be treated differently for everything; managing them, living with them, or whatever you do with them. But as business people, my focus today is customer management and how to drive sales with the different personality types. Therefore, we will focus on that.
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So, how do you sell your services or products to each of these different personality types. Let’s look at each one after the other:
The Analytical
Here are their basic characteristics of the analytical people:
- They are quiet
- Logical people
- Interested in accuracy and
- Details oriented
So, how do you sell to the analytical people?
You are going to tell them everything about the product or service you’re selling, why they should buy the product and service. You may have to give them something in writing that they can take away and look at later. Also, the conversation needs to be calm and ‘kinda diagnostics’ and you need to ask them lots of questions to ensure you’re meeting their need.
Furthermore, you have to present them with the pros and cons of what you’re offering. And, you may also need to give them options to choose from. They want to have lots of details and the meeting will probably be in their office with lots of paper work.
The Controller
Here are their basic characteristics of the controller people:
- They are loud
- Fast
- Efficient and
- Dynamic
How do you sell to the controller people?
They want a much quicker meeting; a maximum of 10 minutes. They don’t want you wasting their time. If you want to get an appointment with them, you just say to them- “all I need is 10 minutes of your time. I won’t spend more than 10 minutes. If I exceed that, throw me out”.
They love control, so they will love to hear you say that. You know what, they may even be looking forward to throwing you out of their office if you waste their time. The thing about them is that, if you can get them interested in what you’re offering, they will give more of their time. So, if you’re talking ‘sense’ and you say, “can I stop now? It’s already 10 minutes”. Their reply will likely be; “go on, I want to know more about it”.
So, the controller wants a short meeting in their office. They don’t want to travel to you or meet somewhere else. No, they prefer their office. With the controller, you cut to the chase. You’re better off giving them bullet points. What will it do for them? Say things like – these are three reasons why you need this product and the three benefits are: so, so, and so.
If there’re detailed work to be done, you can ask them if they will want to delegate that part to a member of their team.
I’m sure you are wondering; how will I know what personality type someone is?
For instance, if you’re cold selling someone and you ring them up and they go- “My name is Florence Chikezie, Editor-in-Chief of entrepreneurs.ng, How can I help you?” You know it’s an analytical person. But, if you ring someone up and the person goes: “Yes, what do you want?” You know it’s a controller
Even when you meet them physically in their offices, the analytical person will have many files in their office neatly filed and the controller will probably have little to nothing in their office. Clean desk space and almost empty. You probably will not find pictures of their family there too.
When you walk into a controller’s office, you know you’re there for business. In your head, you know you don’t want to waste time admiring the view or something of the sort. Just get on with why you’re there.
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The Enthusiast
Here are their basic characteristics of the enthusiast people:
- They are energetic
- Creative
- Fun
- Excited
- And love stories and examples
How do you sell to the enthusiast person?
You have to show them that what you’re selling is fun and you have to be fun as well. Leave your boring self at home. Also, you have to show them that it’s novel and that’s different from what they can find elsewhere. Remember, they like examples and stories.
For instance, if you’re selling a course or an e-book to them and you tell them that someone improved their process and saved N1M in a month from what they learned from the course, they’re going to say, oh, that’s brilliant. I want that too!
But the controller may not be interested as they don’t really care about other people while the analytical person is going to be like; how do I know you’re telling the truth? What’s the proof? What about other people who bought the course? Maybe other people didn’t see any improvement.
The enthusiast just thinks, that sounds great! We should do it!
So, they want examples, stories and they want the meeting to be fun. They are not strict on where you meet them. You can have your meeting over a coffee or launch.
Let’s get this clear. Remember you are the entrepreneur; the salesperson who wants the sale. So, you have to adapt your own personality to suit your prospective customer’s personality. For instance, you might be a controller or an analytical person and you find the personality of the enthusiast not serious or efficient. It’s not your worry. You have to adapt if you want to close that sale.
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The Amiable
Here are their basic characteristics of the amiable people:
- They are friendly
- Thoughtful
- Calm
- Value relationship
They’re people’s people, as the enthusiast, but they’re much more laid-back. The amiable want a longer, calmer type of meeting. For them, it’s all about the relationship. So, you have to be their friend. You got to remember the name of their pet; dog, cat, pigeon, etc.
You have to show you care. If they mentioned their dog was sick, the next time you meet, you have to ask, “is the dog getting better? You have to remember their birthday and send them a birthday card, etc. In essence, you’ve really got to get to know the amiable if you want to have any chance of selling to them.
Depending on how you look at it, it’s not necessarily a bad thing because it’s really nice working with the Amiable. They take life easy. If you go to sell to them, you know, you’re going to have a cup of tea and chat.
Again, of course, if you’re a controller yourself, you may be irritated and think they’re difficult to deal with and you may think; “why can’t they just make up their mind?” “Do I have to talk to them about their family?” “Why do I have to care about their pet?” Well, as I said, it’s not about you. You’re the one who wants the sale, therefore, you have to adapt to their personality.
When you think about it deeply, maybe the amiable actually are a good judge of character, whereas the controller, with his bullet points, may not be making such a thought-through decision in their buying decision.
The point is, do not get upset or knock any of the different personality types off.
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How do you sell to the amiable?
You sit on the sofa with them, and have a nice cup of coffee, and chat with them about their family. Don’t be in a hurry to get on to business with them at all. It may surprise you that you might not talk business at all for the whole of the first meeting.
You have to adapt to the different personality types during the meeting, and afterwards as well.
How do you follow up with each of these personality types after a meeting
- For the controller, just send them some bullet points.
- Analytical, send them loads of information.
- Enthusiast, just send them, I don’t know…links to whatever it is that excites them; cars, holiday, etc.
- And the amiable, you know, you got to send them birthday cards and things like that.
Your takeaway: adapt to the other person; your customer. It’s really important.
Final thoughts
People may think it’s dishonest to vary your selling style to the person you’re dealing with. But, I think there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s actually nice. The most important thing is, are you delivering on your promise to them? Is the product going to do what you say it will do? Will the course deliver on what you say it will? Will they get the value they paid you for?
Deliver on your promise and do it in the language that your customer understands. If they want it ‘sharp sharp’, you give it to them ‘sharp sharp’. Do they want bullet points, you give them bullet points. If they want details, you give them details. And if they want you to take a bit of time with them, you give them that too.
Your message should be the same everytime and it should be true.
I think it’s good manners to adapt your selling style to the different personality types, provided your message is still true.
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