No matter what type of business you own, nothing happens until someone buys what you have to sell! Without sales, your business is heading for extinction. Promoting your target market to buy from you is such a complicated multi-faceted undertaking that there are thousands of books, courses, seminars, and individuals dedicated to the concept of marketing and sales. This article series will focus on one small, but highly important aspect of sales – face to face selling, and to how to effectively connect with your prospective buyer.
Sales – The highest paying profession
Face to face selling is the highest paying profession in the world. “Why?” you might ask. Because those high earners possess an incredible array of skills, knowledge, dedication to continuous improvement, and discipline. Each of these success markers serves as a de-selection taskmaster weeding out the majority of sales people. Just like sports, only the best make it! But when they do, they enjoy a great payday!
One skill among the myriad of skills and knowledge required to scale to the apex of this profession is the ability to read people. How good are you and your sales people at reading people? Are you able to quickly recognize the personality type sitting across from you to whom you are attempting to effectively communicate the incredible value that you have for solving his/her problem? And, are you able to adjust your communication style to strongly connect with that person? If not, you are severely handicapped compared to those who have mastered this skill.
DISC personality profile
A tool that I have effectively used in my career, and that I teach my clients is called DISC. This personality profiling tool is not only valuable for sales; it is valuable for identifying the best roles for employees and for team building among your staff. The DISC personality profile is a system designed by American Psychologist Dr. William Moulton Marsden. It basically places people into one of 4 different personality types: D – Dominant, I – Influential, S – Steady and C – Compliant.
DISC uses a two criteria matrix to classify individual personality characteristics for the purpose of gaining understanding regarding why we relate and behave the way that we do and how to connect with an individual’s personality type. These two criteria are: Outgoing or Reserved and Task or People oriented.
Draw the DISC
Draw a cross on a sheet of paper. At the top of the vertical axis write “Outgoing” and at the bottom write “Reserved”. To the left of the horizontal axis write “Task oriented” and to the right write “People oriented”. Starting in the upper left quadrant and moving clockwise write one of the four DISC letters in each quadrant starting with “D” and finishing with “C” in the lower left quadrant. You have completed this exercise correctly if “D” is Task oriented and Outgoing, “I” is People oriented and Outgoing, “S” is People oriented and Reserved, and “C” is Task oriented and Reserved.
Simple model – complex people
By now you might be asking: “How effective is this simplistic approach to modeling such complex creatures as human beings?” No question, this tool is limited in its applicability. There are other, more sophisticated tools, such as Profiles XT, that more thoroughly analyze our strengths, weaknesses, and skill sets for proper role placement. However, the DISC’s simplicity is one of its characteristics that make DISC so useful. Once you learn this tool, you will be able to quickly correctly identify, at least most of the time, what dominates a person’s personality. This will better equip you to relate to that person on their terms and to present information to them in a way that they will accept and quickly assimilate. Isn’t this an important skill to master when in a selling situation?
In reality people are not just one personality, rather a combination of the four, in various ratios. Everyone is dominant in one. However another trait will likely be a close second. Taking the DISC test can show you the relative strengths you have in each of the four areas. The highest scoring will be your dominant trait. The higher the strength shown for one of the DISC personality traits, the more applicable will be the descriptions provided in this series of articles.
After you take the DISC test and become familiar with the DISC traits in the following series of articles, you will start to understand how other people think of you when they associate with you and begin to understand how to better relate to the various DISC personality types.
If you could increase your company’s sales by 10% through acquiring this skill, would it be worth it? Join me next week as we examine the characteristics of the four personality types. Then in subsequent articles in this series we will discuss how to relate to the various personality types in sales situations.
Rob Garibay is a local business owner and business coach with 30+ years of business experience. Forward your business questions to: 405 573-6537 or robgaribay@actioncoach.com