What’s the oldest profession in the world? I know what you’re thinking – but it actually isn’t. It’s selling! And if you want to be really pedantic, it’s “marketing” and then “selling”.
And when you stop to reflect, “selling” is something we do day in and day out.
Don’t think so? Well, think about every time you need to persuade someone to do something – be it agreeing to what you want for dinner, which TV program you want to watch together, getting the kids to eat healthy food… the list goes on.
So why is “selling” such a loaded word? And why does it often send shivers down your spine when you need to do it in a professional context? After all, it’s normal behaviour you need to undertake whenever you want something!
Last week I wrote about how great salespeople don’t sell. They encourage their prospects to “buy”. And there is a crucial difference.
To recap – really effective sales people take the time to understand you, where you’re coming from, what you’re looking for and then present a solution in a way that resonates with you – allowing you to see the value so you happily part with your money with no regrets.
In short they treat you in the way you want to be treated. Not how they as salespeople feel most comfortable.
You can read the full article here.
This week I’m continuing on the series detailing how you can more effectively engage with your prospect by understanding and relating to their personality style.
Last week we covered the Dominance type.
Today we’ll move into the Influencer – A popular sanguine personality.
You can easily recognise an Influencer as they’re chatty, often touchy/feely and the life of the party. They like to talk and communicate openly. They have good senses of humour, are cheerful, enthusiastic and demonstrative. You’ll notice they laugh a lot! They’re sincere at heart and like a sense of fun.
And most importantly, facts and figures bore them! They’re far more likely to make decisions based on whether they like you or not. Emotions to the fore!
Influencers are interested in people. They want to get to know you better and get a feel for you. And they won’t respond unless they feel you’re genuinely interested in them.
So when dealing with them, lighten up! If you’re naturally dominant, don’t act like a bull in a china shop and try and steamroll them.
One of the best ways to engage an influencer is through stories.
Why stories? Because they love listening to them and telling them themselves. And they’ll often never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Now let me point out that sales “stories” need to be carefully structured and told to make sure you get your points across. Stories are wonderful tools as human beings have been drawn into them from time immemorial and if done correctly can deliver persuasion messages that can bypass a prospect’s conscious objections.
This is an extremely advanced topic – one which we cover in depth in our advanced persuasion skills training and coaching. Call me for more information if you’re interested in developing these advanced persuasion skills.
Now if you’re a predominately Dominance type at the receiving end of a sale pitch from an Influencer, you’re probably thinking, “Yikes, will these people ever get to the point!” and you’d be right.
One of the biggest areas an Influencer can improve in is understanding that not everyone is like them and adapting.
And of course the converse is true as well. If you’re the Dominance type selling to an Influencer (or should I say trying to persuade), take your Dominance coat off and smile, get chatty and go along for the ride.
A great example of a superb Influencer is Bill Clinton. He exudes charisma and charm. His powers of persuasion are up there with the best. Interestingly before Obama got re-elected, he was the only Democrat US President to win two terms since the Second World War. And he did so in spite of all the various scandals. Some pulling power!
So far we’ve covered two of the four major personality types in the DISC model.
Over the next couple of issues I’ll be covering the “Conscientiousness” and “Steadiness” personality types and how to best influence them.
Remember, these are just models and useful constructs to help us deal with people. We are not our personality types so please don’t go around labelling people!
And it should go without saying, (but I’ll say it anyway), these principles are a small portion of what we teach in our advanced sales and persuasion skills workshops.
Other aspects of persuasion include how to rapidly gain rapport, elicit buying criteria (so you know what really motivates them to buy) and navigating complex, high value sales.
Like to know more? Call us on (02) 9499-7958 and we can help rapidly improve your (and your team’s) sales and persuasion skills so you have more people willingly buy from you, faster.
