Thursday, October 21, 2010

Selling to 4 Personality Types - A Lesson in Sales Psychology

I once read a great book by Florence Littauer, titled "Your Personality Tree", which taught me a great deal about how to approach many different types of customers. In this book, I learned about the theory of Humorism and the four humors, also known as "temperamentum" or temperament, which represent a way of thinking, behaving and reacting.
The Humorism theory suggests that each person is born of a basic temperament, as determined by which of the four humors is more evident within them. The four temperament types are: Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. They are associated with the following personality characteristics:
"Sanguine" - Cheerful, optimistic, the "Life of the Party" who is comfortable to be around and gets along with everyone (extroverted).
"Choleric" - "I'm in charge", "It's my way or the highway" type, characterized by a quick, hot temper and aggressive nature (extroverted).
"Melancholy"- A thinker, everything is well-planned and thought-out, no decision is made hastily. This type of person tends to take a pessimistic view of the world and can be sad or depressed (introverted).
"Phelgmatic" - A "worry wart", can be lazy or slow to make a any decision, even something as simple as "will that be cream or milk in your coffee?" (introverted).
An effective sales approach using these theories would be: #1 - Assess your customer's temperament type. Is he or she dominant? Introverted? Cautious? Optimistic? #2 - Adjust your sales presentation to accommodate your customer's assessed personality type. Here are a few tips that do just that:
When Selling to a "Choleric" Customer: Let them know they're in charge and compliment them on good decisions.
When Selling to a "Sanguine" Customer: You don't need to do much except get along with them and work on closing the sale quickly (assuming there isn't another decision maker behind the scenes, like a spouse or business partner with a different personality type).
When Selling to a "Melancholy" Customer: Be prepared to answer a list of questions he or she will have for you. These types are true researchers and detail oriented. Be prepared to settle in and entertain questions about your product or service that will test your expertise. You probably won't close this sale in the first sitting, but that's okay. If you follow up properly and are prepared for more questions after you leave, you will put yourself in the best position possible to close this sale. Just stay patient!
When Selling to a "Phlegmatic" Customer: You are typically going dealing with a person who has difficulty with making decisions, especially a perceived "large" financial decision. After reassuring this person that everything will be handled professionally and with great care, be prepared with some third party proof. Referral letters stating how professional and careful your company is, certificate of insurance, any awards you've received and/or articles written about your company. In the end you have to take charge of the sale and just close it. If you are not strong in your close you may allow this customer to slip away with all their uncertainty and worry. Help make the decision for the customer and then compliment them on making such a great decision in your post close.
These personality or temperament theories have a very practical application in sales and business. Sales professionals, managers, business owners and any professional who works with people can use this basic knowledge of personality to enhance their dealings with people. By understanding the underlying reasons why people behave and relate the way they do helps us as professionals to work through challenging business dealings and help our customers make better decisions.
Well known in the residential services industry for his high-volume tickets, record-breaking, tenacious, self-disciplined, and self-motivated selling and sales training style, Michael O'Grady is an accomplished Sales Manager, Sales Trainer, Business Owner, aspiring Sales Coach and Entrepreneur. During his 20-year sales career, he has set and achieved many industry and personal records. He is inspired to teach others to do the same.



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Monday, October 18, 2010

How to Deliver Training Seminars & Courses

Assuming that you have already decided on the content of your training seminar or course and have fully prepared your session plan including: timings, resources needed, introductions, types of exercises, break times, refreshments etc, then the question still remains of how to deliver the training? What will you do in the time you have with the participants, to make sure they have a memorable and interesting learning experience?
From my own experience of designing and delivering training one of the most important factors that will decide the success of the training session is how flexible you are to the needs of the individuals in your group. Ideally, the group need to feel some sense of ownership over the session. At the beginning of a seminar, I will outline my objectives for the training and I will also ask the group to outline theirs. If there is something really important that the group has identified that I have missed off of my plan I will build it into the session as I go along.
Another important element of delivering successful training is about listening to your group and helping them listen to each other. If you can build in from the very beginning an atmosphere of equality and shared learning it will be an enriching experience for everyone, including you. Of course, as well as participating in and listening to discussion you will need to actively and gently facilitate the group by making sure that no one dominates, quieter people get to speak and that discussion does not eat into the time you have set for tasks. 
Lastly, be open and honest. You may have been hired as the expert on the topic that you are delivering, but that does not mean you know everything, that others cannot challenge you or that you are in some way superior to your group. Challnges from group members can really open up discussion and learning opportunities so welcome them. Thank people for their contributions and help participants feel that the whole group has had a learning journey together.

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Monday, October 11, 2010

Sales Training Seminars - Sharpening the Saw

If you want your sales force to be at the top of the game and be fit in terms of selling prowess, then you will have to make use of innovative means of imparting training to them. We live in a world of an extremely dynamic and fast changing business landscape, where the rules of the game change rapidly, and almost every day.
If your sales force is not looking sharp and is unable to keep up with the changes, your company will soon be left behind in the never ending quest for market share and greater revenues. It is a war out there, and if sales training through classroom training, experiential learning coupled with sales training seminars are missing, you can be sure that something significant is missing from your sales improvement strategy.
Sales training seminars serve the purpose of helping your sales force gain vital information about the market as well as he latest trends that are defining and re-defining how the market is shaping up. New technologies, product specifics and service parameters are all shared through sales training seminars. These seminars give an opportunity for your sales force members to interact with industry leaders and experts, who bring their knowledge as well as unique insights to the fore, to train and enlighten sales team members.
There are a large number of industry specific sales improvement seminars that are conducted around the world quite frequently. Most HR managers as well as sales team leaders state that these seminars have a great deal of utility in helping the sales workforce ' sharpen the saw' as it were in terms of building knowledge, skills and attitudes which define the key competencies required for selling to an increasingly aware and enlightened customer base. In these days of awareness and consumer activism, one cannot take the customer for granted and hence initiatives like sales training seminars prove to be of great use.


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