Improve Sales - Determining a Buyer’s Personality

Determining a Buyer’s Personality

While it’s beyond the scope of this blog to develop your ability to instantly determine another person’s personality, we can give you some ideas on what to watch for and how to do to adjust your style to match your customer’s style.

A UK psychologist has determined that, with the information you have here, you’ll have a 75 percent chance of correctly determining another person’s personality. The ability to do this doesn’t come instantly and the more you practise, the better you’ll become. It can take years to really become proficient at quickly determining someone’s personality.

You can get a good idea of the personality type of the person you are dealing with by observing just two factors — how direct or assertive, and how open or responsive, the individual is.

Here are some of the things to watch for in other people. The farther away the person is from the centre of the open/closed and direct/indirect indicators, the more obvious or more pronounced will be the indicators. People who are close to the centre will be harder to “read.”

Observable Openness Behaviours

Top (Open=Relaxed) to Bottom (Closed=Formal)

• Animated facial expressions

• Much hand and body movement

• Flexible time perspective

• Tells stories and anecdotes

• Little emphasis on facts & details

• Shares personal feelings

• Contact oriented

• Immediate nonverbal feedback

• Somewhat expressionless

• Controlled/limited hand and body movement

• Time disciplined

• Conversation focuses on issues and tasks at hand

• Pushes for facts and details

• Little sharing of personal feelings

• Non contact oriented

• Slow in giving nonverbal feedback, if given at all

Observable Directness Behaviours

Top (Quiet=Indirect/Cautious) to Bottom (Quick=Direct/Assertive)

• Soft handshake

• Intermittent eye contact

• Low quantity of verbal communication

• Questions tend to be for clarification, support, information

• Makes tentative statements

• Limited gestures to support conversation

• Low voice volume

• Slow voice speed

• Little variation in vocal intonation

• Communicates hesitantly

• Slow moving

• Firm handshake

• Steady eye contact

• High quantity of verbal communication

• Questions tend to be rhetorical, to emphasize points, challenge information

• Makes emphatic statements

• Gestures to emphasize points

• High voice volume

• Fast voice speed

• Emphasizes points through challenging voice intonation

• Communicates readily

• Fast moving

Make yourself aware of your prospect’s/client's personality – and make the necessary adjustments to put them at ease, and create rapport.

See: www.salesimprovement.ca