Temperamental Selling : Is There Something Like this??

"Temperament lies behind mood; behind will, lies the fate of character. Then behind both, the influence of family the tyranny of culture; and finally the power of climate and environment; and we are free, only to the extent we rise above these."

Burroughs, John

When we were young we had a way of getting our bad report cards signed. If it was from your father it would be with fear if it was from your mother it would be with love, if it was from your brother it will be with a bribe if it was from your uncle it will be promises to do better. Even as children we knew how to deal with temper and temperaments and we played out cards accordingly. But somewhere along the way we forgot to treat different people differently and we got ourselves adapted to the luxury of standard sales templates. This topic talks about how to understand customers and how to work with based on what they need from us emotionally and professionally and not push what we have to them.

What is temperament?

It is the nature of a person which defines basic nature of aspects of personality like being an introvert or an extrovert. These are qualities that are inborn and not developed or learned. It is often confused with personality which is subject to change due to factors such as education or socialization and is made of behavior, feelings and thoughts.

What is temperament selling?

Temperament selling, is a method of using the knowledge about a customer’s temperament to our advantage. In sales it is imperative to understand the temperament of the customer and modify the sales behavior accordingly.

What are the different types of customer temperaments?

"Sanguine" or expressive

Nature: This person has a very positive attitude towards life and the people around them. They are complete extroverts and gets along with people around them. Their enthusiastic and socialistic approach makes it very easy to deal with them and it is possible to develop a non-work related relationship.

How does it help sales:

These people are open to change and are ready to give an opportunity to new services and are adventurous to try new things. They are extremely friendly and it is easy to build a rapport with and hence it possible to gain a permanent entry into their business if we know their likes and dislikes and establish a very strong relationship inside and outside work.

How do we work with them:

It is necessary understand them as people rather than understand them as customers. They are easily bored with continuous business topics and it is important to switch topics to their favorite subjects. They are kind of clients who would like to talk business over a dinner table and may be finalize one at the same occasion. These people need constant touch points and keeping in continuous touch with them for business as well as on personal matters would be very advantageous to Business

   

"Choleric" or aggressive:

Nature: 

As the word suggests these are very aggressive customers who like to have a control over their life, work and people around them. They tend to express anger under imperfect situations and they have an extremely demanding nature which makes it very difficult to approach them. They have high decision makes skills and tend to be very quick in rewarding if their demands are fulfilled. Under pressure situations they become very explosive. When things not work as expected they arrive at quick conclusions and it is very difficult to change their mind set.

How does it help sales:

They appreciate professionalism. As long as the matter is concise, to the point and based on their needs. They are impressed and play along with efficiency. It helps sales better in the way that they will not be attracted by fringes and non-work related benefits. If the product or service has all features their looking for the contract will be awarded to the best deserved. If they set an impression once it is pretty much a lifetime worth of dealing.

How do we work with them:

They are generally quick to respond. A scripted matter or presentation attracts their focus and their attention to details encourages them to respond better to the matter. They work with the goal in mind and are impatient to see it achieved. It is important to prepare well for a meeting with these people and time is really of the essence. Unlike people with expressive temperament they do not like coffee table talks and they like precise to the point discussions. It is also necessary to be predict questions from them and be prepared for the answers as they don’t prefer people who do not know their topic too well. One of very key points to be in their good books is not to take away their authority of control from them.

"Melancholy"  or Analytical-

Nature:

They are thinkers. Their world is full of facts and every statement you make needs to be based by proofs for them. They think, verify and act with thorough actions points and step by step process. There are very slow with their decision making and it is necessary to constantly remind them how your product is a value for their money. Everything around them takes a negative approach and they see more of faults than value adds in the product. They need to introspect every detail of the product, evaluate to the last point and will not hesitate to restart checking process from the beginning if they do not find it satisfactory.

How does it help sales:

They have a problem managing pressure. Companies with good staff that manages customer complaints and support customer in hurdle management will be able to win these customers very quickly. They are constantly in need to assurance that their business will be taken care of and a sturdy exception management process will win their confidence. Hence they are partial to quick after sales service and reliable sales team to bank on.

How do we work with them:

It is necessary to provide them the confidence that they are making the right decision by choosing you and show them in the light that because of their choice they have built significant advantage to the company. They have a flair for deep diving into research and are often stuck in retrieving small unnoticeable points. Hence to speed up your process and make their lives easy it would be beneficial to assist them in their research and build their confidence they have enough data to arrive at decisions. They strive to avoid mistakes and hence do not trust anyone easily, so to overcome this it would be very healthy to provide them with facts, evidence, proofs and customer feedbacks about you. It is important to remember that logic sells best with them.

 "Phelgmatic” or passive

Nature:

Worry! Their key characteristic! They are extremely patient, polite and friendly but it is very difficult to get them involved in work. They are good to everyone and they want to keep everyone around them happy. They believe in second chances and will be willing to listen to everything that you may want to tell them. They will accommodate your entire request but will take their own time to react to them.

How does it help sales:

They are blessing for patient sales people and those who are willing to follow up for a longer period. Seeing you longer and more often make them believe you are interested in your business. Companies that can invest time will find a real benefit out of these customers and there will be a significant return on investment.

How do we work with them:

Give them time, your time as well as time for them to thing about their action. Assure them that you will around however long it takes and all their decisions will be backed up by your actions. They tend to be offended easily and it is important to handle their work very carefully. They constantly have the need to seek approval from other people and it is necessary to respect this and not by-pass the hierarchy. They like appreciations and it is necessary to constantly remind them that they are good at what they do

There are many fundamentals to sales success. But one of the most tested and tried success factors is relationship with your customer. Relationship develops from a correct understanding of the customer.  It is not possible for us make the customer fill a form to analyze what his character, temperament or his personality would be, but it is necessary to make a mental evaluation of what one of your customer is like and  treat them accordingly. It is necessary to make presentations, proposals and sales templates In line with what the customer might require, because some of them believe in multiple opportunities and some of them don’t. Hence make the right analysis and back it up with great proposals tailor made for each customer not only for their business needs but also one that pampers their ego

GREAT SALES PEOPLE ARE BORN OR MADE ?

People often remark that I'm pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you've got to have talent and know how to use it. -       Frank Sinatra

A question Sales managers often ask themselves is how to identify the person with right talent and intelligence to make a successful sales team. The person sitting in front them could be some who sells himself or herself really well, but does that person have the ability to sell what the company has to offer? It’s a thought provoking question as to makes a successful sales Person?

1.      Talent to sell

2.      Intelligence to sell

3.      Know how to sell which is basically the product/service know how, improved by way of trainings

4.      He/she is just a born sales person who can sell any given thing at any time

These questions lead us to much debated topic IF GREAT SALES PEOPLE ARE BORN OR MADE

What is sales an art or science? 

The objective of science is to use available data and confirm a certain activity and establish a theory which can be used in future to predict the course of path of the same activity and record it as a pattern. Science in sales can be the pattern of a person to follow a process and do the job in a certain defined manner like carrying questionnaires, knowing the history if the client, collecting competition information on the client and plan on how to convince the client to use the product or service

Art is an objective in itself. When you create an art it is simply to complete the purpose of defining the art with no future purpose to exhibit and with no data to confirm.  Thus if sales considered an art then style of functioning works on assessing the customer mindset and working in accordance and providing solutions simply on the basis of an effective guess work how much it might suit the customer

As per many experts and some very successful sales people about 80 – 90% of sales depends on science and only 10-20% on art

Why is the above inference required for our topic?

People who use science as a method of sales are typically left brained which means a process flow is the key to success for these people. A designated flow of activity helps these people reach their agenda, which is not completely based on factors such as relationships or waiting for a turn around on the basis of consultative selling. Their SOP is to use proofs and tried and tested methodology to gain success. 

People who use art as a method of sales are right brained. They believe in creativity, getting to the root of customers intentions and being priority for the customer rather than just being an option even if the option is an important one. They will believe in maintaining relationship and effective communications with customer even if the turn-around of sales is slow or even if there is no scope of sales. These people are born not made.

General analysis:

Putting to gather the above inferences one can gather that a large number of people who use sales as a science are those who are trained on it, people who refer back to their notes, people who have learnt things with experience, people who follow a protocol and a process, these people are made not born. Those who act on impulse and whose reason success factor is more random than consistent are born that way because these are inherent qualities.

Hence on the basis of the analysis that good sales people can be made not necessarily born it is important to identify those qualities which have and those that they need to have to make them successful. However there are few qualities that needs to be there not to categorize them as born sales people but good to great sales people.

Inborn Qualities one needs to have to become a good sales person:

1. Fearless:

People who are scared of ranks, competition, short comings of their own product or service, failure can never become a great sales person. This is not a quality one can be trained on, however with repeated learning this quality can be changed over a period of time

2. Perseverance:

A go-getter attitude is an essential element of sales, as most conversion takes a large amount of time. People who are inconsistent and characteristically lazy will take a lot of time to adapt to staying glued to an account until it is won over.

3. Discipline:

Sale’s is a lot about data, timeliness and cleanliness of basic effort. When past data and record is not maintained it leads to probing all over again which is a waste of time or working on the basis of incorrect information. Delay in turnaround to customer and improper solutions leads to loss of accounts

4. Ability to learn:

Sales is an ever changing environment, there are new things to learn in terms of technology and techniques. People with old schools thoughts who believe more in seniority and experience find it difficult to move ahead with the people who are open to learning and expanding the horizon of their knowledge.   

5. Work hard Work smart:

Some people work hard, the others work smart. People who can combine both do wonders in sales. The intelligence to distinguish between both is inborn, and no one can be taught how to do so.  But to have will make a difference in the way sales is done

Qualities one needs to be trained on to become a good sales person:

1. Communication Skills:

Sometimes in spite of saying the right things, people do not get the expected results simply because it’s not said the right way. People can never be taught what to say, but it’s possible to train people on how to say it. Sales sometime works on image and how people perceive the sales person as that person is the face of the company. Hence working on vocabulary, tone and right language, a good impression can be made right from the start

2. Negotiation skill:

Negotiation is skill that needs to be developed over a period of time. People even in day to day life do not want to negotiate because it’s awkward to do so. However when it’s done the right way at the right time it leads to win –win situations. Customer are smart and they bargain to the end, what cards the sales person should play can be sharpened with regular training and role plays.

3. Networking skill:

All kinds of people, introverts, extroverts and ambiverts work in a sales team. Does this mean that one has a better method of networking than the other? Networking is not necessarily related to socializing. The right person to network with comes with a certain amount of knowledge that can be adopted from other people. This does not really need class room sessions but this can be learnt from other people over a period of time.

4. Decisions making:

Right and wrong decisions are based on situations, but before that the ability to make a decision is important in the first place. There are options to either stall the decision making process to transfer the responsibility to another person. However decision making is a skill that comes with ON THE JOB TRAINING and repeated occurrences even if not immediately or on a text book method

5. Sales Closure:

Bringing a sale to closure is combination of all above processed when one is good in all or some of the above closure is an easy process? Closure of sale repeatedly demarcates one as an effective and successful sales person. Closure can make a great topic for training but including the cause and effect theories and technical know-hows.

Conclusion:

Thus on the basis of the above theories we can conclude that with the presence of certain important qualities a good sales can be made. Class room Trainings and on the job trainings contribute a lot into making a good sales person. In the absence of the above inborn qualities it will be very difficult to create a sales person. The truth being in the absence of these inborn qualities it might be difficult to achieve success in any job.

Offensive strategy

The great mystery isn't that people do things badly but that they occasionally do a few things well. The only thing that is universal is incompetence. Strength is always specific! - Peter Drucker

Time . . . is less likely to bring favor to the victor than to the vanquished. . . An offensive war requires above all a quick, irresistible decision. .  Any kind of interruption, pause, or suspension of activity is inconsistent with the nature of offensive war."

War! There are two types… one is to defend when attacked and other to just conquer because you wanted to be bigger, stronger and greater and more powerful. It’s an age old strategy, followed by kings and queens who ruled. The new era is not far from that reality, every person who owns a business wants to rule, and in this case money is a matter too. Most of the times when a market is attacked unproved, aggression becomes the key word to wage the war. But is aggression sufficient? A clear strategy should accompany especially when the first move is being made to break smooth flowing stream.

This is a direct attack. There is no waiting involved here for an opponent to make a move. It is almost as good as inviting your defending firm to enter into a war rather than waiting for a reaction. There are multiple ways of planting an offensive strategy. It can be done by cutting off the rivals business from the market either by taking over their company on the whole or by taking over their market share to weaken their position. Sometimes companies keep a low and stealthy profile to hide and pounce and attack at the right moment.

Why should I use offensive strategy?

This strategy comes into play when the war footing needs to be strong and the main agenda is to acquire new and additional customers with a larger market share, and those customers having a bigger purchasing power. There has to be sufficient provision in this case for a more aggressive price war and promotional and advertising strategy. The strategy has a characteristic to attack direct defense and it requires strength and tactic to withstand the defense right from the beginning

Ignore the noise

It is often believed that to have an offensive strategy one needs to think out of the box. What is often a success strategy, and a tried and tested method needs to be counter attacked to bring down the opponent. Encouragement might not be one of the strongest backups for from your peers as it means directly challenging the successful and well established methods of your competitor who has done so well in the market. Hence innovation should be the name of the game to confuse opposition and weaken their foundation.

Example:

MS produced software for Altair the first personal computer. Intel which developed the chip for Altair believed that it’s impossible to produce basic language for it. However MS went ahead and developed a language in 8 weeks and took over its competitor IBMs market capitalization which was already 17 years into business when MS entered.

Don’t play a gentleman’s game

Aggression is the key word to define offensive marketing. The techniques involve pulling up opponent’s weakness mercilessly and highlighting your own strengths. It requires a certain amount of manipulation and explanation of customers to believe that your product is better. However the ground reality should in fact be that your product is better. The countermoves done by competition should be taken seriously and sometimes continuous blows and attacks are required to make the opposition to take a back foot

Example:

With the release of iPhone 5, its most fiercest competition Samsung, launched a full page ad in a lot of countries stating that Samsung galaxy is a lot better than the “FRUITY” ones latest offering and simply does not take a genius to know Samsung was the first to launch a revolutionary phone.

                       Define your target

 Most marketing technique generally is long term. It might take a months or years for one to develop a successful strategy.  However offensive marketing can have both long and short term objectives. In long term the objective might be to achieve something that has been to not look at immediate results but that needs time and gap for long term profitability. For short term goal companies need strong and tactical moves and executions. The turnaround of results needs to be immediate and there can be no room for reactions and counter moves. It’s a onetime act and needs to be undefeatable and very difficult to challenge.

Example:

As a long term plan Singapore airlines always focused on its strength of inflight service. When other competitors adapted to this as their USP as well Singapore airlines made embraced a quick and short term advances for highlighting positivity’s such as modern fleet, outstanding ground service, entertainment and comfort in first class cabins. Why is it short term? These comforts were not created by Singapore airlines suddenly. They always existed and only that it was portrayed in bright light when it was needed.

                          Judge your opponent

Assess and judge opponents strength and position. Every company has a strategy of its own. Identify and attack the strategy. Analyze your own strength against the competition and arrive at a conclusion on how to get there. If the gap between you and completion in terms of strength ramp up yours before the strategy is established. It would also be a good idea to identify the competitions strength weakness instead of just strength. It’s a decision between STRENGTH Vs. STRENGTH OT STRENGTH Vs. WEAKNESS. However the moral of story is know all about the enemy before planning an attack.

Example:

 Coke VS. Pepsi. They have fought from one century to another. There was one particular war strategy adopted by Pepsi which helped them win hands down for a period. The bottle of coke has always been a symbol of its brand with the right size, shape and fit into the hand with a perfect price. Pepsi introduced a larger bottle with a lesser price. Coke could do nothing to increase the size keeping the shape intact. Further the dispensing machines of coke were designed only for nickels and hence price could not be changed. PEPSI HIT THE NAIL TO SEEK THE WEAKNESS ON COKES BIGGEST STRENGTH

Draw your boundaries

Offensive strategy maintains a very thin line between being successful and ending up with a law suit. It is extremely important to discover loop holes before announcing something in the market about competition. What might come up as denial and legal attack from competition must be preempted. However it is best not to give companies an opportunity to sue you in the first place and fine you up with additional expenses and lose time and money rather than gain the same which was the goal to begin with

  

Example: IBM won a law suit against Hitachi on the grounds that they stole IBM software. Ultimately Hitachi had to rewrite all the old programs and develop new ones, so that they did not interfere with IBM intellectual property rights.

What are Offensive and Defensive Strategies ??

“Best defense is a good offense”

War or game this saying applies perfectly. Sales or marketing choose your term, its sometimes a war sometimes a game. Imagine a world where no one but you rules! Everything that you touch turns into gold. There is no one but you who can do what you can do. It’s an ideal situation. But in real world there are no ideal situations. Starting from home where you compete with your siblings, to school with your fellow students to work with colleagues to a market with competitors one has to compete everywhere.

The start of competition occurs when companies experience threat and pressure in the market because of other companies and this always results in a counter move. Competition can be programmed either by creating new markets or attacking existing markets. An alternative to this is entering a new market, repositioning or increasing a market share. Hence to keep competition at bay companies adopt new strategies to safeguard their status. One such method in discussion is offensive and defensive strategy.

 

Defensive Strategy

Defensive strategy is a reactive strategy. It is a developed to protect market share, position and profitability. It is a strategy that can be used to keep up top position in local and existing market. An example for this could be if a company highlights its USP and advantages of its products and services to prove its better than competition. This is also done by introducing new products and services in the market which is better than what competition has to offer.

This strategy is predominantly useful for a market which is well established in the market but is merely looking at pushing competition away to hold top position or monopoly in some situations as the case might be. This strategy will never include attracting customer attention for the first time. It is to keep the reputation intact which has been built in the market. This methodology is most successful to keep up the customer’s confidence which no new competitor can disturb.

HOW IS DEFENSIVE STRATEGY USEFUL ?

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction

Newton’s law of motion applies perfectly well in the situation of defensive marketing strategy. Marketing in general is seen as a reaction to particular situation in most cases, and more commonly in defensive marketing. Companies are not threatened until a new product comes into competition in the market. Defensive strategy can be used to weaken competition by using techniques that will capture customer interest.  This strategy comes to life only where there is existence of competition.

Example: A company uses advertising techniques to highlight a specific feature of its product, by doing which the competitor’s product will seem inferior in comparison. One of the best in this category was the MAC vs. PC campaign by apple which highlighted its own features in comparisons to other PCs of DELL and IBM, which obviously put down competition and created a success factor.

Guard your Fort

 

Defensive strategy can be used protect the territory of a market acquired by competitions product. Companies constantly come up with new effects to hold up their position and ward of competition. By using defensive strategy it is possible to stop competition from eating into your market share. Companies often safeguard their boundaries by dropping prices or exceptionally improving product feature which competition can’t provide.

Example:

A typical example of this was the price war between Wal-Mart and Amazon. Wal-Mart marked down the price of its best sellers books. Instantly amazon matched its price followed by Wal-Mart dropping prices once again and every time amazon matched the price Wal-Mart dropped it further

Sharpen your vision

This can be done keeping a constant vigil on what in your own market. This will include a thorough research on the competition capabilities and assumption on how far their efforts can get them.  Keeping a constant tab on competitor’s innovations is a good point of view. Companies place products in competition to what has newly been introduced in the market to slash down other from becoming stronger. This counter move will also require faster flow of information and efficiency to build superior features or technology which would be more professional.

Example:

Companies like apple and Samsung continuously upgrade product technology to keep up their market share so that it is not taken away by competition and each time there is an upgrade more customer buy the upgraded version

Attack, analyze and improves

Companies constantly challenge themselves to analyze their position and rebuild on their strength. This can be done with techniques such as market surveys and deep analysis on why the competitor’s product might be more successful. The drop and increase of sale often leads to a situation where companies start analyzing their position and competitor’s product strength. As a defense plan companies establish something that makes them strongest to revise the situations

Example:

A classic and well noticed example to this was in when Tylenol (Johnson and Johnson product) faced threats from other products in the market for pain relief. Tylenol revamped its entire marketing strategy and pulled up the focus to its best USP which is mildness of the medicine and recaptured its position in the market to a very large extent

Define you empire

Defensive strategy is useful to define your empire exactly to an extent where you can create walls which are unreachable to competition. One should exactly know strength and market position and define strategy in such a way that no competitor can mimic it. A good way to do this would be create patents, copyrights. This will protect the power statement of the product and remain with the company with no possibilities of buy in

Example:

The most common use of this method is found among the biotechnology companies, which offers breakthrough innovations in high demand categories so that competition does not replicate the product.

Benefits of defense strategy:

1.   Retention of market share

2.   Prevention of entry for new opponents

3.   Long term contracts

4.   Intact reputation

5.   Market Leadership