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.