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Selling with a sense of style.

All salespeople are not the same. All customers are not the same. You probably have a sense of your own interpersonal style, and theirs. But how can you hone this information to create the most successful sales experience? There are powerful, time-tested assessments that can give you great insight and spur sales success.

Examples of style

Think about it. Are you a salesperson who wants to get down to business quickly, getting right to the point with impeccably organized charts, graphs, and data at your fingertips, using facts and figures to convince your customer to buy? Or do you take a different approach, sitting back and chatting for a while with your customer about work, family, or sports before easing into a sales situation that’s more of a discussion than a presentation?

Now what about your customer? Do they ask a lot of questions, need a lot of convincing, pore over the data, need more time to mull it over to make a decision, bristle when they feel they are being pushed or rushed? Or are they fast-paced, enthusiastic, energized, place a lot of trust in you, rely on gut more than mounds of data, and are quickly ready to sign the deal?

The history of the DiSC Model

William Moulton Marston, a physiological psychologist educated at Harvard, published a book in 1928 that explained his theory on how emotions lead to behavioral differences. He wanted to use practical explanations to help people understand and manage their relationships. Marston categorized behavioral expression of emotion into four types.

In the 1950s, industrial psychologist Walter V. Clarke was the first person to build an assessment instrument using Marston’s theories. In the 1970s, Dr. John Geier further refined the assessment, called DiSC, and since then it has continually been updated by Inscape Publishing at the University of Minnesota.

The Four DiSC Styles

Each of us is a combination of four styles:

• Dominance: direct, results-oriented, firm, strong-willed, forceful
• Influence: outgoing, enthusiastic, optimistic, high-spirited, lively
• Steadiness: even-tempered, accommodating, patient, humble, tactful
• Conscientiousness: analytical, reserved, precise, private, systematic

No style is better than any other. It’s knowledge of your own style, that of your customers, and how to adapt your style to your customers’ wants and needs, priorities and preferences, that lead to success.

The bottom line

Utilized by small businesses and multinational corporations alike, Everything DiSC® Sales, is the most in-depth and customizable DiSC-based sales training solution available to learn one’s own style, the customer’s style, and how to connect better to customers and build relationships that will result in closing more sales. Knowledge is power, and understanding behavior and interpersonal styles allows us to build stronger relationships that lead to greater connections and ultimately, more sales.

At AHA! Business Consulting, we have extensive experience with many great time-tested tools to manage and grow your business, including closing more sales. Contact us today for a free consultation.