How does personality type play into success in sales? Is there an “ideal” personality type that makes up a successful salesperson, or does it depend on the environment that you are in and who fits best in that environment?
This expert sales interview explores:
- Four Components
- Four Personality Colors
- Four People, You Should Know: How to Connect for Exceptional Sales, Customer Service, and Unified Teams
Four Components:
Using his sales background, Schlackman devised that it’s not about who sells – it’s about how the client buys. He came up with 4 components that he uses to characterize personality types:
What does the client value? How do they make decisions? What motivates them to action? How do they prefer to communicate?
Four Personality Colors
- Blue – The blue personality is the relationship person. The most important thing is relationships – family, friends, loved ones. Blues are the best at selling themselves to a client, and they do that by building trust through integrity and honesty. They believe in delivering great service and always put the customer or client first. These people are one of the two “right-brained personalities.”
- Gold – The gold personality is all about organization, process, planning, discipline, and structure. They live a very scheduled life and are not very flexible, but they get things done. They put together a time frame and they stick to it. Gold people like to look at the pros and cons of things and measure by comparison. They are very focused, aggressive, and very direct. These people are one of the “left-brained personalities.”
- Green – The green personality is your analytic – your IT person, engineer, doctor, or scientist. They are facts, details, and logic driven. Green people tend to be skeptical and ask more questions than any other personality, and like the blue, they are slow to make a decision because they need to have all of the information. These people are also “left-brained personality.”
- Orange – The orange personality sells excitement, the immediate benefits, and they love to beat the competition. They are good at thinking on their feet, and they are persuasive. Like the gold personality, they are direct and aggressive, but they are also relationship oriented like the blue personality. These people are also “right-brained personality.”
Four People, You Should Know
Questioning why one sale closes and another doesn’t, Schlackman came to understand that a large part of the answer lies in personality – the personality of the salesperson, the personality of the customer, and the way those personalities interact.
Using this book will help you address personality dimension that is often overlooked when we convey our message to customers, team members and leaders – understanding how personality styles impact people’s view of situations and events and how they interact with others.
To learn more about the 4 personality types, watch the entire expert sales interview. If you would like to purchase his book, it is available on Amazon.
About our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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