Category: SALES ARTICLE

I was very encouraged to read that Her Majesty’s Constabulary have and some still are, in the process of being trained. This time it is not about formation baton charges or student kettling. They are learning about human behaviour in much the same was as us sales people do. In fact the latest initiative is to do with social styles.  Regular readers may recall an article I wrote concerning Character Styles, where I outlined four main styles – (1) Drivers, (2) Expressives, (3) Amiables and (4) Analytics.

The police version purports to ‘classify’ or more accurately typify the behaviour of the general public using four ‘social’ styles named after four high profile figures in order to help understanding and presumably retention. These four styles are referred to (in the same order as my nomenclature above) as (1) Madonna, (2) Lenny Henry, (3) Lorraine Kelly and (4) Jeremy Paxman. The premise therefore is that we are all made up of a combination of the above personality styles and our behaviour therefore is encapsulated by these celebrities.

 

In a sales environment, the Madonna wants to be in control and with a short attention span wants results quickly. They do not have much time for pleasantries, rather preferring to get the job done and move onto the next task. They are very competitive and are not looking for friends – simply results. The altogether more effervescent Lenny Henry will respond to praise and adulation. They have a need to ‘hold court’ and impress with their wit, brilliance and generally love the limelight. They will jump around (physically and intellectually), getting bored easily and all their efforts are to hold the spotlight and be the focus of attention. If you encounter a Lorraine Kelly on the other hand be prepared for a people person, soft, gentle and kind. They are always looking for benefits to people and not the organisation or shareholders. Mood and ‘feelings’ are the main focus and whatever your personal views of this namesake, they are generally nice people. Finally they learn about the Jeremy Paxmans of this world – the ordered, logical almost robotic personality types. They are much more even (almost monotonous in speech pattern) and obsessed with detail, proof and evidence. It is a black and white world they live in and there is no place for grey (unless it has an according pantone number associated with it!).

 

The commissioners believe that this social styles approach will aid interaction and generally improve relationships with the general public and their officers. In a sales environment I would suggest it is no different. Next time you are on an appointment wheel out your ‘template’ and identify which style you are selling to. Make sure the Madonnas get what they want and quickly, avoiding detail and giving them the edge on control. With Lenny Henrys flatter them, avoid criticism and use their enthusiasm affording them a better stand location or more prominent logo on your website. With Lorraine be sure to relate the benefits of attending your event not in terms of ROI but in terms of how much easier it will be for their people to interact with their clients. Finally with Mr Paxman be sure to provide copious quantities of detail in advance of the meeting and be thoroughly prepared to answer any questions in terms of factual evidence rather than hearsay. Good luck – it’s a celebrity jungle out there!

At the recent industry conference I was interested to note how businesses have a multitude of options for increasing sales.  They include (although not limited to) launching new events, spin offs, geo-cloning, partnering, digital as well as mergers, acquisitions and non-core services like sponsorship, conferencing and consultancy. It was also interesting to note how many marketing activities were interrelated; for example writing a blog will boost your on line ranking due to the ‘magic’ of technology. The power of Google and other search engines means that in this age of impatience, potential customers will not scroll through pages and pages of entries until they find you – if you do not ‘own’ the first page of a search, it is likely someone else will get the enquiry. So businesses are encouraged to write blogs, include video, images, press releases and a whole gamut of tricks to dominate a search and accordingly boost their worth.

 

I couldn’t help wonder therefore whether individual sales people are maximising their own value. It is clear that some are more high profile than others and the skill sets required of the modern salesperson are no longer limited to the telephone or the occasional face to face encounter. I have written before about the merits of effective networking and how opportunities are often derived from such superficially innocuous events.  How about we cast the net a little wider and adopt some of the lessons we see in business?

 

How do you use social networks? Are they purely social so you can stay in touch with friends and family or do you widen the appeal? How about LinkedIn and the raft of similar social media sites – do you have a presence on those and are you maximising each opportunity? Do RSS feeds and Twitter leave you cold or do you utilise them for more noble purposes than cursing that you have missed your last train home and ranting about some very clever but rather pointless hobby horse? Do you set up or join groups that have something to do with your areas of expertise and interest or would you say, like most of us that you ‘lurk’? Do you read the updates with interest and thirst or do you feel that they are a new form of spam?

 

Then there is the whole area of self-development and learning. When is the last time you attended a function or course to learn something new or attempt to gain new skills or grow your brain? It’s all too lame to be too busy and set another breakable New Year resolution or wait until the company conference or next team away day. If your car is essential to your business or livelihood then the chances are that you service it regularly, top up the air pressures and ensure oil and water, coolant and ‘squirter’ fluids are all taken care of. You will check your lights and manage the occasional wash and spruce up.  Well on that premise, your skills and your motivation I would argue are even more central to your future livelihood and income. When is the last time you challenged yourself or adopted a new set of habits or re-visited the old ones to hone them, eradicate the bad ones and added some new ones? Sobering thought perhaps or call to action?

Now like most sales people I like to believe that I am pretty close to my clients – both current and lapsed. I think I have a good feel for what they are doing and where they are likely to have need of my services next. . . or so I thought!  I was at a networking function the other week when I ran into a few of my ‘lapsed’ clients and once the social pleasantries were exchanged I realised that in one case my ‘buyer’ had moved sideways on to another role (which I didn’t think to check and hadn’t read about in the press), a second had entered a couple of new markets I hadn’t a clue were of interest to them and the third was holding a one-off business meeting that I could have been involved with “if only (I) has spoken to (him) sooner”!

During the recession, like most good sales people, I was keen to stay in touch, but ever so sensitive of not crossing that line and becoming a stalker! Unfortunately the risk with being so ‘considerate’ is that things change and out of sight can unfortunately be out of mind.  Sometimes the obvious questions that you might ask a new prospect do not readily come to mind when chatting with an ‘old friend’.  It just made me realise that we could all be a lot sharper in getting back in touch with our clients and prospects alike and asking more questions.  Keeping an eye out in the industry press will certainly be useful to catch any promotions and role changes, but don’t forget social media.  There are so many these days it seems impossible to sign up to all of them, but if you do some ferreting about and see which ones your clients seem to use, you can stay ahead of the gossip.

It may also be useful to email a few when you have little new to speak about in terms of a compelling reason to telephone and in these cases you can reiterate your current level of understanding / awareness and simply ask whether this is still the case or whether they would appreciate a call or meeting.

Think also of those opportunities when you may meet your clients and prospects at company functions as well as at social or networking events.  One client of mine runs breakfast meetings and an annual event – these are both glorious opportunities to invite specific clients and to ‘work the room’ to ensure you have re-opened that line of communication. It is always so much easier to follow up with a call shortly after a face to face meeting.

Do you and they attend the same exhibitions or conferences perhaps? Perfect opportunities to catch up in a less formal way and if your conversation unveils something new or interesting you have a great chance to arrange a more formal meeting or follow up call.

To slightly adapt the military expression, keep your enemies close but your customers and prospects closer!