Do You Understand Your Salespeople?
Sales training experts and experienced managers recognise the importance of understanding people before you can manage them
. Sales personnel are a particular sort of person to manage: they tend to be more outgoing, active, even stubborn and so are much more challenging to manage.
In order to make your management of the sales department easier, renowned sales trainers have tried to develop a typology of personality traits that are common among salespeople. As with all cases of typology, you have to be careful of course: not every sales person will match 100% one of the three types.
Type 1: the egotistical narcissist
This type is a natural fighter. They want to be the best and can motivate themselves. The egotistical narcissistic salesperson is convinced that the client does not want to buy. They therefore have to break the resistance of the 'enemy client' and overpower them.
The egotistical narcissist type of sales person blurts things out. Instead of finding out information about the customer by asking questions and listening, they leap into selling mode. They are overbearing in the conversation and the customer barely gets a word in. The customer's problems are put on the backburner.
Presentations are where the egotistical narcissistic salesperson shines with a perfectly planned and executed show. Over-exaggeration is often a part of this and this type of salesperson is not unknown to drop a clanger.
When dealing with objections and concluding business this type of salesperson does not analyse client objections with precision, but reacts aggressively. Instead of taking the customers concerns and reservations seriously and debating these, the egotistical sales person simply repeats their key arguments. For them the end of the sales negotiation signals the end of the hunt and all that matters is win or lose. The client is under massive pressure to buy.
Once the order has been secured, the sales person is no longer interested in the customer. Rather than caring for the existing customer, they prefer to search for the next new client. There is no after sales service provided by this type.
They are often really successful. Some customers will buy just to get rid of them. Where a market contains many potential customers this type of sales person can be successful for a long time. However, if there are only a few potential customers, such as in the capital goods industry, they struggle.
Type 2: the friendly type
They are convinced that sympathy is the sole key to sales success. They are therefore always friendly and endearing; and would not think of exerting any pressure on their customers. When this sales person has been in the job for a few years they will only visit those customers who enjoy seeing them.
With a new customer the primary aim of the friendly sales person is to build a strong personal relationship. The business side of things is pushed into second place. They are pleasant, genial - and at the end of the day tedious! They don't carry out a precise analysis of the customers needs, because it is almost embarrassing for them to do this - their actual job - selling.
Presentations delivered by this type of sales person are usually long-winded. They incorporate too many personal elements which tend to confuse rather than inform clients.
The friendly salesperson is a good listener and gives the client a lot of leaway to object. They find it difficult to differentiate real objections from excuses and cannot stand up to excuses. Instead of showing persistence, they leave with the words: "We can't do anything at the moment. I'll see you again in a few months time.When attempting to close business, this type of sales person has obvious weaknesses: They are embarrassed to ask the customer for an order and hope that the customer will like them enough to buy.
It is in the after-sales phase where this type of salesperson's real strength lies. They really take client satisfaction to heart, so once they have a new client they will really look after that new client very well.
Sales training can help this type of salesperson develop the skills and confidence to deal with objections and excuses and teach them closing techniques. However, this type of sales person is better suited to looking after regular customers. They are a welcome guest and achieve a respectable turnover. You would be making a big mistake if you used this type of sales person in customer acquisition.
Type 3: business-like and authoritarian
This quite seldom found type of salesperson views sales as an intellectual challenge. They reject emotions or pressure, all that matters are the facts and factual arguments. They are certain that the customer buys the product that provides the best answer or solution. For this type of sales person the emotional reasons to purchase simply do not exist.
This type of sales person is 100% prepared when they first meet a customer. They take time for the client and analyse the client's requirements thoroughly. They remain cool, business-like and impersonal throughout. They would not consider chatting to the customer.
Presentations are where they really get started giving the client a long-winded lecture full of specialist language. They sound very much like a university professor because they have mastered their subject. There is no psychological refinement in their presentation.
Where the nature of the customer objection is genuine, this type of sales person copes best - ie business-like. They handle these by comming up with every argument and piece of information which defuses the objection. They find stalling tactics and customer excuses difficult. These objections come from the customers heart not their head, and this type of sales person can not understand this.
They can loose many orders that were almost closed. And because, in their minds, every sale decision is based on logic they do not like asking for the order. The client has to decide for himself what is best! A refusal is final, which is why they seldom follow up business.
In the after-sales phase this type of salesperson remains as correct as they do impersonal. Any client placing an order with them can rely on the fact that it will be carried out to the letter and on time - nothing more and nothing less. This type of salesperson is not interested in establishing any form of personal relationship with their clients.
by: Richard Stone
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