Business Marketing Magazine Summer 2017 Summer2017 | Page 17

This month’s theme is “Know Your Clients.”
Why is this important in selling? Truthfully,
you could go through your sales process with
one person and they’d be perfectly comfort-
able, you’d make a great deal, with win-win
results, but the very same process may make
another person uncomfortable and they’d
close off and consider you incompetent to
meet their needs. ‘Personality-based selling’
has become a large avenue of sales for this
very reason.
I will herein lay the basic foundation of per-
sonality-based selling for the 4 personality
types, and give a few details on recognizing
and tailoring your approach and process to
your customer, be they Lamb, Owl, Tiger, or
Bull.
You may be more familiar with the color per-
sonality divisions – White/Lamb, Blue/Owl,
Yellow/Tiger, Red/Bull.
Recognizing a customer’s dominant personali-
ty type is not intended for stereotyping but for
organizing and executing effective systematic
approaches. You actually do your customer a
huge favor when you sell to their dominant
personality. Since we all make decisions based
on emotion, the key to personality-based
selling is to get the customer to FEEL what
you want them to feel – they are appreciated,
understood, and being given a good deal for a
good service/product.
A quick note on the psychology of the 4 types
– Everyone has some of each type in them.
It is the dominant personality to which you
should tailor your process. Sometimes you
should purposefully include methods for the
secondary personality. Nothing works all the
time every time, but I am giving you the train-
ing that in my experience provides the best
statistical likelihood for success.
Lambs are non-confrontational, they like to
be led, they prefer being shown the answers
by someone authoritative. They are typically
in positions such as librarian, secretary, and
assistant. They typically have well-manicured
yards, homes, and drive simple common vehi-
cles that aren’t flashy, like a Corolla or a Buick.
They are often married to Bulls. Lambs do
not like making decisions, or being put under
pressure. They don’t like too many details for
it makes the decision seem too large. Their
typical focus is comfort/security – am I being
taken care of?
Words to use with lambs: “I’m going to take
great care of you.” “I’m not going to let that
happen to you.” “This will be the best way.”
Words not to use with lambs: “Which would
you prefer?” “What do you think?” “Maybe
this will help.”
Owls are analytical, they like to strive for the
‘logical’ course of action (though we all know
we make decisions – especially buying deci-
sions – out of emotion and THEN justify them
logically). They prefer feeling they know all
the facts. They are typically in positions such
as accountant, engineer, computer program-
mer, teacher. They typically drive efficient
vehicles like a Prius or Honda Accord. They
can be a hard sale if you don’t learn how to
get through their ultimate cop-out “I want to
think about it.” Their typical focus is detail/
price – is this a good deal?
Words to use with owls: “Do the math – you’ll
see that this is correct.” “You’re a smart man
– which would you prefer?” “Does that make
sense?” “As you can see you’re getting the
best price for the best product.” “Would you