All people are rather similar, alongside with the fact saying people are quite different from each other. Taking this into account, it’s natural to assume that understanding customer personalities types is crucial for successful sales, to say the least.
A false understanding of a customer’s personality, needs and desires can eventually lead not only to a customer loss, but also to an ill name and bad publicity of your brand.
You get an entirely different kettle of fish as soon as you become receptive to your customer and thereby understand who is in front of you: whether this is a ‘gnostical’ kind of a customer who knows everything better than a salesperson or vice versa, a person who is need of a professional’s assistance.
Being able to identify who is who, you can effortlessly build up the communication tactics required and close your deals more conveniently. Our article will help you learn to identify your customers’ personalities.
What is the point of understanding customer personalities types in sales?
Ability to identify the customer personality type and find the right approach to each are primary skills required to work in the sales industry.
The knowledge of customer types enables you to:
- adopt a perfect-suiting behavioural strategy and maintain a good relationship with a potential buyer;
- present the competitive advantages of your product in a favorable light;
- efficiently work with customer objections;
- gradually build up your own base of regular customers.
It’s essential to recall that factors such as need, value, and motivation have a direct control over sales. While all the factors are associated with the customer personalities, the success of your deals utterly depends on how well you understand those personalities. So when dealing with different clients, you will have to be rather flexible in communication to choose the appropriate interaction style for each type.
First interaction with a potential customer is a watershed moment which you should be carefully prepared for. This means you ought to know your way around the peculiarities of your customer’s personality that will certainly come out. Obviously any further customer engagement should totally fit the personality to the greatest possible extent.
Someone who realizes how much he can influence others is way more convincing. And someone who is more convincing sells more.
An approximate sales algorithm looks like this:
- Initiate a dialogue with a visitor;
- Identify his or her customer personality type;
- ‘Syntonize’ with your prospect customer;
- Build a rapport with him or her;
- Redeploy your interlocutor from the status of a prospect customer to such of a customer who is about to make a purchase from you, and close your deal.
To tune in with a potential buyer, pay regard to the following recommendations:
- strike up a conversation in the manner alike of your interlocutor;
- reflect, or ‘mirror’ your interlocutor’s posture and use gestures similar to his, in case you’re selling brick-and-mortar;
- during calls and live conversations, try to equalize the sound of your voice with the voice of the customer;
- your clothes should harmonize with the ones worn by a customer, or at least be not very different from his or hers.
If a company is acting as your customer, then you need to know precisely who the decision-maker in it is. The next step is going to be collecting information about this person (character traits, hobbies, etc.). The faster you can identify the personality type of the decision maker, the more effective further work with him will be. Be flexible, remember that the ability to quickly adapt to any customer personality is a sign of a good salesperson.
Forget about templates, as such a strategic decision will narrow the circle of your customers which is going to turn your sales process into a losing game. Even if the decision maker seems a person you can’t really resonate with, try to abstract from emotions and create an effective working relationship with him or her.
What e-commerce customer personalities types can be found in sales and how to deal with them?
1) Economists
This customer personality type is eager to check a wide heap Internet resources and call hundreds of stores in order to find the most favourable price offer.
Product presentation is not the focal point of the ‘economists’ attention. If they manage to find a cheaper option elsewhere, they will buy it there. The main selection criterion is the cost of the product.
2) Freeby-lovers
A controversial issue is whether freebies can generally be classified as customers at all. Representatives of this type may be found in many social media pages in such thematic groups as ‘free’, ‘sale’ and etc. It is incredibly challenging to work with such customers, because they rarely purchase, since they are constantly looking for ways to get something without financial expenses.
3) Individualists
These are typically people with a communication deficit who, when contacting an ecommerce, focus on the dialogue with the manager. Some of this type can be rather difficult to deal with. However, if the ‘individualist’ becomes your client, then he or she will probably come back for a second purchase.
When communicating with such a buyer, do not try to embellish the proposed product. If the deception is revealed, the ‘individualist’s belief will be failed and you won’t have a chance for trust rehabilitation.
4) Advocates
Advocates are somewhat reminiscent of the previous type. However, unlike an ‘individualist’, an ‘advocate’ frequently becomes the initiator of a real trial.
Working with this personality type of customers, be extremely careful, ‘advocates’ know all their rights and are not afraid to defend them in any instance.
5) Followers
The main need of ‘followers’ is to be aligned with trends. In this regard, representatives of this customer personality type purchase new items, but tend to spend less than ‘economists’.
Due to these customers’ craving for novelty and experimentation, they opt for the trendiest and most popular products.
6) Controllers
‘Controllers’ are customers who know what they need for sure. Notably, it’s fairly easy to work with such a customer. The thing of an utmost importance is to present your product or service clearly and concisely.
7) Fluctuants
As opposed to ‘controllers’, ‘fluctuant’ customers are unsure about their desires and needs and are always reluctant to make a choice: should they choose this colour or another one? Or should they purchase this model or the other, opt for the first offer or the last one?
You’ve got to face that dealing with this customer personality type is definitely uneasy. Attempting to make the final choice, they can inundate the manager with questions about their order and spend quite a lot of his time.
Bear in mind: good salespeople are not born but forged. The ability to interact with people is a magic key that helps to effectively and advantageously develop your business.
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