1 Finding Your Selling Style Learning Objectives:  Recognize the different behavioral styles.  Identify your own dominant social style.  Learn how to deal with people who operate from each of the various styles.  Understand the concept of versatility and how it affects your ability to relate to all social styles.  Become familiar with gender issues in selling.  Discover how neurolinguistic programming can be useful to salespeople. Chapter 5

2  Failure to understand social styles can cause lost sales, frustration, resentment, or firing  Understanding styles leads to better communication  Style analysis was started by Carl Jung and modified by others A Difference in Social Style

3  Basic Concepts  Primary style: a person’s favorite style  Back up style: used sometimes (especially under stress)  Clues to style: manner of speech, use of time, gestures used  We respond to a style similar to our own  Behavioral Styles in Selling  Know your style well  Style reflects surface behavior. It is not an in-depth personality analysis The Social Styles Model

4 Nonassertive (Asking) (Controlled) Nonresponsive ) Responsive (Emotional) Assertive (Telling) Inquisitive; slow-acting; low risk taker; non- verbal; cooperative Wants facts and figures; precise about time; task-oriented; objective and reserved Fast; active; high risk taker; verbal; directive; competitive Expressive about feelings; wants feelings and emotions; imprecise about time; people oriented; subjective The Social Styles Profile Analytical “How” Driver “What” Amiable “Why” Expressive “Who” D C B A

5  Understand the preceding grid which plots assertiveness and responsiveness  Each quartile in the grid represents levels of intensity Recognizing Social Styles Identifying the Four Behavioral Styles: Drivers High assertiveness and low responsiveness. Control specialists Expressives High assertiveness and high responsiveness. Social specialists Amiables Low assertiveness and high responsiveness. Support specialists Analyticals Low assertiveness and low responsiveness. Technical specialists

6  Conflict can happen if we use or stay in our own style  Flexibility or Versatility: the willingness to control personal behavior and adapt  Psychological Reciprocity: when we move toward their style, then they feel compelled to move toward our style Versatility as a Communication Tool

7  Three questions to ask yourself to determine a prospect’s pace and priority:  How fast are decisions made?  How competitive is the person?  Not just in sports!  How much feeling is displayed? Identifying Pace and Priority

8  Contribution of Gender Issues in the Business World  Proxemics (the distance individuals prefer to keep between themselves)  Plays a major role in cross-gender communication  Important to emphasize and encourage the differences between men and women’s communication styles in order to benefit from those differences Gender Style Differences

9  Ask Yourself: Do gender differences create diverse ways of thinking or different reactions in a sales situation?  Determine what you need to be aware of when selling to someone of the opposite sex  Adjust your style to use the strengths unique to the gender of your prospect Remember… Relating to the Opposite Sex

10  Notice the Prospect’s Surroundings  Office decorations and how things are arranged  Furniture  Pictures, diplomas, awards Reading the Prospect’s Environment

11  Decisive in action and decision making  Likes control; dislikes inaction  Prefers maximum freedom to manage self and others  Cool, independent, and competitive with others  Low tolerance for feelings, attitudes, and advice of others  Works quickly and impressively alone  Has good administrative skills Social Style Profile: Driver

12  Spontaneous actions and decisions  Likes involvement  Exaggerates and generalizes  Tends to dream and get others caught up in those dreams  Jumps from one activity to another  Works quickly and excitedly with others  Seeks esteem and group identification  Has good persuasive skills Social Style Profile: Expressive

13  Slow in making decisions or taking actions  Likes close, personal relationships  Dislikes interpersonal conflict  Supports and actively listens to others  Weak in goal setting and self-direction  Seeks security and identification with a group  Has good counseling and listening skills Social Style Profile: Amiable

14  Cautious in decisions and action  Likes organization and structure  Dislikes involvement  Asks specific questions  Prefers objective, task-oriented, intellectual work  Wants to be right, so collects much data  Works slowly, precisely, and alone  Has good problem-solving skills Social Style Profile: Analytical

15  Perceptual fields are ways in which people view the world  Use these as another way to observe and understand people  Separate from social style analysis  The science of how the brain learns Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)  Modes of Perception - Most of us favor one mode  Auditory - Sound  Visual - Sight  Kinesthetic - Touch

16  Tapping into the prospect’s system of perception  NLP can help you develop the ability to identify a prospect’s mode of perception  Adapt your mode of selling to their mode of learning  Ethics of employing social style analysis or NLP concepts:  Good if they are used as tools to obtain information that will aid in serving the client  If they are used to satisfy personal greed, then you have an ethical problem Identifying a Prospect’s Behavior

17 Identifying Modes of Perception Visual Perception Looking up and leftVisualizing (remembering) from the past; picturing past mentally Looking up and right Visually constructing an image to see what it would look like Kinesthetic Perception Looking down and right Remembering past feelings Auditory Perception Looking sideways to left Hearing sounds or voices from the past (remembering) Looking sideways to rightConstructing a future conversation; thinking of the right word to use Looking down to left Holding an internal dialogue with oneself; how something sound

18  Listen for word cues  I am watching developments in that particular stock; before I buy, I want to see the progress it makes this quarter and get a picture of what to expect in the future  There is so much noise in here that I can’t hear myself think  The atmosphere was heavy and damp; there was an oppressive stillness, thick with apprehension  Match word cues with eye cues for better precision Interpreting Predicate Words