Maybe you think the value is obvious. If you can speak the same “language” as the person you are talking with, you can build trust and rapport. Trust and rapport help you to be more profitable, right? But there are more advantages to knowing and understanding your customer’s personality style.
Behavioral research suggests that the most effective people are those who understand themselves and develop strategies to meet others’ needs with “communication flexibility.”1
1.Target Training International, Ltd. (1984-2020) TTI Success Insights, Communicating with Style
First, understand your own behavioral style.
Have you ever stopped to think about how you act or react in different situations? How does this affect your relationships and how you communicate? It is possible to analyze and measure behavior in order to produce a report of actionable data.
This type of report shows how you respond to:
- Problems and challenges
- Differing points of view
- The pace of the environment
- Procedures and expectations set by others
When you understand your own behavioral style, you have completed the first step in communicating more effectively with others.
Then, learn strategies to help you meet others’ needs.
When you can communicate effectively, you can help someone address an issue, work through a dilemma, or find a solution to a need. With a new understanding of your own behavioral style, you can learn strategies of working with others more effectively. This starts with identifying the personality styles of the customers you deal with.
For instance, here are four different ways a customer may respond in a conversation. Can you discern what the personality style is for each speaker?
“Send me a breakdown of the pros and cons.”
“You have five minutes. Go.”
“Let me get feedback from my team first.”
“I feel this is a good move, what do you think?”
Not only do the four personality styles have a different way of communicating, but they also have different ways that they would like to be communicated to. Learning these strategies will go a long way in developing relationships.
Now, apply these strategies to improve your “communication flexibility.”
After learning about your customer’s personality style and how to communicate with them more effectively, you can gain the following benefits:
- Improved Problem Solving. When you understand the customer’s personality, you have a better understanding of how they process information and you can stay one step ahead.
- More Efficient Listening Skills. Personality styles give insight into what body language is demonstrating, or what word choices are revealing. By knowing personality styles, you can hear more than what your customer is saying.
- Re-energized Relationships. When personality styles are understood, customers may believe you are more relatable. This rapport can revamp your position in the eyes of the customer as well as the eyes of your company.
- Lessened Frustration. Because different personality styles can often work at different paces, being familiar with how to identify these traits in others can assist in understanding actions and reactions.
- Increased Diversification. When you learn how to be authentic and genuine to others with differing personality styles, you can improve perception and produce longevity in relationships. Furthermore, the more people you can interact successfully with, the broader the possibilities of good contacts and future customers.
After taking the course, “Understand Customer Personality Styles to Help You Sell More Effectively” you will be better equipped for your next conversation with your customer!
