Without realizing it, your sellers may be pushing potential buyers away by using the wrong communication approach.
Every buyer has a unique personality style. They feel more comfortable and at ease when they are sold to in a specific way.
On the flip side, when your sales professionals don’t adjust their style to match the customer’s, they risk overwhelming, bulldozing, or simply annoying them—and losing a potential sale.
This post covers the four main customer personality types and ways your sellers can adjust their approach to build rapport and increase their likelihood of closing the deal.
4 Customer Personality Types
The four main personality types (or buyer behavior styles) are based on the DISC personality assessment. Understanding each style is key to understanding the decision-making behavior of a prospect.
DISC is a behavioral profile that centers on four traits: dominance, influence, steadiness, and compliance. These traits describe how an individual solves problems and meets challenges, influences people, responds to the pace of the environment, and responds to rules and procedures set by others.
Taking a personality assessment like DISC allows sales professionals to understand their own behavior style and helps them present information in a way the customer is most receptive to.
Dominant Style
Dominant types are direct and to the point. They tend to have a strong personality and speak quickly and in declarative sentences. In interactions, they display confident body language and will lose focus and patience quickly if a sales professional doesn’t get straight to the point.
Decision-Making Style: These types tend to think in terms of the bottom line and often have a spontaneous or impulsive decision-making style.
Communication Tips: Sales professionals should avoid chit-chat, keep a fast pace, and give direct answers without a lot of “fluff.” Ultimately, your sellers should focus on how your organization’s solutions can help them reach their goals.
Influencer Style
Influencer types are friendly and talkative. They tend to be extroverted and come off as amiable in conversation. With these types of customers, sales professionals can feel more open to engage in small talk and present product benefits in an upbeat, positive way.
Decision-Making Style: These types tend to be less detail oriented and focus more on the big picture. They respond well to testimonials and social proof.
Communication Tips: Sales professionals should be friendly, ask for their ideas and opinions, and provide personal stories on how other customers have benefited from your organization’s solutions.
Steadiness Style
Steadiness types are easy-going and patient. They tend to have more reserved social styles but, in their interactions, maintain a people-oriented approach. You might describe this type of customer as a “thinker” who carefully weighs all available information.
Decision-Making Style: These types tend to have a deliberate and methodical decision-making style and can resist change or anything they perceive as a risk.
Communication Tips: Sales professionals should avoid rushing to a sales pitch. Instead, they should take time to explain benefits and show that they’re interested in building and maintaining a long-term relationship.
Compliant Style
Compliant types are methodical and deliberate. They tend to pay careful attention to details, and their goals reflect doing things the “right” or “correct” way. These types of customers tend to be analytical.
Decision-Making Style: These types can be skeptical and are often concerned with data and the effects of change.
Communication Tips: Sales professionals should avoid asking too many personal questions. Instead, they should maintain a slow pace, focus on facts, and present data to back up claims about your solutions.
How to Use Personality Types of Customers to Have Better Conversations
By default, most sales professionals use their natural behavior style when approaching customers. But when your sales professionals can identify and adapt to customer personality types, they gain an immediate advantage over the competition.
To have better conversations with sales prospects, make sure your team focuses on identifying and adapting to different personality types. Here are some key strategies:
Identify Personality Types
Your sellers should get familiar with common personality frameworks, such as DISC. Taking a sales assessment can help them categorize prospects and tailor their approach.
Observe and Listen Actively
Sales professionals should pay close attention to the prospect’s communication style, body language, and word choice. This can give them clues about their personality type. To help build rapport, sellers can subtly mimic the prospect’s tone, pace, and energy level.
Adapt Your Communication Style
- For analytical types: Focus on facts, data, and logical arguments.
- For relationship-oriented types: Build rapport and emphasize personal connections.
- For results-driven types: Be direct, focus on outcomes, and respect their time.
- For detail-oriented types: Provide comprehensive information and be prepared for questions.
Develop Emotional Intelligence
Sellers should practice empathy and try to understand the prospect’s perspective and concerns, regardless of their personality type. Give your team opportunities to work on recognizing and managing their emotions as well as reading and responding to others’ emotions effectively.
Ask Probing Questions
Sellers can ask open-ended questions to understand the prospect’s needs, preferences, and decision-making process.
Tailor the Message
Sales professionals can customize their presentation based on the prospect’s personality type and what they’ve learned about the prospect’s needs.
Be Flexible
Make sure your sales team is prepared to shift their approach if they realize they’ve misread the prospect’s personality.
Get Individual Seller Profiles with the DISC Assessment
Our Brooks Talent Index™ assessments incorporate one of the most trusted tools in the industry: the DISC. Discover how to leverage our sales assessments to help your sales team improve how they communicate with both internal and external stakeholders in order to sell more effectively.
