WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:04.559 What I've seen is that there are certainly trends that people have in terms of 2 00:00:04.599 --> 00:00:08.759 the personalities, and everyone is different. But I really do believe that everyone 3 00:00:08.839 --> 00:00:17.000 is predictably different. You're listening to the Audible Ready Podcast, the show that 4 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:21.920 helps you and your teams sell more faster. We'll feature sales leaders sharing their 5 00:00:21.960 --> 00:00:26.120 best insights on how to create a sales engine that helps you fuel repeatable revenue 6 00:00:26.160 --> 00:00:29.879 growth. Presented by the team at Force Management, a leader in B to 7 00:00:29.960 --> 00:00:35.719 B sales effectiveness. Let's get started. Hello and welcome to the Audible Ready 8 00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:40.880 Sales Podcast. I'm Rachel Clatt Miller. Thank you for listening, and today 9 00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:46.200 joining me is Jim Poolly Pullapolis. Welcome, Polly, Thank you, Rachel. 10 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:49.320 Great to be here, always great to be here. Yes, happy 11 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:54.039 to have you back today. Today we are going to talk about buyers. 12 00:00:54.079 --> 00:00:57.560 You know, I shot Poolly a note a couple of weeks ago, and 13 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.200 I said, what would you like to come on and talk about any sent 14 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.359 me us slow topics, one of which was an angle on buyers, specifically 15 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.239 buyer personalities. And I know, Pully there are some trends here that can 16 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:12.040 help us as sellers if we know them. Yes, I think this is 17 00:01:12.079 --> 00:01:17.760 one of those areas that a lot of sellers are very intuitive about but not 18 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:21.079 intentional, And I think what I want to try to do today is explain 19 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:25.680 how you can put a bit of a framework on understanding the personality of the 20 00:01:25.719 --> 00:01:30.480 person you're speaking with, regardless of what role they happened to play in organizations. 21 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:33.200 So that's kind of like the teaser for the topic, if you will, 22 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:36.239 Right there you go, Yeah, I love that phrase you just to 23 00:01:36.359 --> 00:01:38.560 use. We might be intuitive about it, but we are not intentional, 24 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:44.640 and we know that it's important to align to your buyer. So being intentional 25 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:49.599 can obviously help us in a lot of ways. Maybe talk through, maybe 26 00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:55.159 just at a high level, how can understanding these different types of personalities help 27 00:01:55.239 --> 00:01:57.920 us as sales professionals. Yeah. Perfect, So let me put it into 28 00:01:59.000 --> 00:02:01.560 a very high level context. Right. So when we're involved let's say lead 29 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:06.359 generation, right, we're looking for prospective customers for us to reach out to. 30 00:02:07.000 --> 00:02:09.719 Companies will typically create the ideal customer profile, right, which that tends 31 00:02:09.759 --> 00:02:13.319 to be about the company we like to sell to in a B to B 32 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:16.400 space, Right, So the industry they're in, how many employees they have, 33 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:20.439 what kind of you know, major strategic issues. They typically run into 34 00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:24.080 that ideal customer profile or ICP, is something that most companies do when they 35 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:28.039 begin to target who we are going to go out and do business with. 36 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:31.560 And then the next layer down from that usually is the buyer PERSONA and that 37 00:02:31.599 --> 00:02:36.479 tends to be the type of role that a person plays. At times, 38 00:02:36.479 --> 00:02:38.800 it could be like a fictionalization of the person that we want to sell to. 39 00:02:39.560 --> 00:02:43.719 You know, maybe my SaaS company likes to sell to the CIO, 40 00:02:43.960 --> 00:02:46.840 right, and so the buyer PERSONA is the CIO and there might be a 41 00:02:46.879 --> 00:02:50.400 little bit of a of a background. They're saying it's a CIO who comes 42 00:02:50.439 --> 00:02:53.479 from a technical background, who's worked in the industry for twenty thirty years. 43 00:02:53.479 --> 00:02:57.599 So it's a description of a person, but it sits underneath that ideal customer 44 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:00.439 profile. So we've got the ICP and the PERSONA, and the buyer PERSONA 45 00:03:00.439 --> 00:03:05.280 also tends to be very organizational, in other words, hierarchical, like where 46 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:07.840 does that person sit in the organization that we want to reach out to. 47 00:03:07.639 --> 00:03:12.159 And I think there's a missing layer when it comes to selling. And the 48 00:03:12.199 --> 00:03:15.639 missing layer is the let's call it the prospect's personality or the buyer's personality. 49 00:03:15.759 --> 00:03:20.360 So if I reach out to a CIO, for example, and they have 50 00:03:20.479 --> 00:03:23.360 one type of personality, Let's say they're very analytical, very thoughtful, they 51 00:03:23.400 --> 00:03:28.400 take their time making decisions, that kind of conversation I'm going to have with 52 00:03:28.439 --> 00:03:31.759 that CIO is going to be very different than the kind of conversation I might 53 00:03:31.840 --> 00:03:38.120 have with a CIO who is gregarious, outgoing, a storyteller at heart, 54 00:03:38.199 --> 00:03:42.879 right, So two very different personalities in the same role of the organization. 55 00:03:42.919 --> 00:03:46.560 And I think sometimes we don't do enough to really discern the personality of the 56 00:03:46.599 --> 00:03:51.199 person that we're speaking to until we're sitting there in front of them and realize, 57 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.919 oh my gosh, they're not as technical as I thought they were, 58 00:03:53.080 --> 00:03:57.400 Or oh my gosh, this person likes to talk and I got to sit 59 00:03:57.479 --> 00:04:00.800 here quietly and listen to it, Or oh my gosh, they seem like 60 00:04:00.840 --> 00:04:03.120 they want to make a decision based on consensus. I thought they were going 61 00:04:03.159 --> 00:04:06.400 to be a lot more decisive. So we kind of get stuck right in 62 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:12.800 the moment. And what I've seen is that there are certainly trends that people 63 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:15.800 have in terms of the personalities and everyone is different, but I really do 64 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:20.120 believe that everyone is predictably different. I think you can predict to some extent 65 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:24.240 what that person's personality is going to be. Like, Yeah, it's a 66 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:30.000 great point, and it's really about this pattern recognition. And I'm sure there's 67 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:32.480 a lot of people listening right now who are nodding their heads because right, 68 00:04:32.519 --> 00:04:35.639 you mentioned the person who likes to talk, that doesn't like to be quite 69 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:39.519 right, We're all like, yeah, we've seen that before. And the 70 00:04:39.560 --> 00:04:44.240 buyer persona is an important thing I think to bring up here because that's often 71 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:46.360 something that we see in marketing a lot. Right, here's our buyer and 72 00:04:46.360 --> 00:04:50.759 persona here our target, but they can be really helpful as us as salespeople. 73 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:55.759 I just did some content with our colleague Brian Walsh, and we were 74 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.720 talking about selling in a new category, specifically around selling an AI solution right 75 00:05:00.759 --> 00:05:04.480 where you're trying to embed like a new technology or a new way of doing 76 00:05:04.519 --> 00:05:09.639 things within your organization, right, And we talked about ICP Right, who 77 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:15.160 are the target companies, but then also within the company in that particular instance, 78 00:05:15.319 --> 00:05:17.839 you really needed to look at the buyer personalities because you want to be 79 00:05:17.879 --> 00:05:24.600 able to find early adopters of technology as opposed to like the laggards or people 80 00:05:24.639 --> 00:05:29.759 who might be more skeptic. So you know, obviously this is very important 81 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:32.319 for that selling that type of technology. But you know, we've alsold to 82 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:34.639 people who like to talk too much, and how do we encounter with that? 83 00:05:35.000 --> 00:05:40.160 So maybe you can run through poolly just some of these patterns that we 84 00:05:40.199 --> 00:05:45.360 typically see, buyer personalities that we typically encounter, and what we might do 85 00:05:45.360 --> 00:05:47.639 about it. Yeah, let me tease out that AI example a little bit. 86 00:05:47.720 --> 00:05:51.399 Right, Let's say you're talking to a prospect who you want to sell 87 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:55.720 some new kind of AI add on or some new AI solution to right, 88 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:59.160 AI is the cool new thing. It's the thing that people don't quite understand, 89 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.600 but they're all intrigued. So there are some buyers when you present that 90 00:06:01.680 --> 00:06:05.879 to them, they get very excited, right because that AI add on, 91 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:11.759 that AI capability is something that's exciting that they can go tell a great story 92 00:06:11.759 --> 00:06:15.519 about the organization that we've adopted this. Right, that's one category of these 93 00:06:15.560 --> 00:06:19.279 buyers. There's another category of these buyers that look at the AI solution and 94 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:24.600 say, this will allow me to finally achieve this business outcome, and I 95 00:06:24.600 --> 00:06:27.560 can put that big old trophy on the wall, or I can hold up 96 00:06:27.560 --> 00:06:29.959 the trophy and say we got it, we made it right. This was 97 00:06:30.160 --> 00:06:32.319 the missing piece of what we were trying to accomplish. Then there's another kind 98 00:06:32.360 --> 00:06:35.519 of personnality that looks at that and says, I don't have enough information giving 99 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:40.120 the information, I am not going to make this decision unless I have way 100 00:06:40.160 --> 00:06:42.920 more information than you've given me right now. And it's going to take a 101 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:45.040 long time for me to make this decision, but I'm going to make the 102 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:47.120 right one. And then finally, there's a fourth category of people who are 103 00:06:47.160 --> 00:06:50.079 like, I don't like anything change. So if you're telling me things are 104 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:54.120 going to change, I don't want it to change, just I'm not interested. 105 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:58.920 Each one of those four can buy this cool new AI thing, but 106 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:01.120 you got to sell it different to each of those four personalities. To the 107 00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:04.800 person who's afraid to change, you've got to convince them that maybe some little 108 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:08.319 things will change, but you know what, your day to day living is 109 00:07:08.360 --> 00:07:10.839 going to be pretty much the same. You might be more efficient, more 110 00:07:10.839 --> 00:07:13.639 effective, but it's not going to make it's not going to make it crazy. 111 00:07:14.040 --> 00:07:16.279 The analytical seller You just got to keep feeding them information, but you 112 00:07:16.360 --> 00:07:19.319 also got to put a little time pressure on them right to make a decision, 113 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:24.680 because they'll continue to analyze the storyteller tends not to focus on the details. 114 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.519 You want to make sure you bring those details in at the appropriate time 115 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:30.399 so that after they make the buy, after they buy the product, they 116 00:07:30.399 --> 00:07:33.279 look back and they're happy about it, right, because those are the folks 117 00:07:33.319 --> 00:07:36.639 that will buy something on Amazon, and when they receive it, then they'll 118 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:40.160 go read the reviews to make sure that they feel good about the fact that 119 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:42.800 they bought it. Right, They don't look at the reviews, first look 120 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:47.199 at it afterwards to justify their purchase, and then tells me, Rachel, 121 00:07:47.319 --> 00:07:50.439 And it goes quite a bit long with this personality thing we're going to talk 122 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:55.959 about. And then the decisive decision maker, they're all about, how do 123 00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:00.319 I get that trophy, that frame, that's something on the wall, is 124 00:08:00.360 --> 00:08:01.600 it that revenue number that, you know, whatever it is. If I 125 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:05.680 can achieve that business outcome and scream from the top of the mountain that I 126 00:08:05.759 --> 00:08:09.160 got there, that's what they want. Those are four very different buying motivations, 127 00:08:09.240 --> 00:08:13.600 right, and so we walk into those conversations. We need to know 128 00:08:13.639 --> 00:08:16.560 how to, you know, how to tune ourselves to that type of personality, 129 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.439 right, not just the buyer's role, but the personality they play. 130 00:08:20.560 --> 00:08:24.480 So the framework that I use, which has been around since nineteen twenty eight, 131 00:08:24.800 --> 00:08:28.000 it's called it's called DISC, right, the DISC. A lot of 132 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:31.279 people take a DISC test when they're in high school of college and see what 133 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:33.799 kind of career they should go into. A lot of employers use DISC as 134 00:08:33.799 --> 00:08:39.559 a personality assessment when they're hiring people into specific roles. And because DISC has 135 00:08:39.600 --> 00:08:41.960 been around for so long, there's a lot of data around it. And 136 00:08:43.559 --> 00:08:46.320 I didn't really start, you know, sort of looking at DISK and understanding 137 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:50.639 how DISC personality systems work until probably twenty years ago, when I was doing 138 00:08:50.879 --> 00:08:56.159 executive coaching, right and trying to help my my executive clients, you know, 139 00:08:56.240 --> 00:08:58.320 kind of learn how to better communicate with each other. But recently what 140 00:08:58.320 --> 00:09:01.639 I've done is I've looked at it and said, you know what, this 141 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.200 is such a great tool for sellers because it makes things so simple in terms 142 00:09:05.240 --> 00:09:09.440 of identifying someone's personality right with the moment you begin speaking with them, and 143 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:13.600 frankly, even before you even meet them for the first time. So it's 144 00:09:13.639 --> 00:09:20.039 basically two things that you look for in a person's personality. One is their 145 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:26.159 pace. Are they fast moving, action oriented extroverted people that's number one, 146 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.279 Or at the other end of that spectrum, are they introverted, thoughtful, 147 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:35.240 analytical? Do they take their time? Right, that's one kind of spectrum's 148 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.919 pace. The other one is priority, and priority really is how do they 149 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.919 make decisions. You and I just talked about buying something on Amazon and justifying 150 00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:48.039 our purchase afterwards by looking at the reviews after we've bought it and purchased it, 151 00:09:48.159 --> 00:09:50.320 just to make ourselves feel good about it. That type of person in 152 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:56.559 terms of priority, they typically make decisions based on people and relationships. The 153 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:01.039 other type of personality will make decisions based on data and information. So it's 154 00:10:01.120 --> 00:10:05.679 basically a two by two matrix. Right. If you're thoughtful, analytical, 155 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:11.440 patient, and you make decisions based on data, you're what they call a 156 00:10:11.440 --> 00:10:15.919 c or conscientious buyer. Right. That's the typical sort of technical buyer that 157 00:10:15.960 --> 00:10:18.879 we come across, needs all the data, slow moving in terms of making 158 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:24.320 decisions. At the other end of the spectrum, if you're action oriented and 159 00:10:24.360 --> 00:10:28.440 people oriented, you're an eye or influencer. So that's me. You know, 160 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:33.279 I'm a teacher, I'm outgoing. I make decisions a lot based on 161 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.279 how I think it affects people around me, and that type of personality requires 162 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:41.440 a lot of rapport building and storytelling before we make a decision. The folks 163 00:10:41.480 --> 00:10:46.879 that are decisive, sort of action oriented, but very data driven, so 164 00:10:46.039 --> 00:10:50.720 are kind of opposite what I am are the D type personality, the decisives, 165 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:56.960 and they're the ones that want that sort of trophy that framed award, 166 00:10:58.200 --> 00:11:01.960 that revenue number. They're very driven by that outcome, you know, that 167 00:11:01.000 --> 00:11:05.960 business outcome. And finally, the fourth category are the essays. They're very 168 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:09.799 stable, they're very people oriented, but they make decisions slowly and thoughtfully, 169 00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:13.960 and they don't like change. That's the big bucket of people that we said 170 00:11:15.320 --> 00:11:18.120 don't like change when they make a decision. So when you look at those 171 00:11:18.200 --> 00:11:22.240 four and there's a lot of information out there about disc and people can go 172 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:24.759 out and you know, kind of research it online. There's a lot of 173 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:28.639 articles written about it and a lot of places you can find information about it. 174 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:33.480 But at the end of the day, the main thing about that framework 175 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:35.799 is that it allows you to kind of just generalize people into one of four 176 00:11:35.840 --> 00:11:41.120 categories. And as salespeople, that's very important because you don't want to deal 177 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:46.279 with a personality assessment that takes a lot of time and effort to kind of 178 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:52.399 put people into those those buckets. Right, So, ultimately the goal is 179 00:11:52.440 --> 00:11:58.480 to take someone's LinkedIn profile, for example, or some of their public statements 180 00:11:58.559 --> 00:12:01.679 or their public persona able to kind of read into it a little bit before 181 00:12:01.720 --> 00:12:07.480 you even have an opportunity to speak with them in person. I love breaking 182 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:11.600 this down further because so often we talk about the economic buyer, the champion, 183 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:16.600 the technical buyer, the implementation, but this is really taking it a 184 00:12:16.759 --> 00:12:20.639 step deeper. And you mentioned like going through the LinkedIn profile, maybe making 185 00:12:20.679 --> 00:12:26.480 an initial you know, it's just something where I'm like writing down the different 186 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:28.000 This is how I could see doing it, right, I'm kind of putting 187 00:12:28.000 --> 00:12:33.039 people in buckets maybe before the call, and then as I'm talking to them, 188 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:37.840 I'm kind of feelating or I'm looking for those patterns that you're talking about, 189 00:12:37.000 --> 00:12:43.279 and then you know, maybe adjusting my communication moving forward based on that. 190 00:12:43.759 --> 00:12:48.000 Yes, that's absolutely it. So part of it is just being very 191 00:12:48.039 --> 00:12:52.039 observant of the people that you're speaking with from not just what they're saying, 192 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:56.159 but how they're saying it. So if I'm speaking to someone, the easiest 193 00:12:56.159 --> 00:12:58.480 way to do this is to think about extroverts and introverts, right, you 194 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.879 know, are you know I'm an extrovert? Right, I speak, I 195 00:13:03.000 --> 00:13:05.360 use my hands, you know, I know that I have a lot of 196 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:07.720 dynamic energy behind when I speak. It's just I get excited when I'm talking 197 00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:13.200 to other humans, and that is something that we watch for. Right, 198 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:16.120 So if you're extroverted, you will either be a D type personality, a 199 00:13:16.159 --> 00:13:20.799 dominant personality, or an eye type, which is that influencer type that I 200 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:22.919 mentioned. So there's a great clue. Right. That means that if someone 201 00:13:24.039 --> 00:13:28.320 is thoughtful and they slow down when they speak, and when you ask them 202 00:13:28.320 --> 00:13:35.399 a question they pause for a few seconds before answering like this. That makes 203 00:13:35.399 --> 00:13:37.919 a lot of salespeople uncomfortable, right because that pause they think there's something wrong. 204 00:13:39.000 --> 00:13:43.600 But all that means is that person's introverted and they're thinking thoroughly through that 205 00:13:43.720 --> 00:13:46.679 question before answering it. Very methodical about it. Those are the c's and 206 00:13:46.720 --> 00:13:50.120 the s's are the s's and the seas the stable ones who don't like to 207 00:13:50.159 --> 00:13:54.840 make decisions that disrupt their workplace, and the analytical ones that are, you 208 00:13:54.840 --> 00:13:58.360 know, the conscientious calculators, if you will, that are thinking about the 209 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:01.159 business angles of this. So that's an easy one to kind of figure out 210 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:07.039 in terms of extraversion versus introversion, And your job typically is to sort of 211 00:14:07.720 --> 00:14:09.879 if you're in sales, your job is to match that energy. Right, 212 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:15.600 If you're an extroverted seller and you come into an introverted seller space and you 213 00:14:15.759 --> 00:14:18.679 just bowl them over with all that energy, it doesn't really work well. 214 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:22.360 Right. The same thing goes in the opposite if you're kind of more a 215 00:14:22.519 --> 00:14:26.440 thoughtful introverted seller, and those people do exist, we don't, you know, 216 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:30.440 we sometimes think that isn't the case, But there are introverted, thoughtful 217 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:33.440 sellers out there. They sometimes need to pick up the pace and pick up 218 00:14:33.480 --> 00:14:37.720 their energy if they're talking to someone who's more dynamic and extroverted. Right, 219 00:14:37.759 --> 00:14:39.720 it's a little bit moving out of your comfort zone, but you know you 220 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.840 can do it because it's only for a short period of time. So extraversion 221 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:46.879 introversion, that's one way of doing this. The other thing is data oriented 222 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:52.320 in terms of decision making versus people or relationship oriented in terms of decision making, 223 00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:56.720 so a little harder to tell, but you can. The clues that 224 00:14:56.759 --> 00:15:01.440 are related to that are is the person asking quest questions of you about how 225 00:15:01.519 --> 00:15:07.919 this new product or service will affect people and the jobs that they do and 226 00:15:07.000 --> 00:15:11.559 the day to day effort that their team has to do, and will it 227 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:15.720 give them time to focus more on strategic things that they can work on as 228 00:15:15.720 --> 00:15:18.200 a team, or that they can work on to, you know, sort 229 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:22.480 of improve the professional environment that people work in. Or are they asking questions 230 00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:26.399 or asking you about your solution in terms of give me some of the specific 231 00:15:26.480 --> 00:15:31.720 information in terms of what are the positive business outcomes I can achieve here as 232 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:35.519 an organization, or you know, how am I going to measure this solution? 233 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:37.919 What am I looking for in terms of the KPIs and the measured elements 234 00:15:37.919 --> 00:15:41.120 of it? And how do I know that you've providing me with the outcome 235 00:15:41.200 --> 00:15:46.399 that I'm looking for? So very data and analytical oriented, so you've got 236 00:15:46.399 --> 00:15:50.759 to listen very closely to how people are asking those questions as prospects what are 237 00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:54.639 they most concerned about? And I think that really then begins to unveil this 238 00:15:54.919 --> 00:15:58.519 image of who these people are. I think one of the best ways to 239 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.559 practice this and when I'm training I work at Bentley University. In addition to 240 00:16:03.639 --> 00:16:06.960 working a forced management with my students, one of the assignments I always give 241 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:11.440 them is we do this disk personality assessment right before they go away for Thanksgiving 242 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:14.759 break, and I tell them when they're home and when they're with their extended 243 00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:18.399 families celebrating Thanksgiving here in the US, I want them to read as many 244 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:23.320 of their family members as they can and guess what disc personality type they are. 245 00:16:23.960 --> 00:16:27.120 And it's fascinating because they come back from Thanksgiving break and they all tell 246 00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:33.039 me the same thing. They have a new level of understanding of why they 247 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:37.519 like this particular relative so much, or why they've always had conflicts with that 248 00:16:37.639 --> 00:16:41.720 other relative so often because of the different personality types and how they clash. 249 00:16:42.159 --> 00:16:45.840 And I think the same thing applies in sales, which is try it out 250 00:16:47.080 --> 00:16:52.000 thinking about really breaking down the personalities of the family members. You have your 251 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:55.440 close friends, the people that you know the best and have spent the most 252 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:59.360 time with, and that's kind of how you roleplay this idea of reading someone's 253 00:16:59.399 --> 00:17:02.919 personality. Do it with people you already know pretty well, and then as 254 00:17:02.960 --> 00:17:06.279 you begin to meet new people in prospecting or as you begin to meet new 255 00:17:06.279 --> 00:17:08.839 people in discovery at the organizations you work in, just try to be a 256 00:17:08.880 --> 00:17:14.160 little bit more again intentional about taking notes of not just what they're saying, 257 00:17:14.599 --> 00:17:17.640 how they're saying it, where do you think they're coming from, And that 258 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:22.039 then will allow you to change the way you conduct discovery and close and negotiate 259 00:17:22.079 --> 00:17:27.720 because now you're really resonating with that personality type very much at the base frequency, 260 00:17:27.720 --> 00:17:32.279 if you will. That's when the magic happens. When someone doesn't feel 261 00:17:32.319 --> 00:17:36.759 like you're speaking to them, but you're conversing with them. It builds report 262 00:17:36.839 --> 00:17:40.480 and it draws them in because you're not treating them how you want to be 263 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:41.920 treated. You know the old golden rule, treat someone how you want to 264 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:45.200 be treated. You're treating them how they want to be treated. And that's 265 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:48.559 really a powerful way of doing this. So that you know, it's kind 266 00:17:48.559 --> 00:17:52.759 of where I come at it from in terms of reading personalities, You've got 267 00:17:52.799 --> 00:17:55.240 to practice it. I always say this, We set it right at the 268 00:17:55.279 --> 00:17:57.119 very beginning. You got to be intentional about it before it becomes intuitive. 269 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:02.079 I've gotten to a point in my life I'm pretty intuitive about it, but 270 00:18:02.119 --> 00:18:04.759 in the beginning it took a lot of sort of intentional focus on reading the 271 00:18:04.799 --> 00:18:08.920 clues to become intuitive about overtime. I think that's great. I think it 272 00:18:08.960 --> 00:18:15.240 provides us with another way to align our engagement with a particular person in the 273 00:18:15.279 --> 00:18:18.720 account. And you know, Pully, we've talked about this kind of at 274 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:23.119 the earlier stages of discovery. You mentioned like negotiation as you execute the sales 275 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:26.319 process. But also you know, for those of you listening out there who 276 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:32.000 might be just struggling in an account to like get them to the next stage, 277 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:34.960 or maybe there's a thorn in your side of the account that you haven't 278 00:18:36.000 --> 00:18:37.440 been able to you know, you haven't been able to crack that nut yet. 279 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:42.839 This might be something to try to kind of reignite some action in the 280 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:47.119 account. Yeah, I think so. I think so. You know you 281 00:18:47.160 --> 00:18:49.240 mentioned the economic buyer, right, that's an archetype. Right, that's a 282 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:52.240 type of a person, right, that's a buyer persona that we always look 283 00:18:52.279 --> 00:18:56.880 for. Who's the economic buyer? So let's think about this. If the 284 00:18:56.920 --> 00:19:00.200 economic buyer, if we know who they are, we've had the opportunit to 285 00:19:00.240 --> 00:19:03.400 meet with them, then we can step back and say, right, based 286 00:19:03.400 --> 00:19:07.599 on that interaction, what did I learn about that economic buyer's personality? Right? 287 00:19:07.079 --> 00:19:11.720 And when it comes to sort of these big sort of four categories of 288 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:17.599 personality, there are two things that motivate people to make changes in each one 289 00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:21.160 of the different personality types. So one is sort of a motivation for change, 290 00:19:21.160 --> 00:19:25.319 and one is like a fear. What's the biggest fear? So decisive 291 00:19:25.359 --> 00:19:29.119 decision makers, you know, the D type personalities in the disc parlance, 292 00:19:29.279 --> 00:19:33.599 those type of decision makers, their motivation is achievement. They are driven by 293 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:40.000 achievement that is publicly known. So if they're a CEO of an organization and 294 00:19:40.039 --> 00:19:41.640 they're the economic buyer, then they want to be known for the person who 295 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:47.960 brought the company through IPO successfully or who doubled revenue in five years. Right, 296 00:19:48.039 --> 00:19:51.279 whatever that achievement is, they see that as their as their goal. 297 00:19:51.720 --> 00:19:55.880 Their biggest fear, the thing that drives them the most crazy when it comes 298 00:19:55.880 --> 00:19:59.599 to being sold to, is when someone tries to bypass them or go around 299 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:03.240 them. They're fearful of losing their grip on power to some extent by having 300 00:20:03.319 --> 00:20:07.000 a seller maybe go around them, go to the board, for example, 301 00:20:07.240 --> 00:20:11.599 or go to someone else who has influence in the organization because maybe they've gotten 302 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:15.200 stuck at that economic buyer level. So knowing that should allow you to kind 303 00:20:15.200 --> 00:20:19.640 of shift the way you maneuver around the organization a way that doesn't strike that 304 00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:23.960 fear for the economic buyer. The influencers. The IE type personality is the 305 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:29.880 outgoing personality types. Those are the ones that their motivation is not so much 306 00:20:29.960 --> 00:20:34.359 achievement, but they want to be known for the interesting things that they've done. 307 00:20:34.359 --> 00:20:37.559 These are the storytellers, right. They want to be someone who can 308 00:20:37.559 --> 00:20:42.079 tell this great story about bringing in this external solution and how it transformed the 309 00:20:42.079 --> 00:20:45.400 way people work and the great things it did for the people in the organization. 310 00:20:45.480 --> 00:20:48.240 So their motivation is to be liked. For lack of a better way 311 00:20:48.279 --> 00:20:53.680 of saying it, their biggest fear is that someone dislikes them, or someone 312 00:20:55.319 --> 00:20:59.680 highlights something that they did incorrectly or wrong and it becomes embarrassing to them. 313 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:04.160 It's more about the embarrassment than the actual decision itself. The S type personalities 314 00:21:04.200 --> 00:21:11.279 those are the stable personalities that we talked about people oriented, thoughtful decision makers, 315 00:21:11.559 --> 00:21:15.880 but introverted. They just like things to be stable. They don't want 316 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:21.799 to see huge disruption. In the language of high tech product adoption, they 317 00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:26.079 are the late majority, right, They'll make a move to something new and 318 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.960 different as long as it's not going to cost too much, as long as 319 00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:33.359 it's not going to disrupt operations too much, as long as their life afterwards 320 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:38.839 might be better but not necessarily revolutionarily better. Right. But their biggest fear 321 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:42.079 is disruption. Their biggest fear is, oh my gosh, if I bring 322 00:21:42.119 --> 00:21:45.480 this new thing in, it's just going to completely upturn the way we do 323 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.079 things and I have to go back to scratch to learn how to do my 324 00:21:48.160 --> 00:21:53.039 job or learn how to get this thing implemented. And the final set the 325 00:21:53.119 --> 00:22:00.640 conscientious, calculating type of personality that are thoughtful, introverted, data driven, 326 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:07.240 their biggest motivation is just being thorough. They are so into that analytical model 327 00:22:07.279 --> 00:22:11.759 of making decisions thoughtfully and going through the checklists and the matrix. That's what 328 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:17.000 they need in order to move forward. Their biggest fear is making a mistake, 329 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:19.759 which is why they're so analytical. So we need to kind of assuade 330 00:22:19.839 --> 00:22:25.599 that fear somehow and show them with as much data as we can that this 331 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:29.720 is not a mistake. And I think there's a subtle extra level here with 332 00:22:29.799 --> 00:22:33.680 those technical buyers that we all struggle with at times, and that is they're 333 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:37.319 afraid of picking a solution that's wrong, right, which is why they're so 334 00:22:37.359 --> 00:22:41.160 analytical and picking it. But I think sellers have an opportunity to chip away 335 00:22:41.200 --> 00:22:44.319 at that little fear a little bit by getting them to feel the fear of 336 00:22:44.440 --> 00:22:48.759 not moving quickly enough to solve the solution, because that's also an underlying fear 337 00:22:48.799 --> 00:22:52.400 for these technical analytical decision makers, which is if I take too long to 338 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:56.920 make this decision, I missed the quarter, I missed the cycle, I 339 00:22:56.920 --> 00:23:00.680 missed this fiscal year for improvement. So sellers can kind of bring in a 340 00:23:00.680 --> 00:23:06.200 little bit of that temporal pressure on those analytical buyers to say, the longer 341 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:11.519 we wait to have you incorporate our solution, the longer it's going to take 342 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:15.519 for the results to come in alignment, and you might be viewed as having 343 00:23:15.559 --> 00:23:18.359 made a mistake and waiting too long. I mean, obviously we don't say 344 00:23:18.359 --> 00:23:21.839 that directly, but it's that fear that we try to kind of think about 345 00:23:21.880 --> 00:23:26.359 in terms of that discovery. So again it's just sort of a quick summary 346 00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:30.160 of all these different types. But what I really want so the listeners to 347 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:34.960 think about is, don't just assume that a technical buyer is analytical. Don't 348 00:23:36.000 --> 00:23:41.839 just assume that an economic buyer is always worried about revenue cost and risk management. 349 00:23:41.880 --> 00:23:45.839 They are, but how they think about those things depends on their personality. 350 00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:51.000 So the way you engage those conversations makes a huge difference and how much 351 00:23:51.079 --> 00:23:53.000 rapport they feel they have with you, And the more rappor you build with 352 00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:57.920 them, the more likely they are to work with you. If you have 353 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:03.839 two solutions that are of equal sort of value to them functionality wise, they're 354 00:24:03.839 --> 00:24:06.440 going to want to work with a person they've felt the most rapport with during 355 00:24:06.440 --> 00:24:08.880 the sales cycle, because that's like the type breaker. And so I think 356 00:24:08.960 --> 00:24:14.480 this is why I really want people to be more intentional about scanning the personalities 357 00:24:14.519 --> 00:24:18.759 of the people that they interact with. That's great. Really appreciate you breaking 358 00:24:18.799 --> 00:24:22.599 down the personalities for us today, Poolly. You know, we always say 359 00:24:22.599 --> 00:24:26.519 sales is a game of inches, and while some of these things don't seem 360 00:24:26.599 --> 00:24:30.119 like a lot when you look at them in isolation, adding them up across 361 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:34.400 the landscape of an account throughout the sales process, they can really make a 362 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:38.839 big difference. So appreciate you going through that today and sharing your expertise on 363 00:24:38.920 --> 00:24:42.160 it with us. I appreciate you having me on as you can tell them 364 00:24:42.160 --> 00:24:47.119 pretty passionate about the topic, and I'm always happy to talk to folks if 365 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:48.960 they want to reach out and learn more about it. Yeah, and you 366 00:24:48.960 --> 00:24:53.400 know we have This isn't a Pulley's only appearance on Audible Ready Sales podcast. 367 00:24:53.440 --> 00:24:56.680 I'm sure as many of you know, we have had several conversations with him. 368 00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:00.000 We'll link his other shows in the show notes, And I know we 369 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:04.640 have a lot that kind of go to really having a positive outlook on your 370 00:25:04.720 --> 00:25:08.599 job as a salesperson. And that's also kind of the subject of your book, 371 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:11.200 Pully. Go ahead and give a plug for that in case people to 372 00:25:11.279 --> 00:25:14.599 check that out. Yeah, thank you. So the name of the books 373 00:25:14.640 --> 00:25:17.920 how to Be a Well Being, and it's a set of twenty two rules 374 00:25:17.960 --> 00:25:21.480 to help people, you know, sort of tune their mindset for a little 375 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:23.680 bit more positivity throughout the course of every day. You know, it's like 376 00:25:23.720 --> 00:25:27.559 one of those things moving from intentional to intuitive in terms of taking care of 377 00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:30.799 your own well being and happiness. And I think, you know, for 378 00:25:30.880 --> 00:25:34.799 salespeople especially, you know, we have a hard job and we're faced with 379 00:25:34.799 --> 00:25:38.160 a lot of rejections. So I think a lot of the lessons in terms 380 00:25:38.200 --> 00:25:44.000 of how do you just generate a higher level of personal happiness and a better 381 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:47.759 sense of well being for yourself really do help salespeople become better at what they 382 00:25:47.799 --> 00:25:51.559 do, but also just have a better outlook on life in general. So 383 00:25:51.759 --> 00:25:55.119 thanks for don't we talk about it? Yes? Who doesn't want that? 384 00:25:55.319 --> 00:25:56.759 All right? Thanks Poolly, and thank you to all of you for listening 385 00:25:56.839 --> 00:26:03.559 to the Audible Already Sales podcast. At Force Management, we're focused on transforming 386 00:26:03.599 --> 00:26:10.119 sales organizations into elite teams. Our proven methodologies deliver programs that build company alignment 387 00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:15.279 and fuel repeatable revenue growth. Give your teams the ability to execute the growth 388 00:26:15.319 --> 00:26:19.200 strategy at the point of sale. Our strength is our experience, the proof 389 00:26:19.440 --> 00:26:25.559 is in our results. Let's get started. Visit us at forcemanagement dot com. 390 00:26:25.839 --> 00:26:29.680 You've been listening to the Audible Ready podcast. To not miss an episode, 391 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:33.359 subscribe to the show in your favorite podcast player. Until next time.