Using Personality Styles to Get More from Your Team
Personality types feel comfortable with people who can talk to them the way they like to be talked to.
Retailers have tried everything it seems to get employees to sell more. Sometimes training helps and sometimes it doesn’t, and so many try to hire the “natural born salesperson.”
That doesn’t really work, either, because generally, they are few and far between; but if you leverage their personality styles, you can leverage their innate abilities and help them sell more.
Everyone can sell. In fact, each of us is selling every day – even if we never call it that.
Once you understand the four personality styles, you can train your team to cut out the fluff and connect with customers quickly by understanding that everyone has a dominant personality style.
There’s the Driver, like Chef Gordon Ramsay, where it is all about them being the best, smartest and known as a decision-maker. The downside is that they can be seen as inflexible and always trying to close. Any villain you see in a movie is usually a Driver.
There’s the Analytical, like Spock on Star Trek, who is logical and has a detailed system to process information. Their Achilles’ heel is that they can come off as being cold and uncaring. Surgeons, CPAs and most craftspeople usually have an Analytical personality.
The Expressive is like the character, Jack in the movie Titanic, who tries a lot of things, is easily bored and has unbridled enthusiasm. They are also the least likely to be found in retail jobs these days. Why? Because on a beautiful day, they’ll probably call in sick.
The Amiable is by far the most common personality you’ll find working in stores. An Amiable possesses a strong desire to be liked and to learn about others without sharing many details of their own lives. The downside is that they don’t stand out or make demands, and it takes a lot to make them visibly upset; so you never know when they are considering quitting.
Those salespeople who master personality styles are able to have meaningful conversations that value both the customer and the salesperson. And that leads to higher sales. But to get them all to sell, you must first leverage their innate abilities.
If a staff member is predominantly a Driver, their No. 1 goal is to get something finished. You need to help them round off those gruff edges and reduce the chance that they will come off as arrogant.
If your employee is predominantly Analytical, you need to train with a clear system of “A to B to C,” so that engaging a customer isn’t scary and makes sense. Be prepared to answer each of their many questions.
If your employee is predominantly Expressive, you want to harness their fun. You would not want to try to train them like an Analytical and rain on their parade. Use their easily distracted interests and enthusiasm for new items as a sparkplug for the rest of your crew.
If your employee is predominantly Amiable, they’ll want to get along and avoid conflict. Teaching them how the other three personalities operate can show them how to avoid frustration and conflict. Understand that they are the least likely to be natural born salespeople and most afraid of engaging strangers – so be patient.
[gap]Here are the Dos and Don’ts of training your staff based on personality style:
[gap]Driver
• Do use their innate ability to meet and greet customers in your store.
• Do use their natural fearlessness to juggle more than one customer.
• Do encourage them to lead customers to new choices they may not think they can afford.
• Don’t talk over them.
• Don’t teach them 1960s closing techniques to try to make a customer buy. They hate phoniness. Encourage them to be real.
[gap]Analytical
• Do encourage their natural problem-solving ability.
• Do encourage their technical product knowledge to highlight the little things most salespeople ignore.
• Do encourage their patient nature to stick with customers who may not know what they are looking for.
• Don’t let them overwhelm customers with their knowledge. The old saying, “Don’t tell a customer how to build a watch when they just want to know the time” applies to an Analytical.
• Don’t allow them to deride a customer’s choice just because they don’t know as much as your employee does.
• Don’t allow them to show customers a cheaper place to buy something you carry – because they will. It’s logical.
[gap]Expressive
• Do use their energy and creativity to help customers see things in a new light.
• Do use their enthusiasm to sell new products.
• Do use their ability to mix and match to show customers how they can personalize a purchase.
• Don’t let them overstate facts just to make a sale.
• Don’t allow them to present a customer with too many options, or they may overwhelm them with choices.
• Don’t let them be so eager to meet people that they smother them with enthusiasm. Teach them how to modify their energy based on the customer’s personality style.
[gap]Amiable
• Do use their caring nature to understand what their customer is trying to solve.
• Do use their patient nature to help customers feel appreciated and valued.
• Do use their ability to listen to really hear how the salesperson can help.
• Don’t let their fear of risk keep them from approaching a customer or pitching the most expensive product.
• Don’t allow them to wait for customers to come get them; get them out from behind the counter.
• Don’t allow them to be content to just show customers what they ask for. Encourage an Amiable to offer your products today, at full price.
[gap]In Sum
There are no good or bad personality types – we all have elements of each one. And while the Driver and Expressive have the highest risk tolerance, it does not mean that they are the only ones who can sell. That’s because personality types feel comfortable with people who can talk to them the way they like to be talked to.
So, with proper training, an Amiable selling to an Amiable can sell just as much as a Driver – sometimes more.
The varying personality types that comprise your staff need to be handled in a very specific, tailored manner. By understanding the unique motivators of Drivers, Analyticals, Expressives and Amiables, you can begin to better manage your retail sales and customer service teams.
Not sure what your own personality style is? Take a free personality quiz here: retaildoc.com/take-the-personality-quiz.
