Four Tips For Matching Your Sales Style With A Prospect’s Personality

ChicExecs VP of Global Strategic Accounts, Lydia Vargo, shares her advice on how to match your sales style with a prospect’s personality on Forbes blog. Here is a recap:

While sales is a discipline all on its own, success in sales comes down to communication. It’s about understanding the person on the receiving end and flexing your approach to fit their needs or expectations. Salespeople with a high emotional quotient (EQ) are better at reading prospects and fine-tuning their approach – which is key to boosting conversions.

Follow these for tips to adjust your sales approach to another’s personality and preferences.

1. Understand your personal communication style.

Salespeople are often thought of as extraverted and talkative, but that is not always the case. It is important to know your communication style and habits in order to best prepare for a meeting.

2. Evaluating a prospect’s communication style.

Although it might not be your style of choice, by meeting each prospect where they are at, you naturally create a faster bond and remove any potential frustration and miscommunication.

3. Use the proper communication channels

Some prospects live and die by their inbox, while others won’t acknowledge you without a phone call. In your initial call, always ask a prospect about their preferred communication channels.

4. Adjust according to where you are in the relationship.

A business relationship isn’t that different from a dating relationship. You should tailor your communication style based on how long you’ve known the person. Treat every new partnership as if it’s going through the phases of dating.

The Bottom Line

Sales is a people-focused discipline. As a salesperson, you need to change according to a prospect’s preferences, but also as your relationship with them evolves over time. Follow these four tips to take a more nuanced approach to sales that puts your valuable EQ to work.

Read Lydia’s full blog on four tips for matching your sales style with a prospect’s personality.