Identifying the client’s style of behaviour and matching this style
is the roadsign paving the salesman’s future long-term collaboration strategy with the client.
The knowledge of one’s own and the client’s style of behaviour is setting the salesman’s direction
and action strategy to the greatest extent. This knowledge allows to understand differences in
client’s behaviour, promotes effective communication with persons having diverse behavioural
styles and, most importantly, helps in accommodating one’s style of behaviour to the client’s.
The diverse styles of behaviour mean different motivation to act and different client
needs and it is crucial for the sales process to recognise and stand up to them.
Usually the theories dating back from the antiquity to Carl Gustav Jung’s theories describing
a human psyche in form of interlinked and polarised energies are the key to understanding
the client’s behaviours during training. The styles of personalities themselves do not faithfully
reflect buying behaviours and motivations of clients in their environment and surroundings.
In addition, styles of personalities do not show changes in behaviour over time, due to experience,
knowledge and emotions, thus, they do not always convey the genuine reasons of clients’ behaviour
and, importantly, do not mirror such behaviours over time. For this reason, the styles of behaviours
themselves as unchangeable and constant over time are of little use in the sales process.
Clients are broken down into four groups according to their styles of behaviour, showing their
relations towards the environment and their attitude towards others from their surroundings.
The basic types of behaviour include:
advisor, leader, organiser, and observer.
This classification considers both the needs and motivations of the specific behaviours and sort
them according to the manner and the reasons for taking the decision. The internal area is the
area subject to changes due to time, experience, knowledge and emotions. Such identification
of the behaviour styles is also reflecting their change process, therefore, it is essential
to bring up to date the behaviours that have already been identified.
A dolphin is not using much more energy when flowing with its maximum speed as when flowing freely.