Have you ever had a situation where you’re in a client meeting – all are seeming to go well; the client shakes your hand and thanks you for the great presentation. Then after that, you don’t receive a call from them, and when you tried checking, you realise the deal was off – they just didn’t tell you?
Or your client nods their head throughout your whole presentation. They seem to be entirely engaged in your presentation – but when it comes the time to take out their credit card. They back off and say they go and think about it.
What happened? Most salespeople have no clue what is happening – they attribute it to the numbers game and move on to the next prospect.
While that’s not entirely a bad thing (to move on quickly) – but because no one knows what happened, or what didn’t work, there is no proper feedback to you.
- What could you have done better?
- What did you do that was a mistake?
While there are many reasons why people buy, there’s a crucial one that is unspoken - one that even the prospects themselves are unaware.
That is their sub-conscious self. The sub-conscious makes decisions for people more than we realise. So when many sales books talk about handling objections, they usually talk about handling what is visible, but they leave out the big iceberg under the water – the subconscious.
When I went into the study of Type years ago and coupled it with my experience in selling, I realised that this was a big unexplored factor in the discipline of selling and engaging clients. It’s how I even came up with the program – People Mastery for Sales.
To understand why people buy or why they don’t buy, we’ve got to start somewhere, and I felt a great starting point was understanding personality Type. So that’s where we will begin in this new blog series. Understanding the Four Key types of prospects.
To learn about these four types and why they buy is a great foundation for deciding how you want to structure your sales process or even your overall strategy to grow your business. As they like to say, know your market.
Without further ado, here are the four Types of Prospects you’ll meet:
The KNIGHTS
Ever met a client who keeps comparing your products and services with your competitors? Someone who seems to ask a lot of questions and then takes forever to make a decision? They might even question you why they’re paying more for your service than a competitor’, and you might be at a loss for words. Introducing the Knight client -. Seeking stability and security, they find it hard to make a decision when too many factors are uncertain, and likely take a while to get comfortable with you.
The EXPLORERS
Or how about client who seems to want to buy from you already, and then say they’ll do it next week – but they never return after that? Or met a client who gives you all the indications they are interested and then says they’ll think about it? These clients are likely to make impulse decisions on the spot but lose interest in you or your product very quickly. Introducing the Explorer client - seeking freedom and fun, they find it hard to make decisions when there are too many things to think about or consider, and will likely procrastinate the decision.
The HEALERS
Ever seen a client who buys from you just to ‘support’ you? Or someone who doesn’t seem to care much about the details of the product – but seems to more interested in you as a person? These clients are likely to buy based on relationship – not a product. Introducing the Healer client - seeking purpose and meaning, they find it hard to make decisions when they don’t see meaning or the ‘big vision’ behind their choices.
The WIZARDS
Ever met a really difficult person who keeps questioning everything you propose? No matter what you say, they seem to like to challenge you. You’re thinking to yourself, ‘hey if you don’t want to buy, just tell me you don’t want it!’ These clients are likely to buy because they feel you’re competent and knowledgeable enough. Introducing the Wizard client. Seeking achievement and ambitious after their goals, Wizards don’t like people to make decisions for them – they want to decide to buy. In their minds, no one can sell to them!
SUMMARY
There you go – the four types. If you can understand that people are different in this way, you will:
- Understand that people look out for very different things when they buy something.
- Realize you need to have different strategies to engage different people.
This blog post is a mere surface understanding of what the four types are, and why they buy. I look to delve deeper into each of them in a series of blog posts.
Which type of clients you have had the most difficulty? Leave your comments in the box below!