In sales one on one there is not always time to read a customer’s personality type when a new customer walks into your business. Knowing personality types can be very useful but not at first. The most vital trait of a top salesperson is the ability to connect with people emotionally. To do this, the first thing you do when a customer walks in is you sense his or her mood. Knowing your customer’s mood at this time will enable you to connect with your customer emotionally. By asking certain key questions like, “how is your day going” or “how was the traffic?” You can then sense what their mood is.
These kinds of questions or any other similar ones that appeals to emotions is fine. For example, when a woman walks in and you see she is wearing all sorts of jewelry, you know she likes jewelry, so you could say something like, “oh, those earrings look great on you.” or “that color you are wearing looks terrific on you; I never liked that color much.” When your customer is a man you could ask him where he bought his tie, the suit or the shirt he is wearing. You could ask him where he bought those sunglasses and so on.
By now, you should know what kind of a mood your customer is in. Moods are emotions and at this point all you are doing is identifying emotions as connecting with others which is about putting head and heart working together. For instance, managers who apply pure technical skills are just in charge, they do not manage; but, managers who add “understanding” and “emotions” may enhance their management styles and skills. People try to read and respond to our body language and facial expressions often on a subconscious level. They are also trying to sense whether we really care about them or not. In short, when you are with a customer let your mental focus be on enjoying what you are doing; bring your product presentation to life with head and heart working together.
