Buying Styles

Overview

If every customer has a different way of buying, why do so many salespeople approach them all the same way?
Most sales professionals spend all their time and energy trying to perfect their own style of selling. Yet they fail to recognize that buyers all have their own individual "buying styles?...and when sellers learn how to adapt their own methods to best suit each buying style, they can dramatically increase their success rate. Presented as a "learning adventure,? Buying Styles begins with a fictional situation in which a salesperson has just lost a major sale...and decides to find out why. Readers are then brought along on an interactive lesson that shows them how to:

• recognize the four key buying styles

• understand what to do (and not to do) when selling to customers exhibiting each

• quickly spot the tell-tale signs that they are using the wrong approach

• gain the confidence of prospects

• improve their relationships with existing clients

• develop a strategy for approaching new prospects

• increase their chances of closing each and every sale

This quick and easy read, packed with tips, checklists, and on-the-go references, unveils powerful new insights for successfully selling to anyone.

About the Author

Michael Wilkinson (Atlanta, GA) is the CEO of Leadership Strategies—The Facilitation Company, a strategic consulting and training firm. He is the author of The Secrets of Facilitation and The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, as well as being a much sought-after speaker, trainer, and facilitator.

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Review Quotes

"Quick, entertaining, insightful…clears a path for sales professionals to be dramatically more successful...by learning to sell the way their customers buy.? -- Hudson Valley Business Journal

"...next time your performance evaluation comes up, you'll be able to wow your peers with the impressive numbers gained from reading this book.? -- Houston Business Journal

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Cover Copy

"Throughout my career as a sales trainer, I have been teaching sellers to be 'buying facilitators.' Buying Styles can help salespeople gain emotional trust with their buyers.? — Mike Bosworth, author, Solution Selling, coauthor, Customer-Centric Selling

What if you could make just a few small, simple adjustments to your selling style and instantly close 10 to 20 percent more sales?

Buying Styles unlocks a fundamental truth about selling and buying: Just as people are different, they respond to sales approaches in very different ways. The good news is that there are just four main buying styles, and when you can recognize which one best defines your customer, then tailor your message to appeal to that style, your success rate will radically improve.

Written as a set of engaging, eye-opening conversations and packaged in short, easy-to-read chapters, Buying Styles gives you the tools for accu?rately sizing up your clients' buying preferences and altering your selling approaches to match their styles. You'll find:

? Strategies for recognizing the four main buying styles

? Insights into why salespeople find some styles easy to sell to while others are difficult and frustrating

? Tips on what to do—and what not to do—when selling to each style

? Classic mistakes salespeople make in selling to different styles

? Telltale signs that you are using the wrong approach, and much more

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Jacket Copy

Does this constellation of characters sound familiar? One of your customers is will?ing to meet with you—again and again—yet never buys and doesn't tell you why. Another relentlessly questions your data and brushes off your pleasantries. Yet another is upbeat and fun but has a talent for always bringing the conversation back to himself. And one is brusque, impatient, and wants everything boiled down to a short series of bullets, no matter how complex the information.

If you're selling to all these people in a single style that you've perfected over the years, be aware that you are probably losing a great deal of potential business. But tailor your approach to best suit each client's buying style, and your success rate can immediately and dramatically improve.

Buying Styles shows you how people buy differently and gives you tips and scripts for easily modifying your sales message to best match individual buying preferences. And it does so in a brief, easy-to-read format, with no jargon or unnecessary complexity. The book includes a set of conversations between a group of salespeople and a facilitator that keeps you actively involved by "hearing? the material and "seeing? the characters react and respond. You'll quickly master Buying Styles' techniques, including how to:

? Recognize the behaviors associated with each of the four main buying styles: high-D (drive or dominance), high-I (influence), high-S (steadiness), and high-C (compliance)

? Look for clues that tell you how your clients like to buy, and quickly understand what they mean

? Know which tactic to take with each client, whether it's to get straight to the point, flood him with data, ask questions to let her sell herself, or keep your pitch personal and unhurried

? Escape the common trap of selling the way you like to be sold to, and tailor your approach to match your customer's buying style

? Be aware of the natural strengths and weaknesses of your selling style, and how it can harmonize or clash with other people's styles

? Assess the buying styles of your current customer base—as well as your own style and those of your sales team—and develop new strategies for more effectively selling to each

Don't lose another big contract or impor?tant sale because you can't quite connect with your customer. This insightful book uncovers the selling dos and don'ts for every buying style—so you can deliver a powerful, tailored sales approach that brings maxi?mum results.

Michael Wilkinson is the CEO of Leadership Strategies—The Facilitation Company, a strategic consulting and training firm. He is the author of The Secrets of Facilitation and The Secrets to Masterful Meetings, and is a much sought-after speaker, trainer, and facilitator.

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Excerpt

Introduction

What This Book Will Do

for You

"I hate it when salespeople ________?

Fill in the blank. Think about some of your worse experiences

with salespeople. Think about the things that salespeople

have done that turned you off. How would you fill in the

blank? Do you hate it when . . .

• They are pushy?

• They don't get to the point?

• They don't know their product?

• They bore you with facts and figures?

• They don't listen or take the time to understand you

and your needs?

Now for the more important question: How would your

customers fill in the blank? If your answer is, "It depends on the

customer,? then you are ready for this book.

Our purpose with Buying Styles: Simple Lessons for

Selling the Way Your Customer Buys is to provide an entertaining

quick read that helps sales professionals learn the primary

buying styles of customers, as well as how to identify and

adapt to each. Unfortunately, many salespeople know only one

way to sell—their way. What they often fail to understand is

that they could be so much more successful by selling the way

their customer buys.

Do you sell the same way to every customer? Do you know

the basic buying styles and the key strategies for adapting to

each one? Do you know the warning signs that suggest you are

probably selling in the wrong style for your customer?

The message of Buying Styles is simple. As our protagonist

says:

"Adapt or continue to be so much less

successful than you could be.?

With Buying Styles, we introduce a powerful new book format

called the "learning adventure.? Somewhat similar to a

parable, this learning adventure tells the story of a fictional

character, Dave, who has just lost a major sale and is clueless

as to why. At the urging of his CEO, Dave attends a half-day

seminar on buying styles.

Unlike in a parable, however, the meat of the book is not

buried at the end of the story. In our learning adventure,

90 percent of the story takes place in the classroom.

Therefore, the story is the meat.

This learning adventure provides a powerful vehicle for

readers to gain insights in three ways:

• You receive the buying styles concepts directly from

the story's course facilitator as if you were sitting in

the classroom along with Dave.

• At the same time, you experience the information

through Dave's eyes. You hear his objections, his concerns,

and his fears, and you feel his triumphs as he

gains insight as to why he lost this major sale while

other sales had been so much easier for him.

• While in the learning adventure, you observe the interactions

of the various people in the classroom and are

able to recognize the buying style and selling style

conflicts as they play out on a personal level.

Since our intended audience is salespeople, we have

designed Buying Styles to be a series of short chapters, with

each one contributing significantly to the message of the book.

However, for those readers who want to cut to the chase (and

you'll learn in Chapter 3 why you feel this way), we suggest you

first read Chapters 3, 5, and 7.

• Chapter 3 provides you with a foundational understanding

of the four basic buying styles.

• Chapter 5 presents you with the techniques for identifying

the buying style of your customer.

• Chapter 7 offers you a summary for how to sell to

each style.

Once you have read these targeted sections, you may want

to go back and pick up the information in the other chapters to

more fully understand the concept of buying styles.

For all other readers who wish to get the comprehensive

message the first time, grab your highlighter and get ready for

an adventure in learning to sell the way your customer buys.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments, vii

Introduction: What This Book Will Do for You, 1

Chapter 1. Looking for Solutions, 5

Chapter 2. Identifying the Behaviors We Hate from Customers, 9

Chapter 3. Recognizing the Four Basic Buying Styles, 15

Chapter 4. Selling to Your Boss, 35

Chapter 5. Identifying the Buying Styles of Others, 61

Chapter 6. Comparing Selling Styles and Buying Styles, 79

Chapter 7. Tailoring Your Sales Approach to

Your Customer's Buying Style, 93

Chapter 8. Recognizing Style Clashes, 109

Chapter 9. Planning Your Next Steps, 121

Chapter 10. One Year Later, 131

Afterword, 135

Appendix: Style Summary, 137

Bibliography, 147

About the Authors, 149

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