Quit Selling Like Popeye and Pat

And capture the other 75% of available customers

A silly reference to Popeye, I know.  But hear me out.  It’s worth the read

What was Popeye’s tag line?

“I am what I am and that’s all that I am!”

            I see many salespeople that follow that same mantra when they sell to their customers.  They have one approach and one style.

Now, I’m not sure why Popeye felt the need to say this, but I have an idea of why salespeople sell this way.  They feel like being who they are is to be real, authentic, and honest.  They think it’s fake to change from customer to customer.

The other reason we sell this way is out of habit, lack of knowledge and laziness.  We think customers are just like us.  If we are detailed and data-driven, then we think every customer wants to know the details and data.  So that’s how we prepare and sell.

Recently, I was coaching Pat, an agronomy salesperson.  Our plan was to hit four farms that day.  Appointments were lined up with two sales calls in the morning and two in the afternoon.  From the DISC assessment I had Pat go through, I knew he was an off the chart I (Influence).  Knowing Pat’s DISC style, I tried to ask questions about the strength and weaker areas of his profile.  Strengths are friendly, outgoing, lots of social connections.  Weaker areas are lack of detail, follow up skills and time management.

We met our first producer right on time and the appointment was going well.  Until, we got into some local gossip about another producer in the area, and then weather and then politics.  Before we knew it, we were at 11:00 in the morning.  We were an hour late to our next appointment.  Throughout the three-hour sales call, I could visibly see the customer getting antsy.  He was busy and really wanted to get to the point.  But Pat just kept going and going.

The customer didn’t want to cut Pat off and really had a tough time getting a word in any way.  Finally, after the sales call came to a close, Pat and I got back in his truck and headed to the next sales call.  Realizing we were late, he called the next appointment and found out we would have to reschedule as they couldn’t wait for us.

My coaching began right there in the pickup with several questions about the call.  “How do you think it went?” I asked.  “Great!” Pat replied enthusiastically.  “Do your sales calls always go that length of time?”  I went on.  “Pretty much.  Sometimes even longer.” Pat replied.  “Pat, do you think this particular customer felt the sales call went too long?” I persisted on this coaching point.  “Probably, but my customers know me by now.  They know – That’s just Pat!”  he said laughing.  “How do you think they react to this?” I asked digging deeper.  It took a while, but we eventually got down to the fact customers and prospects would screen their calls from Pat, push off appointments unless they had a couple of hours to spare, and adjust their schedules to accommodate the time overrun that would inevitably happen when Pat called on them.

Do the math.  That day I was there, Pat was 25% less effective by simply not getting to the point and staying on time with his first sales call.  Maybe we needed to stay that long.  Maybe the first customer had some issues and we needed to have a 3-hour sales call.  Sure, there can be reasons this happens.  However, if, like Pat, it happens every day and you are in certain DISC profiles, then you need to quit selling like Pat and Popeye.

To begin, become a student of DISC.  This is such an insightful assessment for not only understanding yourself but understanding others.  It’s one of the few assessments you can use to understand other people.  While your assessment of other’s DISC style isn’t 100% unless they take the assessment, it will get you closer to connecting with them.  Learn the four quadrants of the DISC profile.  Then, in your pre-call plan, adjust your format to fit your customer.  Are they a C, data and fact-driven?  Are they D, control and choices driven?  Are they S, steady and consensus-driven?  Are they I, influence and relationship-driven?

And the most important follow up question after you answer the above question…Is my sales presentation tailored to their style?  They don’t care what your style is.  They only care what their style is and how they relate to the world.  If your prospect is an I-Influence profile, they don’t care that you are a data, fact-driven C personality and you tell them on every sales call “how the watch is built”.  They just want to know what time it is.

In fact, by not recognizing and adjusting your approach to your customer’s profile, you can even do more damage than good by being “You”.  Here are some areas to think about.

Change:  The I (Influencer) and the D (Dominance) love change.  Albeit for different reasons, but they enjoy new, cutting edge, the latest, etc.

The C (Conscientious) and the S (Steadiness) dislike change.  Again, for different reasons.

So, if you are calling on a prospect who happens to be in the C or S category and you are promoting your latest, greatest, brand-spanking-new technology that is going to rock the world of seed, feed, grain selling, ag lending, equipment, precision ag, then you just hit a major objection without even realizing it.

Communication:  Think back to the story of Pat.  He was off the charts I.  Could chat it up for hours and feel great about it.  Unfortunately, we were calling on a customer that day that was a C.  Since the customer didn’t talk, Pat filled the void with his constant rattling on, never recognizing that the customer was almost physically uncomfortable with how long the sales call was going.

In addition, odds are that our second appointment was either a C or a D.  How to tell?  These two profile types like to stay on schedule.  With Pat already running late, they found an easy excuse to bow out of the sales call.

Motivators:  Each profile is motivated by different triggers: being in control, being correct & accurate, remaining steady & safe, or image & influence.  Your approach to selling your products and services needs to reflect these motivators when selling to each of these customer types.

If you have an unproven technology that is state of the art, but not 100% tested, then you really shouldn’t be bringing it to your C and S profile customers.  These products and services might fit your profile as an I or C, but will scare the heck out of your customers.  I see salespeople all the time that are so convinced that one product is right for every customer, that’s all they talk about.  I see it on sales calls.  Every one of the sales calls will gravitate to one product.  Like a broken record, I hear them saying, “You need the Univac 6000.  It’s got this and that….”

Working with Pat over the years, we often laugh about how his selling style needed to change.  He gives it his best try and has both good and bad days in his efforts.  I know how hard this is, but it’s worth the effort.  If nothing else, just the awareness can do wonders for your selling approach.

If you are not familiar, DISC is a widely distributed assessment.  For more information on DISC or the four personality quadrants, please reach out.  I’m always interested in discussing how it would help you or your sales team.

For more information on Ag sales training, coaching or business development, contact Greg Martinelli at Ag Sales Professionals, LLC at (608) 751-6971. Email is Greg@GregMartinelli.net  Web site is www.GregMartinelli.net