In class this week, we had Mr. Adams come back and speak with us. Mr. Adams spent some time talking about varies “types” of sales people. He did mention that these types aren’t set in stone, of course. I may butcher these names a bit, but the ideas and the concepts are there. So, here are the five types of sales people we talked about in class.
- The Relationship Builder- This person puts a lot into knowing their customers. They carry in their sales because customers who know them will choose to buy with them. They’ll put lots of energy into knowing who they are talking to and trying to build relationship, and then hope a sale comes out of their invested time.
- The Reactive Problem Solver- They are highly detail oriented and will go after problems until they are solved. Customers will feel comfortable because they know they can rely on this salesperson.
- The Hard Worker- This is the person who will keep at something until it gets done. For sales, this might look like the people who are staying after hours, calling all the people, and going after the sales in order to meet their quotas.
- The Lone Wolf- The lone wolf typically has some sort of amazing strategy that works for them. They’ll do half the amount of work, might avoid working in teams and with others, and still manage to pull in more sales than anyone else But, studies have found that when others learn the strategy the loan wolf has and apply it to the team, they will typically outperform the wolf.
- The Challenger- The challenger cares more about what is best for the customer than what is best for the relationship or the sale or the company. This type of selling can be particularly effective when the challenger truly believes that their product can help the customer. The customer feels like someone is in their corner, but also are being directly challenged to view life in a different way.
BoweryJE22
The Challenger is a wonderful blend of the other salespeople types. I understand where each of the other four people are incredibly effective but never realized how important it was to blend many of these aspects together to create the best possible selling experience for yourself and the customer. I was really glad that Mr. Adams was able to speak with us these past three times and would have loved if he was in person but unfortunately these times have called for different ways of communication. Hopefully we will be able to learn more from him if he is able to be in person some day soon.
Like Dr. Sweet said in class, I think that the Challenger is a good mixture of all of the other types of salespeople, but I think that the challenger also has to be very self-aware when to challenge and when not to challenge. Challenging certain situations is only effective when delivered at an appropriate time, and if not, it is very possible that the seller loses the sale.