From the time you were a child in Elementary school, your teachers, parents, and role models have always told you to be your own person and not follow the crowd. Take what makes you who you are and amplify it for the world to see. While the sales world is not telling you to hide who you are by any means, or try to be someone else, there is a certain degree of needing to fit in to the environment you are selling to.
I am calling this the Chameleon Approach because as a salesperson, you have to adapt your characteristics, actions, and even tone of voice to the establishment that you find yourself in. It is one thing to be trying to sell someone something at a noisy, rowdy downtown festival, and another to be discussing a potential purchase with a business client in a professional, quiet and formal work area. These two different environments need two different types of sales personas. We do not even have to look at examples to that extreme, as every person is different and responds better to different approaches.
For example, say you are talking to a client who you can tell right off the bat is rather extroverted. Within five minutes they are your best pal and you are talking and laughing about sports, your kids, and what you used to be like in high school. In this situation, it is best to take an approach of being less formal and taking on the “chummy” persona. You do this because it is what appeases the customer most and they feel connected to the salesperson better in this environment. Now, say you are selling the same product, but to an extremely introverted customer. Asking them all about their personal life and being a little too bubbly might cause this particular customer to want to retract and back away from the sale. This situation might require a softer tone of voice with more gentle motions and not quite so “in-your-face” attitude.
It is all about the connection the customer feels towards the person selling them the product. The more one has to invest into a particular product, the more the connection matters. A customer should feel comfortable and able to relate to their salesperson. Without leaving who you are behind, to the best of your ability try to fit into the environment you enter. Chameleon’s get the catch.
BoweryJE22
This is so important because no two sales are the same. Trying to sell to my friend back home versus a 90 year old woman is something that should definitely be taken into account.
Some people are so good at this and are so quick to adapt to a certain situation. When I am dealing with a salesperson who doesn’t *pretend* to laugh at my jokes or doesn’t want to have a real conversation, I get very turned off and feel distrustful of them. Sometimes I can see the person adapt to the way I am, and it makes me so much more likely to buy from them.
Great job making the distinction between “fitting in” and “adapting”. As a salesperson, we are always having to adapt to our environment- are you dealing with a robust, loud person, a quiet person, etc. It is not so much agreeing with the customer, as you described, but about helping them see how the product can fit their needs.