{"id":823,"date":"2015-03-16T04:03:49","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/?p=823"},"modified":"2015-03-16T04:23:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T04:23:30","slug":"whats-your-prospects-birth-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/whats-your-prospects-birth-order\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s your prospect&#8217;s birth order?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft lazyload\" data-src=\"http:\/\/yourteenmag.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/BirthOrder.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"277\" height=\"178\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 277px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 277\/178;\" \/>Part of building that all-important relationship is understanding with whom you&#8217;re constructing that bridge. Each individual has different things that are important to them and much of it can be linked to their birth order. Are they an only child? First born? Middle? The baby? Are they the first-born male or female? Maybe there&#8217;s a little role reversal going on within the family? (Now, granted, you probably won&#8217;t find that out right away &#8211; that gets into some of their pretty personal family issues and THAT kind of trust hasn&#8217;t been built yet.) Still, though, it&#8217;s pretty easy to identify where they ended up in their family by how they present themselves.\u00a0Check out your prospect&#8217;s office is organized (or lack thereof), how they present themselves, what kind of time-schedule they operate on, how they speak&#8230; they&#8217;ll leave little clues for you without even realizing it.<\/p>\n<h3>Easy to See Clues<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Neat desks vs. sloppy ones.\u00a0 First born vs. a last born, 8\u00a0times out of ten.<\/li>\n<li>14 number 2 pencils \u201cstanding tall\u201d and sharpened in the pencil\u00a0cup. First born.<\/li>\n<li>Prospect opens with a funny joke.\u00a0 Last born.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Last borns\u00a0love attention.<\/li>\n<li>Someone late for a meeting?\u00a0 Definitely not a first born\u2014could be\u00a0a middle or a last born.<\/li>\n<li>Friendly, or open-minded, without you having to \u2018earn\u2019 it? Middle\u00a0or last born, leaning more towards Middle, 7 out of 10 times.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>First Borns and the Only Child<\/h3>\n<p>They&#8217;ll usually have the following characteristics: perfectionist, reliable, conscientious, list-maker, well organized, critical, serious, scholarly, often &#8220;black and white&#8221; mindset (very little grey).<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re selling to these individuals, keep these tips in mind:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be on time.<\/li>\n<li>Don\u2019t touch anything on their desk.<\/li>\n<li>Be prepared to live up to their high expectations. Don\u2019t confuse\u00a0that with being subservient.\u00a0Just deliver on what you promise.<\/li>\n<li>Be prepared to follow a first born\u2019s lead.<\/li>\n<li>Prepare an agenda and follow it.<\/li>\n<li>Watch the humor.<\/li>\n<li>Pay attention to the details. They\u2019re waiting for you to \u201ctrip up.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Middle Children<\/h3>\n<p>These &#8220;rebels&#8221; usually have the following traits: mediator, fewest pictures in the family photo album, avoids conflict but competitive, independent, they don&#8217;t like to make commitments, extreme loyalty to the peer group, many friends, a maverick.<\/p>\n<p>Tips for interacting with them?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Always let a middle child \u201csum up\u201d and say out loud what you\u00a0believe the two of you have agreed to. It actually has to come\u00a0from their lips in order for them to honor it.<\/li>\n<li>The flip side is you\u2019ll have difficulty tying down a middle child\u00a0to a commitment.<\/li>\n<li>Apples for apples, a middle child can out-manipulate the rest of you, so be careful.<\/li>\n<li>A sloppy desk doesn\u2019t necessarily mean a disorganized person\u00a0They know what pile something\u2019s in, if they really needed to put\u00a0their hands on it.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s easy to confuse a middle child\u2019s easy going, friendly\u00a0demeanor as open-mindedness.<\/li>\n<li>Middle children are looking for loyal relationships (but not with immediate family), because that\u2019s what was missing growing up: Undivided attention. Translation to sales? Middle child customers are very loyal to their suppliers, so get a good track record established early on in the relationship.<\/li>\n<li>One-upsmanship, favoritism and phonies are disliked by them.\u00a0 In a sales environment it is especially important to use the \u201cnot ok\u201d rule; i.e. intentionally place them above you. They should feel just a little more \u201cok\u201d than you, but you need to always be upfront and honest with them.<\/li>\n<li>Middle born seldom forgives and never forgets.<\/li>\n<li>They are persistent in the face of adversity and confusion. Don\u2019t count on them backing down if they perceive you as a personal challenge.<\/li>\n<li>Middle borns are well liked and they want to have an impact on others. Be interested in their thoughts and you have won a friend.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>The Baby<\/h3>\n<p>These disrupters of the peace&#8230; said in the kindest way possible, I assure you \ud83d\ude09 &#8230; are usually the attention seekers, charming to the point of manipulation if not careful, blames others, shows off, engaging, precocious, and usually make really great sales people.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re selling to these sellers, remember the following tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get them involved personally in any presentations that are\u00a0required\u2014they will bathe in the attention.<\/li>\n<li>Give out plenty of \u201cstrokes;\u201d they crave them, as long as they\u2019re\u00a0sincere.<\/li>\n<li>Understand that an excited last born on Wednesday can easily\u00a0disintegrate by Thursday. It\u2019s that ambivalence they felt growing\u00a0up \u2013 it stays with them.<\/li>\n<li>Also understand that getting a last born to make a commitment\u00a0will be difficult; it goes against their grain.<\/li>\n<li>Taking control and telling a last born what the real problem is\u00a0tends to be a real eye opener for them; in some small\u00a0psychological way you are assuming the role of big brother or\u00a0\u00a0 sister, all over again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For more information on birth order pertaining to sales, you can see <a title=\"JSTOR Article\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/20832454?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents\" target=\"_blank\">Birth Order and the Sales Professional<\/a> (JSTOR), The Psychology Behind the Sale:\u00a0<a title=\"Part 1\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sandler.com\/pressitems\/show\/10624\/1357\" target=\"_blank\">Part 1<\/a>, <a title=\"Part 2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sandler.com\/pressitems\/show\/10772\/1357\" target=\"_blank\">Part 2<\/a>, <a title=\"Part 3\" href=\"http:\/\/www.sandler.com\/pressitems\/show\/10905\/1357\" target=\"_blank\">Part 3<\/a>\u00a0(Sandler Training), and <a title=\"Evan Carmichael\" href=\"http:\/\/www.evancarmichael.com\/Sales\/491\/Sales-Training-London-Birth-Order-Selling-Strategies.html\" target=\"_blank\">Birth Order Selling Strategies<\/a> (Evan Carmichael). If you&#8217;re interested in birth order as a whole, I&#8217;d suggest <a title=\"Amazon Birth Order Book\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/The-Birth-Order-Book-Why\/dp\/0800734068\" target=\"_blank\">The Birth Order Book<\/a> by Kevin Leman &#8211; it&#8217;s quite interesting and also has a portion on sales from both the seller&#8217;s and prospect&#8217;s perspectives (and then it goes even more in-depth on how one birth order individual will best move another birth order individual).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part of building that all-important relationship is understanding with whom you&#8217;re constructing that bridge. Each individual has different things that are important to them and much of it can be linked to their birth order. Are they an only child? First born? Middle? The baby? Are they the first-born male or female? Maybe there&#8217;s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,27,2,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sales-process","category-sales-struggles","category-sales-tips","category-selling-yourself"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":830,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions\/830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gccwebsites.com\/startupsales\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}