Working with customer personalities
Featured in the Selling through Customer Service training manual
By Tony Gillen
Category: Sales Skills
Credit price: 3 download credits (Single user)
Some customers are easy to work with, others are not! We get on with some customers; others are pains in the neck, stupid or just plain awkward! Using a mix of whole group work and syndicate discussion, this training activity strips away the veil from all customers so that participants can, very easily, understand what kind of customer they are dealing with. Once they can recognise the four types they will be able to: help the customer to buy; know they are being professional; enjoy work more; and sell more. The skills associated with this activity will be more useful to customer contact staff who have to advise customers on what they might buy as opposed to straightforward order-taking in, for example, a DIY store, camera story or vehicle repair centre, as opposed to a corner grocery store.
Begin this training activity by focusing participants on the main purpose of their jobs and helping them realise that they will sell more and get more job satisfaction if they use the material in this session. Then they go into syndicate groups to compile lists of traits, actions and behaviours of customers in order to build the four customer personality types. These are then discussed in a whole group session. Syndicates are then reconvened and each selects one customer type and considers how best to work with such customers. Each syndicate then presents its ideas for whole group consideration. The session is then drawn to a close by reference back to the original job purpose – to achieve a win–win–win situation!
Who is it for: This training activity is intended for use by trainers to explain to participants the four major customer personalities and how to work with them to encourage them to buy.
| Resource Type: | Activity |
| Min Group Size: | 6 |
| Max Group Size: | 12 |
| Typical Duration: | 02:15:00 |
| No of Pages: | 15 |
Resources: View standard resources for Fenman training activities
Purpose: This training activity is intended for use by trainers with all participants regardless of their experience. Inexperienced staff will welcome the chance to learn this skill so soon in their career and experienced colleagues will relate to the personalities and be able to see why some previous selling opportunities were more successful than others, or at least easier.
Download the training activity, Working with customer personalities as featured in the Fenman training manual; Selling through Customer Service