Competitive Excellence

What causes conflict? Consider interactions with other people involving differences in expectations, motives, or priorities. And by now we know that people with Gold, Blue, Green, and Orange personality styles have very different values and motivations. Each reacts differently to risk and approaches decisions at different paces. But these differences need not derail your interactions with others.

Conflict frequently occurs. Conflict occurs when you’re in sales and dealing with clients. It also occurs when you are part of a customer service team. For example, are you ever angry when your manager calls a team meeting, and perhaps you have a proposal due? What if your client demands to see you right away; occupying time you promised to your family? Conflict and stress are natural occurrences in our daily interactions at home, our business, or at client visits.

There are three elements of our personality that cause interpersonal conflict. We all go into meetings or situations with our personal expectations, motives and priorities. For example:

• Motives: Our ideas about outcomes and results might be different from those with whom we meet. Your motive for selling your products and services is rarely the same as their reason for buying.

• Expectations: We can see benefits from our involvement which might not be appreciated by others. If you look at your proposed solution and its impact to the client, will you be able to meet their expectations? Perhaps your organization works with or supports another organization. What does your team expect to accomplish versus the other team’s needs?

• Priorities: From our perspective an issue is very important and deserves priority treatment, while others ignore the situation. For most sales professionals the number one priority is close the deal! But this deal might not be the top priority for the client.

In each of these, our expectations, motives and priorities are different from the expectations, motives and priorities of those we are meeting. The result can cause stress and conflict.

Conflict is normal; these example situations are common life situations. Do you ignore this conflict? Fear of conflict is one of the dysfunctions that Patrick Lencioni describes in “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”. If we fear or avoid conflict it will stifle the growth of any organization or customer relationship; and we know that building strong relationships is critical to making sales and building winning teams. How can our knowledge of personality types help us?

Conflict can occur whether you are dealing with someone of your same primary personality style or someone that has a different primary color. Golds can be in conflict with Golds as easily as with a Blue, Green or Orange. However, there are characteristics of each personality style that can be stressful to the other colors, and therefore contribute to or exacerbate conflict. For example:

• Blues can be too idealistic and lack a sense of urgency.
• Golds can be too inflexible and resistant to change.
• Greens can ask too many questions and rework things to perfection.
• Oranges can miss details and ignore policies and procedures.

If we understand our personality differences, it can help us understand what our different expectations are. It will help us appreciate the fact that others might have different motives and priorities as we work together.

Knowing that conflict will always exist, we need to understand the best approach to resolving it with each color. This can save a lot of time and energy in the sales cycle. It can make team interaction more productive and successful. Conflict is resolved with communication that acknowledges the needs and values of others. Let’s look at how to diffuse conflict with each personality type:

• With Golds define the issues, be respectful and be responsible for your actions.
• With Blues be pleasant and show empathy for their concerns. Focus on the people aspects for resolution.
• With Greens avoid emotion, focus on the facts and encourage debate and discussion.
• With Oranges expect a challenge to the issue at hand, but be flexible and realistic and offer alternatives.

If you are a Gold and they are a Blue, reach out and respond with the empathy Blue’s expect. If you are a Gold and they are a Gold, show them the respect you expect of them. Resolving conflict effectively can take any relationship to the next level.

As we move into 2008 and receive our new budgets, our number one priority is how we will over achieve our targets for this year? What business that did not close in December can we jump start this year in January?

I’d like to address the difference between the sales cycle and the buying cycle. What’s the difference and why is it critical. In a nutshell, it is another point-of-view (POV) issue. We spoke to how personality influences POV in last year’s newsletters. POV also plays a factor here; but now it is the role taken on by the people and teams which determines your strategy. Your role as the seller is different from their role as the buyer – leading to different POVs. Understanding this, how can we impact these?

First, the playing field; this is an issue of two separate processes that are linked, but not identical. You are engaged in a larger sales process which, as you are interacting with the buyer, is often named the “sales cycle.” Your role in this cycle is to discover candidates, provide information, influence their decisions, and facilitate the closure of the purchase. As a process, these proceed in this generally sequential flow, one following another. The buyers are engaged in their own process, part of which is the “buying cycle”. For example, they might discover a need, seek information on products/solutions, qualify candidates, weigh the alternatives, make a decision, and acquire the product/service. These processes intersect in meetings and information exchanges during which you each have separate POVs linked to your goals – but these goals are not necessarily the same. And we know from experience this deeply complicates the simple joint progression of qualify, present, assess, buy.

Let’s look at the sales cycle. The sales cycle is from our POV; we see a progression of the customer moving stepwise forward in making a decision to purchase a product or a service. The sales cycle is our interaction with the customer and the necessary steps we need to take this process forward to our goal: making the sale. How we set our strategy and actions in the sales cycle directly impact the progress we make. In other words, we control a portion of the interlinked processes manifested in the sales cycle, but the customer controls the buying cycle. This leads to a problem we, as sales professionals, have in forecasting the time when the sales cycle will end, when the purchase order will be awarded. We predict closure from our POV. How many times have you seen the sales cycle slip? Nearly every forecast of a business opportunity slips out from the time they are expected to close. Closing business as forecasted has become the exception. Why? We do not control when the business is awarded, the customer does! Just as with personality color, we must consider the customers POV.

What the customer sees is their buying cycle; from their perspective the sales cycle is just a segment of the entire buying cycle. The buying cycle process includes the following:

• Client’s needs and budgeting for a solution;
• Evaluating solutions- both internal and external;
• Making the purchasing decision;
• Implementation;
• Evaluation of how the solution is performing.

In the sales cycle all we see is the customer evaluating our solution and asking questions about it. We qualify the opportunity and ask about their timing and (mistakenly) take that as a firm commitment as to when they will make their decision. The problem is that we are not involved with the customer when they make their decision. The more engaged we are in the buying process, the more we participate in their process, the better our chances are of winning the business of moving our sales cycle towards closure. If we come into the process at the beginning of the buying cycle we can better understand their complete needs for a solution, the expected impact and return on investment which will lead to more influence during the sales cycle. We can begin to see this from their POV – a POV that is never fully captured in documents. How often have you responded to a request for proposal you received and won? Consider: who assisted in writing the proposal? Possibly one of your competitors who helped assess the needs in the beginning of the customer’s buying cycle.

What can we do to impact the sales and buying cycle?

• Understand their POV which will be different from yours.
• Get involved with the customer in the earliest possible stage where they are assessing their needs and budgets.
• Create a value proposition from their POV that differentiates you in their eyes from your competitors.
• Build relationships with the key decision makers and influencers that are in control.
• Expect changes and be flexible.
• Understand the personality “color” styles of the decision makers.

Many times in the sales cycle we try to create a sense of urgency. Remember that we usually see a situation from our perspective and not the customers. It’s impossible to find out everything that’s gong on behind the scene. Our knowledge is “imperfect” and our access is limited. Any sense of urgency is created within the customer’s organization from their goals, priorities, and time constraints. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we can create urgency! Realize that something of high priority to us is not always the same priority for the customer.

Yet inside each “role” they are playing in the buying process, is a real, live human with a specific personality. Understanding the decision makers personality styles can make the difference in winning the business or not. Playing to what each decision maker values is critical. We also need to understand that each personality style evaluates making decisions differently and that difference will affect their own process timing. Recapping our December 2007 newsletter, remember the differentiators in personality colors when making decisions.

Gold and Green personalities tend to be more objective when making a decision while Orange and Blue personalities lean towards the subjective side. When evaluating the five key considerations for a decision; cost, service, quality, capability and risk, each personality tends to prioritize two of the five more so than the others.

• Blue = Quality & Service
• Orange = Cost & Service
• Green = Capability & Quality
• Gold = Cost & Risk

In conclusion, consider the timing for business to close. Gold and Orange personalities are more apt to make a decision in a timely manner. Blue and Green personalities are slower to commit. Adjust your timing expectations, modify your interaction strategy, play to their values, and work within their POV of their buying process – and become the strategic seller.

It’s not what people buy, but why they buy. Your customer’s personality style is a key to understanding how they make decisions to buy. A customer starts with both business reasons, and personal reasons, to seek a new product or service. Additionally, both objective and subjective factors are assessed by the customer as they decide whether to buy, who to trust, and which company to buy from. By understanding how the different personality color types relatively weight these decision criteria, and how they respond to these values, you can influence the decision to buy.

Objective reasons to buy: Before the buying cycle starts, there exists an identified need within the buying company. Customers purchase products and solutions to impact specific factors in their business model or to reach specific business goals. Some of the most typical of these are:
• Increase profits and revenue;
• Reduce operational costs;
• Increase productivity;
• Improve cash flow;
• Reduce inventory;
• Improve customer delivery;
• Lower product defect rates;
• Reduce whole life total cost of ownership of equipment;
• Bring new products to market faster;
• Open new markets for products.
Of course these vary by industry and company maturity. Once the purchase is complete, then from a business perspective, the impact on these factors is both objective and measurable. After the product or service is acquired, for the purchase to be successful, some measurable and beneficial shift should be observed. But at the time of the decision to buy, these are “potential” effects and the salesman can influence the perception of how the product will perform.

Subjective reasons to buy: But there are always subjective, personal factors which become significant reasons for a decision maker to buy or not to buy, wait or buy now. The following situations are subjective and personal, but nevertheless may strongly impact a decision to buy:
• Will it ease the pressure on my position and my team?
• Will I get a promotion or a bonus if it turns out well?
• Will it help employee moral?
• How will I be viewed by ‘xxx’ in making this decision?
• How will our position change in regards to our competition?
• Will it improve the quality of the work environment?

Objective buying-decision criteria: Five common criteria weighed by the purchasing team, when making a decision to buy a product or service, are: cost, capability, quality, service and risk. Whether it’s a product or a project, these are key factors your customers consider when making a decision.
• Cost is the total cost of ownership including the return on the investment. This TCO includes the immediate price, the deferred downstream costs such as maintenance and service, and indirect costs such as any warranties involved.
• Capability is the functionality of your product or service and the technology that’s used. “What is the product or service able to do?” “What’s the breadth of the solution and how can it expand in the future as we grow?” “How easy will it be to install and integrate with other parts of our business process?”
• Quality is the reliability of your product. “Will it last?” “Will it have problems?” “Will it consistently perform as promised?”
• Service is how well you will take care of the customer if problems arise. “What hours are you available?” “What is your response time?” Service is all about your company’s attitude on customer care and your ability to perform when issues arise.
• Risk measures the probability that you will live up to your agreements, direct and implied, and additionally that the product is all they expect it to be. Some risk is inherent in any decision to buy or not to buy. Have they learned enough to be comfortable with a decision to purchase? Will their risk be reduced if they wait and weigh more issues and look at more products? Will the solution perform as promised and will the return on investment be what was expected?
Each of the four personality styles, as they consider the solution you are offering, will give a different weighting to each of these criteria.

Subjective buying-decision criteria: Cost, service, quality, capability and risk can be analyzed and assessed. In themselves they are objective factors which can be quantified, at least to some extent. But how a customer responds to these can be subjective. Subjective factors that affect a decision to buy, and when to buy, also include:
• The customer’s relationship with the sales person. Whether or not trust and respect are established. Were these effectively built through the sales process?
• How comfortable is the customer with the proposed product solution, as contrasted with how comfortable they were before the need arose?
• How authoritative is the salesperson? Have they understood the business and personal needs of the customer?
• The customer is buying from not only the sales person but the company they represent. What is the reputation of the company? In popular culture is it considered one of “the good guys?”

Personality plays a part in all these decisions to buy or not buy. The objective impacts are more to those who are left brained (Green and Gold). The subjective impacts are more often considered by the right brained (Orange and Blue). Each of the four personality styles will lean towards two of the five criteria more heavily over the others. We have seen that most often our usual rule-of-thumbs are:
• Blue = Quality & Service
• Orange = Cost & Service
• Greene = Capability & Quality
• Gold = Cost & Risk
Let’s now explore more specific responses of the four personality styles to the business reasons and decision criteria we have identified.

Blues make decisions from the heart; a decision must feel right. Blues will lean towards the subjective impacts of a solution such as: how it will impact the people in the organization, how will it affect moral, will it improve the quality of the work environment. Blues are slow to make decisions since they solicit the input of all the team members. Then they make a decision based on group consensus. Making sure everyone agrees on the decision can take time, during which Blues do not like to be pressured. Blues typically are risk averse and prefer the safe solution. Trust is paramount with a Blue decision maker, but objective criteria also influence Blues. A Blue will place emphasis on the quality of the solution and the service. How will the solution impact productivity (specifically people productivity)? How will the product/purchase impact ‘customer satisfaction’ (again focusing on their team of people)? To gain commitment from a Blue, ask how they feel about moving forward.

Oranges make decisions from the gut; a decision must seem advantageous. When it comes to personal purchases, Oranges are impulse buyers. When making business purchases, Oranges are bottom line driven. The more important criteria for the Oranges are subjective and distinctly personal. How will they look inside the organization if they go with the decision to buy? Will they get a promotion or bonus? Importantly, Oranges like to do business with a person they can rely on time and time again. Ease of doing business, convenience, and great personal service during the sales cycle are important to the Orange. Specific objective criteria (those associated with competition) also influence Orange decisions. How will the solution position the company in regards to the competition? Will the solution improve customer satisfaction and market share? Will it improve the time to market for new products? Oranges tend to be more impatient than the other personalities since they typically juggle many balls at one time. They are quick to make decisions, and when Oranges make a decision they are decisive. When presenting to Oranges, describe the big picture, use bullets and provide the short summary. Oranges need to know they are getting a great deal and they can have it now!

Greens make decisions from the head; a decision must be logical. The Green personality is objective when assessing the impact of a solution. They will research the product, market, your company, and make quantitative comparisons with other vendor’s solutions. The objective criteria established for the purchase are very important to the Green’s consideration of any solution. For example, how will the solution improve product quality and functionality? How will it lower the defect rate? How will it bring new and innovative products to market? How will it open new markets? Greens are slow to make decisions since research takes time and they seek lots of information. Once the research is complete, they will make a decision - but until then, don’t push them. Subjectively, Greens are pressure averse. With Greens you need to be patient and provide everything they ask for. For a Green, each decision is personal, usually unaffected by the opinion of others. The best approach for moving the sale forward is to ask them: “what other information might you need?” and “what will be your next step in the assessment?”

Golds make weighted decisions for the company; a decision must impart financial well being (for the company first, and then indirectly, for them). For the Gold, decisions are mostly objective. What is the return on investment? How will this impact the bottom line, reduce operation costs, improve cash flow or reduce inventory levels? Golds study the companies (yours and even your partners) that they consider doing business with. How long have they been around? What is their position in the industry; their credibility? From a subjective side, Golds are concerned with their position in the organization and what impact the decision will have politically. Will it enhance their prospects and weaken their rivals? Trust is also important to the Gold. Objectively, Golds will assess the risk involved in making a decision. Subjectively, Golds like corporate security, value the status quo, and need a prudent reason to make a decision. Remember, Golds need to have expectations clearly laid out. Golds are usually very organized and have a timeline for each step in the process that leads towards the buying decision; which makes them predictable as to when they will make a final decision. For Golds, “time is money” is literal – do not waste their time. Be supportive of the Gold and their decision making process and you can ask for the order.

The bottom line: If you are dealing with a left brain personality type (Green or Gold) the decision will more often lean towards the business aspects of your solution. Business needs will override the personal needs. However, if you are dealing with a right brain decision maker (Blue or Orange), the personal needs can outweigh the business needs.

Recapping, questions like: How do they feel? (Blue) What does their gut tell them? (Orange) Is it logical? (Green) Is it advantageous? (Gold) Are they looking for a promotion or how will they be viewed by the rest of the organization if they make the decision? (Gold or Orange) How will it impact the people in the organization? (Blue or Gold) Is it the best solution? (Green)… Understanding that each personality style goes about making decisions differently can reset your approach and strategy with the customer. If there are multiple decision makers, you can emphasize the key points that will be important to each personality style involved – thereby covering all your bases. Focusing on both the objective and subjective points will satisfy each individuals own issues and be significant in moving the sale forward.