Mastering the DISC Profile: S Personality

Rob  00:00

What if I told you that the big reason that you’re losing it on sale sometimes is because you’re not speaking to the buyer in their personality language. Today I’m going to show you how with one personality type that frustrates us all. Let’s get started.

Rob  00:15

So I mentioned that the S personality is a difficult personality to sell to sometimes, and they’re all difficult. They’re all in different ways. Okay, especially if you’re not one yourself, is difficult. But let’s talk a little bit about the different styles of personalities that are out there. And I’m using the disc personalities to talk through that.

Rob  00:29

First there’s a D personality, okay, so the D personality stands for dominant personality. They are very much just like the name implies they’re a dominant person. They lead the conversation, usually.

Rob  00:42

There’s an I personality, which is the influencer. The influencer are the kind of people that when you get around them, you really enjoy being around them. You want to talk to them more. You want to be around them more. They’re an influencer. And we can get into that some other day. There’s the s personality, which we’re going to get into today.

Rob  00:58

And then there’s a C personality, who is the analytical or the compliance type of person. Okay, so we’re going to talk about the s personality. And the reason we’re gonna talk about the S is because it is one of the more difficult ones to identify, but also the more difficult ones to sell to in terms of frustration.

Rob  01:13

The s personality is what’s called the steadiness person, or profile. The steadiness profile has a couple of different key traits that are really important to remember. Okay, so what is they’re great listeners, they’re cooperative, they’re very much loyal, they’re trustworthy. One of the things that they really are good at being known for is they’ve got your back. Okay? They’re the type of person that avoids the conflict, that wouldn’t you know you would.

Rob  01:38

They wouldn’t want to be in a conflict situation. They don’t want to argue with their co workers or for with their co workers or friends. They don’t want any of that. Okay? They they don’t like to be competitive in terms of being competitive with other people in flashy ways. They may be as a business owner, they’re going to want to be competitive, and they want to make sure their business does well, but they’re not going to be competitive personally and butt heads with you.

Rob  02:00

Okay, simple as that, they care about other people a lot. And not to say that the other personalities don’t, but they’re very good at being a caring person. So the way that I always described an S personality is that they’re a people, people type of individual. There’s task people and there’s people, people, the people people are the S’s and the eyes, those two types of personalities focus and get more out of life by dealing with people.

Rob  02:27

The D’s and the C’s tend to be more task driven, so they like to get things done. They feel very satisfied when they can check a box and say that’s done. Okay. So that’s kind of a reference point for that. I think the one thing that I would say to take out of the s personality is how much they value being either they’re trustworthy themselves or having trust of another person.

Rob  02:49

That is really critical, and that’s really important in sales. So let’s kind of get into how that fits into sales. Because one of the things that if you don’t do these things in sales, then you’re going to find that they’re just not going to make decisions, okay? And that’s why it’s they’re one of the frustrating ones, because they just don’t tell you that they’re having a problem. They just don’t tell you anything and they disappear. Okay? So one of the things you want to make sure you do with them as a nice personality is check in often.

Rob  03:16

I don’t mean call them up. Hey, how’s it going? Where are we at with this process? No, not in the sales process. What I mean is is, as you’re having the conversation with them, you’re asking open ended questions, you’re letting them talk. You’re getting them to explain more and tell the you as much as possible.

Rob  03:31

You want to make sure that they are feel comfortable talking to you, number one, so asking those open ended questions one thing, but they want to make sure that they feel comfortable doing so before that. So you’re going to want to talk to them in their language, in terms of asking them questions about their team, asking them questions about their process, asking them questions that are generic and wide, so that they can get into some of those details.

Rob  03:53

And you can follow that path, if you will. If nothing else, also remember you should be calm and soothing and be very nurturing, if you will, with an S, because what you want to make sure you do is that they feel comfortable and that you’re not overpowering them or being a dominant personality.

Rob  04:11

There’s not somebody that they get along with. Well, you want to reassure them by checking back often, so when you see that, you’re going to make sure that when you’re going through the sales process, there are things that come up where they’re making or you guys are both in a process of making decisions to move to the next step before they say yes, or before you asking them, can we move to the next step?

Rob  04:33

You’re going to have to ask the question. All right, what I’m hearing you say is that this and this and this, these are the points of pain, or whatever they might be that we’ve talked about. You want to fix this. You want to do that you’re recapping and confirming what you understand of the conversation and where their position is and what they’re feeling and thinking and seeing okay. And if they don’t feel that way or see it that way, they should be comfortable to tell you.

Rob  05:00

Because you’re asking it that way and you’re recapping it, you’re not pushing them to move forward. You’re backing up, and you’re saying, I want to make sure that I understand where we’re at. Let’s recap this so I understand this. This, this, right?

Rob  05:14

That’s where you’re checking back with them, how they’re doing, where they’re at, without really directly saying, Where are you at with this? You don’t want to do that either, right? You don’t want to make them feel like you’re not going to be there after the sale.

Rob  05:26

So what one of the things that you really want to make sure you do is that they feel that there’s going to be support after they’ve signed the contract, that you’re not going to disappear, or that the company’s not going to disappear. So they want to make sure that they understand that that support is there and that they feel comfortable knowing that that’s what’s going to happen all along this whole process.

Rob  05:43

One of the things I would tell you is, slow down. I know that’s what I say in this in this podcast, is slow down and close more. But the whole thing is, if you slow down with them, they feel comfortable. One of the things that I would say is, typically, I would speak at this kind of cadence, right? But when you’re speaking to them, you need to slow it down. And slow it down, not by entering spaces between the sentences. I mean, slow your entire sentence down. Relax.

Rob  06:12

Have the conversation be present. It’s difficult, especially if you’re in a process of trying to get things done. You’ve got multiple sales calls or you’ve got multiple meetings for the day, it’s tough to just say, All right, I’m going to slow down and speak this slow.

Rob  06:27

But I would highly recommend that if you have a batch of people that you’ve identified as as personalities, that you make them all in a block of time, so that you can just get into that mode of being a slow talker. Okay, I tend to speak quickly, and when I get to an S personality, or when I speaking to an S personality, I have to consciously slow down.

Rob  06:47

It’s difficult. It’s not easy, but it is something you have to do, because if you don’t, they’re going to feel that you’re just talking over them, and that’s not good. So there’s some things that you don’t want to do when you’re talking to an S personality. That’s one of them. So you don’t want to be aggressive or have aggressive body language, or be pushy, or make them feel like you’re trying to make decisions for them or pushing them in a direction.

Rob  07:10

If you start to do that, they’re going to pull back, they’re going to be quiet, they’re not going to tell you what they’re feeling. They’re just going to just be agreeable. Yeah, that sounds good. So if you said, hey, it looks like this is where we’re at, and you’re comfortable that yeah, and we’re gonna do this, yeah, oh yeah. And they’re just gonna Yes, you to death.

Rob  07:25

They were never gonna make a decision. So your questioning needs to be a little bit different with them. It needs to come across as, tell me where we’re at with this what? What do we think we are going to do next with this part? Make them tell you not. You’re recapping to them. It’s, where are you? Where are you at this? And what are we going to do next with it?

Rob  07:43

What do you think we should do with that? And by doing that, you’re making them make some decisions, and you’re kind of locking them down a little bit. And if you have to recheck back later or at the end of the meeting, you’re going to say, Okay, I think what we talked about was we talked about this next step, and you decided you wanted to do this next okay.

Rob  08:05

So that means that when we do that, we’re going to do this, this, this, whatever that might be for you, and then we’re going to start to move into this next phase, or whatever that might be. So you’re slowly inching them towards and feeling comfortable with making their decision as you go through one of the things that they need to have from you is that they feel comfortable that you’re going to do what you say you’re going to do.

Rob  08:26

So if you say you’re going to do something and you don’t do it, it’s not like, oh, okay, well, let me rephrase it. Let me correct that you can’t do that. It’s done. You’ve lost it. That’s that simple. You’re if you’re not going to do what you say you’re going to do on this one thing, on this one little thing, then when the big thing comes together, how do I know that there’s five other things that are along the way that you’re not going to do?

Rob  08:52

And I don’t, I’m not, I’m not comfortable with that. One of the things that you also want to do is bring in their team along the way. And I think one of the things that makes it really important to do that with is is that they are very team oriented, or people focused, right?

Rob  08:59

So if you bring their team in, make sure that they’re involved, and make sure that they’re comfortable being involved, that the S personality is comfortable, that their team is involved. But while you’re getting decisions, if you have a dominant personality on that team, and they’re making yes decisions, but it’s the s that’s really the final decision maker. Do not listen to the D. Make sure you go back to the s and go, I’m not sure I’m comfortable. Are we? Are we on the same page?

Rob  09:22

Because I don’t, I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that quite yet, because the D is going to make a decision pretty quickly. The S is not. And by asking the s, if I’m not really comfortable with this, what do we what do we want to do here?

Rob  09:35

That puts them in control, but also it builds a little bit more trust. So you saying what you’re going to do, and do what you say is really important, but using an understanding of what the team is looking for that as personality needs. They want that anyway, so by incorporating them in, that’s going to be really important to get all the information you need. The other thing you don’t want to do is change directions. So if you start to put.

Rob  10:00

Together in this conversation, you’re you’re going to go and do X, Y, Z, whatever those tasks are, and you put this together a proposal, and it’s missing Z, or you’ve added a T and an S, because this is just other tests you wanted to add to it.

Rob  10:13

Even if it’s free, that’s going to be a little bit of a problem. It’s going to be a surprise. They don’t want surprises. It’s kind of one of those situations where I thought this is what I was getting. So why are you not just writing that down? I don’t want more and I don’t want less. I want exactly what you said I was gonna get. That’s what they want. So don’t change directions on them.

Rob  10:34

So now we’ve gone through a lot of things that the as personality does needs and wants in the conversations. One of the things that you need to do when you start to think about and get in the sales process, in order to deal with them, in order to move them through the process. If your sales process is typically three weeks, let’s say an S personality might take eight months seriously.

Rob  10:56

I’ve had it happen, and that was my fault, because I didn’t recognize they were an S. In fact, what I ended up doing is I ended up having to go back to that person who was an S and say, boy, my mistake here. Can we just go through some of these details? Because I’m not sure I got all this correct.

Rob  11:12

And we started to go through those things. And then started making micro decisions that were very easy, making decisions it involved other people on the team, and all of a sudden we were starting to make some headway and started to move forward, and then we finally got the contract signed. It just took me a long time to figure it out, and I don’t want that to happen to you.

Rob  11:30

That’s why I’m sharing this with you. So make sure you check in with them. Often, make sure you check in with the team. Often, make sure that everybody is on the same page and realize that you’re going to spend more time in a couple different meetings, maybe another extra meeting, or two or three or four, whatever that takes to make sure that you’re getting that commitment each time, so that they continue to feel comfortable as they go.

Rob  11:53

It’s like one step, one foot in front of the other with an S personality. Yes, it can be frustrating if you’re a little bit of a high moving, fast moving. But the s personality, if you let them, they will make that decision, but they want to make sure they’re doing the right thing. So a couple little things. Make sure that you slow down.

Rob  12:10

Make sure you recap and re go through conversations to clarify what they’re asking and what they’re needing and what they’re wanting and what direction they want to go next. Make sure that you give them some logic along the way, and make sure you’re patient. You have to make sure that you are going to come across patient and waiting for them, because if you come across not patient, you’re coming across as if you’re rushing them, and that is not going to be productive for them.

Rob  12:38

Trust is number one for them, they have to have the trust not only from you, but they need to feel trust from you, if you will. They need to trust you. It comes down to that simple as that.

Rob  12:49

Ask them what’s missing as often as possible, because when you ask them what’s missing, they’ll tell you. If they’re not comfortable with you, they’ll they’ll tell you nothing, nothing, nothing. If you get a nothing. Every time you ask that question, you need to slow it down and figure out what you’re missing there.

Rob  13:04

In fact, when you’re presenting, sometimes it feels comfortable like, Okay, this is just a recap of what we decided on. You’re putting this stuff up on the screen, and then all of a sudden, you get to the point where they’re it’s time to make a decision.

Rob  13:15

They’re not making any decision. It’s because when you’re presenting, you do it too fast. You didn’t clarify. Ask them what clarifying things that they needed and making sure that is everything okay on this page. Are we Is this accurate? Is this right? Is this what you needed? Is there anything else that I didn’t get? I feel like I might be missing something here, and they’ll tell you, okay, but it’s critical to slow it down.

Rob  13:37

So if you are a personality that is not an S personality, these type of people will definitely frustrate you if you don’t recognize it early enough. Know that the S personality is the largest population of all the four. Then there’s this mix up of different personality types that mix together. So there’s a whole bunch of different personality types that combine and all that good stuff.

Rob  13:59

But for the most, part of the four is just stand alone. S is the largest population. Know that you’re probably going to run into them more frequently than any of the others. And just know that when you do if you’re doing the right things, they’ll work themselves through that process very quickly and easily. If you’re not doing it right, they just ghost you or disappear, and you’ll know that that was what you did wrong, and make some notes so that you get that fixed.

Rob  14:23

If you know somebody that has the same issue in their sales and they run into the same problem, feel free to share this episode and, of course, like and subscribe, because there’s going to be other content just like this in the future. And remember, slow down and close more you.