A Primer on Sales Style

The beauty of sales is that many different styles can produce equally desirable results. The important part is developing a style that complements your personality.

BY JEB FOSTER

Here are the prerequisites for success in insurance sales:

Persistence
Excellent communication skills
Excellent organizational skills
Integrity
Emotional resilience
Manners
Curiosity
Problem-solving skills
Confidence
While each of these is necessary at least to some degree, many agents develop their own sales style by emphasizing specific items on the list. For example, someone with a more aggressive style will accentuate the persistence and problem-solving aspects. Those with a less aggressive, softer approach will often emphasize the curiosity piece, or will rely on their exceptional manners and integrity. Some agents focus on their ability to persuasively communicate product features and benefits.

Ray Silverstein, a writer for Entrepreneur magazine, observes that there three primary types of salespeople-"finders, minders and grinders."

Finders, he says, thrive on the pursuit of new clients. Minders are people-oriented-committed to building relationships and offering exceptional customer service. Finally, there are the grinders, who land new clients through their unrelenting tenacity and exceptional organization.

Silverstein emphasizes that each type has weaknesses and often must learn from the other two. Finders, for example, don't usually offer the best customer service. Minders may not be proactive enough. Grinders may be shortchanging themselves by exclusively focusing on, well, the grind.

The beauty of sales is that many different styles can produce equally desirable results. The important part is developing a style that complements your personality. If your sales style and your personality are in conflict, your effectiveness will suffer. The reason is, prospects will have a hard time getting a read on you-which typically translates into a lack of trust. Needless to say, trust is essential in the sales process .

Additionally, by aligning your sales style with your personality, you will project a higher degree of confidence and fluency. Many people make the mistake of affecting an extroverted demeanor, believing that that's what a true salesperson must act like. While that may work for some, in the long run it will be difficult to sustain. (And everyone can spot an act.) What's more, it's simply much easier to be your authentic self.