How To Successfully Manage Different Personalities

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(By Rick Fink) If every employee were hardworking, organized, driven, unselfish, focused, and time conscious, there really wouldn’t be a need for managers. But that’s not the case.

Managers have a very defined role: to keep employees focused, motivated, improving, continuing to do the right things, and producing. You are part motivator, trainer, psychologist, referee, friend, confidant, evaluator, and prison guard.

After interviewing 1,000 top salespeople, Steven Martin wrote an article for Harvard Business Review titled “Seven Personality Traits of Top Salespeople.” The traits he listed are:

1. Modesty. Not arrogant, and positions the team as opposed to themselves as a centerpiece to win the account.

2. Conscientiousness. Responsible and reliable, with a strong sense of duty. They take their jobs very seriously and feel deeply responsible for the results.

3. Achievement Orientation. Goal-oriented, they seek to meet with top decisionmakers. They base their strategy on the people they are selling to, rather than focusing on the product.

4. Curiosity. They hunger for knowledge and information. They are naturally more curious and are willing to ask more difficult and uncomfortable questions to get the information needed.

5. Lack of Gregariousness. Friendly but not too friendly. Overly friendly people have difficulty establishing dominance and therefore never sell to the level of those who can.

6. Lack of Discouragement. They can handle disappointment and hearing no, and bounce back from losses quickly.

7. Lack of Self-Consciousness. They are not easily embarrassed or afraid of annoying customers with their knowledge. They’re not afraid of making cold calls.

If we could just wave a magic wand and find individuals with these seven qualities, life would be grand. But again, that’s not how it works! But now you have seven questions to ask your next prospective sales reps during the interview.

So how do you handle reps with different personalities and in different circumstances? The short answer is, handle them all differently! Even if they have traits in common, they are all different people, and how you try to motivate Mary will not necessarily work well with Mark, and vice versa.

That said, there are areas where you need to be very consistent.

This may hurt some sales reps’ feelings, but allowing veteran reps to show up to work whenever they want won’t send a good message to younger reps.

In the areas where you do allow some latitude, make sure all sides understand why that’s the case. You also need to make sure salespeople

know you are doing your best to always be fair. When you make a mistake, admit it and hold yourself accountable, and make it right. Maintaining their trust is extremely important.

If you got into management because you thought it was going to be all sunshine, rainbows, and daisies, I am sure it didn’t take long to find out that thunderstorms can pop up in a New York minute. When these storms arrive, keep your composure, maintain a high level of professionalism, and never, ever raise your voice to your employees.

If you yell, you might feel better and you might even get your point across and see some short-term results, but typically the longterm damage will have been done. I can tell you, I have never met a salesperson, or any employee for that matter, who has told me, “Yeah, they yell a lot, but I really respect them.” You must have people’s respect in order to get the most out of them.

When I was a young sales manager, I asked someone I respected, and still respect very much, “What is the best piece of advice you can give me?” After a long pause (as he intended), he smiled and replied, “Think before you speak.”

In conclusion, always keep in mind that your sales teams will be made of different people with different personalities, and they will all come in different shapes, colors, and sizes. But they will all have one thing in common, and that is that they are human beings, and as managers it’s our job to lead by example, treat them with respect, and give them the attention to help them be as successful as they possibly can be.

Never ask them to do something you are not willing to do yourself. Respect is earned, and I wish you the very best in earning it.

Remember, it takes all types!

Rick Fink is President of ENS Media USA and Business Partner with Wayne Ens of Ens Media Inc. Rick can be reached by e-mail at [email protected]

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