Sales Training, Sales Psychology Article on Personality

A fundamental lesson in any business or sales training program is to understand your customer. Human behavior and personality theories have a direct application to sales and business industries. Here is an overview of several well-known personality theories along with specific sales training tips on applying your knowledge of people.

The Origins of Personality Theory

The Unconscious Mind - In the 1800's and early 1900's, Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, and Carl Jung - three of the most recognizable and reputable names in personality theory - studied the conscious and unconscious mind. Each proposed individual theories of personality, however they all suggested that the unconscious mind influences all of our experiences and behaviors.

Carl Jung suggested that people deal with the world in four ways, or "functions" as he called them, each to a different degree, with one being superior.

"Sensing" - Getting information from the senses, through looking, listening, hearing, feeling, etc.

"Thinking" - Evaluting information rationally and logically.

"Intuiting" -Perceiving from large amounts of information.

"Feeling" -Evaluating information by weighing one's overall emotional responses.

These four functions of Jung's had a tremendous influence on personality assessment.

Katharine Briggs and her daughter, Isabel Briggs Myers agreed with Jung's theory and created a paper-and-pencil personality test, now known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which places people into one of sixteen personality types. It was established in 1943 and has evolved through many years of continual test research
into a standard psychological instrument for assessment of personality. To maintain Picture of brain

ethical guidelines established by the psychological community, the MBTI must be administered by a qualified psychological professional. Today, the MBTI is used by millions of people. It's practical applications lie in the areas of leadership, team-building, sales training, career planning, time management, problem- solving and more.

Take a Jungian Personality Types Test For a Peak into Your Personality Type

Conditioning - While many theories on personality type share some commonalities, some theories approach personality assessment from a completely different angle. Rather than seeing people "fall into" certain personality types, B.F. Skinner, a researcher and psychology writer in the early-to--mid 1900's, believed that people - as organisms - bounce around their universe exhibiting behavior based on reinforcement from the environment. He calls this operant conditioning. "A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occuring in the future". Therefore, "The bad do bad because the bad is rewarded. The good do good because the good is rewarded". Freedom and dignity don't factor into Skinne'rs theory, which has resulted in great debate.

Discover how the 16 personality types can determine your success on the job

Self-Actualization - Another unique take on the development of personality is one from Abraham Maslow, a psychologist from Brooklyn, New York. His theory on human motivation is explained through a hierarchy of needs that he suggested are inborn, just like instincts.

He believed that people move up through the hierarchy of needs in the following order: physiological, safety, belonging, esteem, and finally, once all these needs are met, they reach what he calls, "self-actualization", which he identifies as a level of growth motivation - "becoming the fullest you" and "being all you can be".

The Four Humors

Humorism - I once read a great book by Florence Littauer, titled "Your Personality Tree", which taught me a great deal about how to approach many different types of customers. In this book, I learned about the ancient Greek theory of medicine, called "Humorism" and the four humors, also known as "temperamentum" or temperament, which represent a way of thinking, behaving and reacting.

Hippocrates (b. ca. 460 B.C), "the Father of Medicine", and his son-in-law Polybus, believed that the four bodily fluids (a.k.a "humors") are each associated with one of the four elements (air, fire, earth, water) which make up all things. Too much of one humor or another was believed to bring about illness.
The Humorism theory suggests that each person is born of a basic temperament, as determined by which of the four humors is more evident within them. Knowing which type is dominant in a person can help you, as a professional sales person or business owner, adjust your presentations and approaches with people more effectively. Read more about the four temperament types and how to apply this theory to sales and business. Read on.

Take the temperaments quiz to reveal which of the
four temperaments describes you most.

Considerations

Have you ever dealt with a friend or family member on a business issue, or referred business to a friend? You may have noticed your friend or family member (usually easy going with you) behaves different in a business setting. You see, this is where people get very interesting.

Behavior in social settings is often not the same in business settings, especially when finances are at stake. The happy-go-lucky sanguine type can present melancholy or even choleric features when business or work comes into play.

The easiest way to consider personality types in these situations is to think about your own personality and behavior. What are you like in a social setting versus a situation where business is being conducted or your own personal finances are at stake? Be honest with yourself and think back to specific events in your life where you were a much different person depending on the circumstances.

The bottom line is: it’s okay! That’s the way people are. As an effective sales person, you'll have to accept that people change their behavior from setting to setting. Do not take this personally. Remember, take a logical approach to the sales process.

Sales Training on Personality