Last Updated on September 14, 2020

Want more sales, more repeat business AND lower customer churn rates?

If you have a call recording solution installed already, here’s a SUPER quick way to increase your results using the “DISC” personality profiling system.

What is DISC?

DISC is an acronym for the four primary personality types:

• Dominant: big picture focused, fast pace, just the facts.
• Influential: big picture, fast pace, empathy.
• Supportive: details, slow pace, empathy.
• Compliant: details, slow pace, just the facts.

As you can see from this list, each of these four personality types has a different communication style; a different means of processing information and communicating their needs.

Anyone who knows people knows that most conflicts and misunderstandings come down to a failure in communication. Look at the descriptions of these four personality types and see if you can spot where some of these problems might occur.

When Personality Types Clash

Imagine one of your customer service or sales reps is a Dominate personality type. They get a call from a customer who is a Supportive type. See if you can spot the potential conflict areas:

• Dominant: big picture focused, fast pace, just the facts.
• Supportive: details, slow pace, empathy.

Here are a few examples of how these communication styles might clash.

• Your customer will want to talk about the details of their problem, but the rep is trying to get them to see the bigger picture. The customer doesn’t feel heard. They feel like the rep is in too much of a hurry to get to the bottom line and solve the problem.
• Your customer wants the rep to empathize with them, but the rep is trying to be “efficient” and solve the problem. The customer doesn’t feel heard or valued. They feel like your rep is “missing the real point.”
• Your customer wants the rep to take their time, but the rep is trying to get the customer to match their faster paced communication style. The customer feels like you’re being “hurried off the call.”

Are you starting to see the problem here?

But, Won’t Training Solve This?

Yes and No.

Sure, you can call in a certified DISC trainer to do a workshop.

But your reps will only learn by doing. They’ll need you to monitor their calls, spot the places where the communication conflicts have occurred and help them adapt until they form the habit of detecting and responding to your customer’s communication styles.

A wise man once said:

“Treat other people like you want to be treated.”

But in sales and customer service, there’s an even more important rule…

“Treat other people the way THEY want to be treated.”

Training your reps to adapt their communication style to match the customer’s communication style can make a miraculous difference in your bottom line results. But it won’t happen overnight. Your reps will need to hear live examples of how they’re interacting with customers.

They’ll need to hear a lot of them and learn to identify the customer’s personality type within a few seconds. Try this, start this week. If you don’t have the technology in place to listen to calls, call us and we’ll show you how to get started.

Last Updated on September 14, 2020