This issue of Production Solutions and the next will be a review.  In this issue we will look at D and I sales people.  In the February issue we will look at S and C sales people.  After that we will talk about how and what to sell to clients and prospects that happen to exhibit D-I-S and C kinds of behaviors.

High-D and High-I Sales People

If you have a high-D or high-I in your behavioral style, then success for you will depend on 2 very similar things.  For the high-D sales person, the key to success is all about how many times you can put yourself in the position to be able to “ask for the order.”  The key to success for a high-I sales person is really the same, only we say it different.  For the high-I the key to success is how many people you can talk to today.

To “ask for the order” more often, or to talk to more people in the day, you have to have some planning and organization in your work effort.  But all we’re talking about here is a “to-do” list.  That’s all.  BUT you have to make up your “to-do” list every day, every day.  

This “to-do” list will do a couple things for D’s and I’s:

1. You are very good at handling challenge and change.  A phone rings and you run over there.  Then stop over here on the way back.  Then you’re off to another meeting and maybe catch lunch on the way back.  Without the organization that a simple “to-do” list will provide, you can work really hard and not make any progress.  Your list will keep you always headed in the right direction, so that at the end of a hard day’s work you have made progress.
2. For the high-D:  It’s easier for you to stay charged up and motivated IF you can see things happening.  You have such a strong drive to be in control and in charge and make things happen that it can be devastating when you run into one of those days where you can’t get anybody to do anything.  The thought of “losing control” is horrible for the high-D.  The problem is that we don’t really have much, if any, control over what our clients do or don’t do.  BUT we have total control over what we get checked off on our list.  So, on those bad days that do happen now and again, the D can look at that list and say, “I got that done!”  It makes it a lot easier to come back tomorrow and attack it again.
3. For the high-I:  Probably 90% or more of your income in this career will be based on how you feel when you get to work in the morning.  If you’ve had one of those days when “Hell No!” would be an improvement, look at your list.  If you got 15 of the 17 things checked off your list, you’ve had a good day.  You can pat yourself on the back on your way home.  Then tonight you can rest up and be charged up to do it again tomorrow.

What to do when you run a wheel off in the ditch:  

The most important day for a D or an I is the day after a bad day.  Only a handful of professional teams have ever made it through a season untarnished.  In fact, in most sports the World Champion for that particular year will often lose a third or more of their games.  The key is they don’t have any long losing streaks.  They lose one and then come back more determined than ever and win the next game.

The top producers I know have bad days like all the rest of us.  But they very seldom have a bad week and they never have a bad month.  This is important for D’s and I’s because their basic nature is to have mountain top experiences followed almost immediately by bottom of the ocean experiences.  

The idea is to catch yourself and turn it around before you hit the ocean.  There are a couple things we can do that will actually “trick” our behavioral styles into working for us instead of against us.

1. Remember this: Things are never as great or fantastic as we think they are.  Try to “mellow it out” a bit.  When you are already past the moon and heading for Neptune, it’s hard to get much higher.  If you build it up enough the only way it can go is down.  So don’t set yourself up for a fall.  Remember this too:  Things are never really as bad or horrible as we think they are.
2. For the high-D’s:  Make something happen.  Have yourself a handful of “lay-ups” in that little drawer under your phone.  A “lay-up” is someone who will do almost anything you ask them to do almost anytime you ask.  Here’s the great thing about the D behavioral style.  It doesn’t have to be a million dollar piece of business.  It can be something as simple as someone agreeing to meet for lunch, or a quarterly review, anything.  The key is that you asked, and they said yes.  The D is so “make something happen” oriented, that the least little thing will snap that wheel back up on the road and you will be off and running again.
3. For the high-I’s:  Never ever leave the office on a “No!”  You need a handful of “lay-ups” too.  The idea is to get some positive feedback before you leave for the day.  With high-I’s enthusiasm is extremely contagious.  If you feel a “downer” coming on, find some high-I in the office that’s having a great month and buy their lunch.  For $10 you can find out what they are doing and when you come back from lunch you will be as excited as they are.

Simple Math (or food for thought):  Make it simple or gussy it up all you want, the bottom-line is this—Production depends almost solely on how many times you ask for the order.  Make one call or one contact and ask one time for the order and depending on your closure rate (your “effectiveness factor” or how good you are) you will get a certain amount of business.  Now make that same call or contact (same effort and same amount of time), ask for the same order, and then say, “By the way…..have you had an insurance review in the last year or two….because (no cost but lots of benefits).  You have just doubled the number of orders you’ve asked for.

Now make that same call or contact, ask for that same order, ask for a “by the way” order, and then ask for a referral.  The same one call or one contact, but now you have asked for the order 3 times.  You have just tripled your odds of winning.  

Don’t take my word for it.  Try it a couple times and see what happens.

HAVE YOURSELF A GREAT DAY!

Ron Keese