This is our final monthly installment on sales strategies for different Enneagram types. In November and December, we looked at strategies for the Heart or Image types and the Body or Instinctual Types. This time we’re highlighting the Head or Thinking Types, types 5, 6, and 7.
The Head/Thinking types tend to filter information through the mental processes. Information comes in and is analyzed by thinking, sorting, organizing, and processing. The 5, 6, and 7 types are concerned with order, logic, and structure. They are also called the “Fear” Types because each type seeks avoidance of fear through the mental processes of analyzing, planning, organizing, and sorting of data.
Here are some sales strategies for these types. We’d love to know what you would add or how these strategies impact you.
TYPE 5 – THE OBSERVER
- Have a clearly defined sales process. Because you have the ability to stay detached emotionally, having a sales process is an excellent tool that keeps you on track and focused on the outcome—a sale!
- View rapport building as information gathering that leads to specific results.
- Watch your urge to give out too much information or prescribe too early in the sales process.
- Avoid making judgments about what the prospect or client wants. Have a prepared set of questions that elicits the information from the prospect or client.
TYPE 6 – THE LOYAL SKEPTIC
- Don’t be afraid to point out pitfalls or problems but balance it with the positive things as well. Present worst-case and best-case scenarios!
- Trust your instincts and, at the same time, check them out before acting on them. More often than not you are “right on”; therefore, talk the situation out with someone you trust. In this manner, you will gain greater clarity before taking action.
- Recognize that your need to feel safe may get in the way of following your sales process.
- Use the word and rather than but. For example, “I see your idea, and I wonder if you have also considered this possibility?”
TYPE 7 – THE EPICURE
- Watch the tendency to overpromise. Set realistic expectations.
- Listen to what the prospect or client wants; ask questions rather than giving ideas.
- Listen to objections, concerns and so forth and watch the tendency to discount or negate the concerns of others.
- Remember not every idea has to be voiced. When thinking out loud let others know you are doing just that—thinking out loud. This helps others distinguish between an idea and something that must be acted upon immediately.
Remember, working with your Enneagram type in sales is about your approach, your reactivity, and your gifts. You will never know your prospect’s Enneagram type unless they tell you.
For the rest of the strategies for these types contained in our book Wake Up and Sell, either let us know which you want or pick up a copy of the book.
Happy Selling!
