There are four primary selling styles:
Consultative: Consultative salespeople are very effective at asking questions, dissecting answers to identify possible needs, relating the needs to possible solutions, and planning additional questions. All of this is done “on the fly” while their prospect or customer is still talking. Consultative salespeople can be equally effective as Hunters, Farmers, or Hybrids.
Relationship: Relationship salespeople build close, personal relationships with their prospects and customers. They win business by earning trust. They can be effective Hunters, but usually prefer to be Farmers.
Display: Display salespeople work in department stores or other similar environments. The goods they sell are on display, and customers come to them. Their primary responsibilities are answering customers’ questions and processing orders. From this standpoint their role is more similar to customer service than it is to the Hunter, Farmer, or Hybrid sales roles.
Hard Closer: Hard Closers are what most people think of when they describe someone as “a used car salesperson”. These salespeople are very aggressive and don’t readily take “no” for an answer. They are much more interested in making sales than they are in building relationships with customers. They are Hunters to the bone.
To develop a deeper understanding of these four selling styles, consider how the weightings differ for the four Critical Attributes for sales success.
Sales Style and Critical Attributes
Sales Drive
Emotional Toughness
Reasoning Ability
Service Drive
Consultative
High/Medium
High/Medium
High
High/Medium/Low
Relationship
High/Medium
Medium/Low
High/Medium
High/Medium
Display
Low
Low
Medium/Low
High/Medium
Hard Closer
High
High
Low
Low
If a Consultative salesperson is acting in a Hunter or Hybrid role, they need a stronger Sales Drive, more Emotional Toughness, and less Service Drive than they do if they are acting in a Farmer role. The one constant for Consultative salespeople is Reasoning Ability, as the basis of this selling style is the ability to ask excellent questions and rapidly abstract conclusions from the answers.
Relationship salespeople can also be effective as Hunters, Farmers, and Hybrids. Depending on the role, a strong Sales Drive may or may not be a requirement. Reasoning Ability is useful, but it is not as critical to Relationship salespeople as it is to Consultative salespeople. The required amount of Emotional Toughness will be determined by the type of sales role, the size of the salesperson’s network of contacts, and the amount of prospecting they will be required to perform. Relationship salespeople do need healthy amounts of Service Drive, as this attribute compels them to pursue timely resolution to prospect and customer questions and issues. This in turn creates the foundation for trust, which is the basis of solid, long-term relationships.
Display salespeople are usually order takers with a customer service focus. Some Display salespeople are quite aggressive and proactive; however, most Display salespeople are relatively passive. Their role requires neither a strong Sales Drive nor a high level of Emotional Toughness. They do need to have a reasonable amount of Reasoning Ability and Service Drive, as a key responsibility is responding effectively and accurately to customer questions and requests.
Hard Closers tend to have an overdeveloped Sales Drive, very high Emotional Toughness, a low Reasoning Ability, and a Low Service Drive. They churn through a lot of prospects and receive enormous amounts of rejection. This style of selling tends to be most effective for selling relatively inexpensive products or services in markets that have an almost unlimited number of prospects. A large volume of prospects is a requirement, as Hard Closers usually burn bridges behind them.