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chapter 6

ADAPTIVE SELLING FOR

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING
SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED IN THIS CHAPTER ARE:

 What is adaptive selling?

 Why is it important for salespeople to practice
adaptive selling?
 What kind of knowledge do salespeople need to
practice adaptive selling?
 How can salespeople acquire this knowledge?
 How can salespeople adapt their sales strategies,
presentations, and social styles to various
situations?
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 “No matter what you are selling, the most
important thing to understand is what
type of social style you are and be able to
identify what type of social style your
customer is.”
~Ashley Braine
Dell

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 Standard Memorized Presentation

 Also called a canned presentation

 Completely memorized sales talk
 Ensures salespeople will provide
complete and accurate information
 Limited effectiveness
 Can be delivered at low cost by
unskilled salespeople

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 Outlined Presentation

 Prearranged presentation that usually

includes:
– Standard introduction
– Standard Q&A
– Standard method for getting the
customer to place an order
 Effective because it is well organized

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 Customized Presentation

 Written and/or oral presentation based on a

detailed analysis of the customer’s needs
 Allows the salesperson to demonstrate
empathy
 Provides greatest opportunity to adapt to
customer needs
 Can be very costly, requiring highly skilled
people to analyze the customer’s needs

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 Adaptive Selling and Sales Success

 The customized presentation illustrates

adaptive selling.
 Adaptive selling forces the salesperson to
practice the marketing concept.
 The world is made up of diverse people.
 Salespeople should adapt to the customer’s
desire for a specific type of relationship.
 Adaptive selling gives salespeople the
opportunity to use the most effective sales
presentation for each customer.
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 Knowledge Management

 Product and company

knowledge
– Salespeople need to have a lot
of information about their
products, services, company,
and competitors.
 Knowledge about sales
situations and customers

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 Knowledge Management (continued)

 How to create knowledge

– Top company salespeople
– Feedback from sales managers
 Other sources of knowledge
– Web
– Company sales manuals and
newsletters
– Sale meetings
– Plant visits
– Business and trade publications
– Competitor displays at trade shows
– Viewing competitor’s Web pages
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 Knowledge Management (continued)

 Retrieving knowledge from the

knowledge management system
– Customer relationship management
systems
– Electronic sales partner

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 The Social Style Matrix

 Popular training program that

companies use to help sales people
adapt their communication styles
 Identify which of the four types you
are
 Identify which of the four types your
customer is
 Adjust your behavior to mirror or
match your customer
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 Dimensions of Social Styles

 Assertiveness
– The degree to which people have
opinions about issues and make their
positions clear to others
– Speak out
– Make strong statements
 Unassertive people:
– Rarely dominate a social situation
– Often keep their opinions to themselves

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 Dimensions of Social Styles
(continued)

 Responsiveness
– Based on how emotional people tend to
get in social situations
– Readily express joy, anger, and sorrow
– Concerned with others
– Informal and casual in social situations
 Less responsive people:
– Devote more effort to control emotions
– Are cautious, intellectual, serious, formal
and businesslike
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 Indicators of Assertiveness

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 Indicators of Responsiveness

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 Social Style Matrix

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 Selling to Various Social Styles

 Drivers
– Use a direct, businesslike, organized
presentation with quick action and follow-up
 Expressives
– Demonstrate how products will help the
customer achieve personal status and
recognition
 Amiables
– Build a personal relationship
 Analyticals
– Use solid, tangible evidence

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 Identifying Customer’s Social Styles

 Concentrate on the customer’s

behavior and disregard how you feel
about the behavior
 Avoid assuming that specific jobs or
functions are associated with a social
style
 Test your assessments

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 Cues for Recognizing Social Styles

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 Social Styles and Sales Presentations

 There is no one best social style for a

salesperson.
 Effective selling involves more than
communicating product benefits.
 Salespeople must recognize the
customer’s needs and expectations.
 The salesperson’s personal social
style tends to determine the sales
technique he or she typically uses.

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 Versatility

Versatile salespeople are much more

effective than salespeople who do not
adjust their sales presentations.

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 The Role of Knowledge

 Sales people learn the cues for

identifying the four customer
categories or types.
 Salespeople learn which
adjustments they need to make in
their communication style to be
effective with each customer type.

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 Adjusting Social Styles

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 Systems for Developing Adaptive Selling
Skills

 It is imperative that salespeople adjust to

their audience
 Training methods such as the social style
matrix and expert systems are simply a first
step in developing knowledge for practicing
adaptive selling
 Salespeople should
Expert system
avoid rigidly Computer
applying the program that
mimics a human
classification expert.
rules

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 Summary

 Extensive knowledge of customer and

sales situation types is a key ingredient in
effective adaptive selling.
 Experienced salespeople organize
customer knowledge into categories.
 The social style matrix illustrates the
concept of developing categorical
knowledge to facilitate adaptive selling.
 The social style matrix is one example of a
categorical scheme salespeople can use to
improve their knowledge and adaptability.

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