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© 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Adaptive Selling for Relationship Building

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?

Some questions answered in this chapter are:

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CHAPTER 5

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• Standard memorized presentation

• Outlined presentation (see ex: 6.1, p. 149)

• Customized presentation

Adaptive Selling

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Types of Presentations

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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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• Dimensions of social styles– Assertiveness – the degree to which people

have opinions and make those opinions public

– Responsiveness – the degree to which people express their emotions

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The Social Style Matrix

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Indicators of Assertiveness

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Indicators of Responsiveness

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What style are you?

• See pg. 158

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Social Style Matrix

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• Drivers• Expressives• Amiables• Analyticals

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Selling to Various Social Styles

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Cues for Recognizing Social Styles

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• 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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The Role of Knowledge

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Adjusting Social Styles

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When Selling To:

Expressives

• Be enthusiastic

• Support opinions

• Ask questions

• Be a good listener

• Avoid too many facts

Analyticals• Be on time• Support structure• Ask specific questions• Make deliberate

proposal• Do not move too fast

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When Selling To:

Drivers

• Be businesslike

• Support goals

• Ask specific questions

• Note responses

• Be organized

Amiables• Be friendly and

professional• Build a relationship• Support feelings• Provide personal

assurances • Use patience

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• Training methods such as the social style matrix and expert systems are simply a first step in developing knowledge for practicing adaptive selling.

• Salespeople shouldavoid rigidlyapplying theclassificationrules.

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Systems for Developing Adaptive Selling Skills

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Expert systemComputer program that mimics a human expert.

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• 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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Summary

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