Personality tests have been a popular way of measuring people’s unique characteristics since the 1920’s and the personality testing industry is estimated to be between 2 – 4 Billion dollars annually. Wow!
Are they important for salespeople? And more specifically, for real estate sales people?
I believe so and in two important ways:
- They help us to understand our own personality and how it affects the people we interact with. This is paramount to our success but we must take it further and be able to manage and adapt our personality style to suit the situation if we are to become masters at engaging people and helping them make excellent decisions (aka sales).
- They help us understanding other people’s personality traits so that we can respond appropriately versus reacting poorly. This builds rapport and trust which is critical to the sales process.
The most widely used personality tests drop people into pre-existing categories. This method is attractively simple but tends to neglect a lot of information in order to achieve this simplicity.
Psychologists have been debating the age old question, are personality traits a product of nature or nurture, for decades and the traditional personality tests make the assumption that personality traits are basically fixed in most individuals.
In contrast, I’ve witnessed first-hand, hundreds of people make significant changes to their personality traits in order to achieve higher levels of success, satisfaction and joy. This is what high-level coaching aims to achieve. So while I know that a deeper understanding of our own and other’s unique personalities is important, I can’t lean in on many of today’s popular tests.
The traditional personality tests such as Myer’s Briggs, DISC, MMPI, NEO and others measure traits that are believed to be fixed in nature. People are “fitted” into pre-ordained boxes and while this adds clarity and simplicity to a complicated concept, in most cases it misses the important nuances and opportunities that we are seeking.
On the other hand, the idea of creating a personality test that could give you clarity and access to understand, manage and adapt your personality style and simultaneously understand and appreciate the style of others isn’t possible in a quick, online tick the boxes type of test.
But it is possible!
And it is essential if you are to reach a masterful level of ethical sales.
I’ve developed a model I call the Circle of Sales Excellence. It’s adapted from Clinton Sidle’s model, The Leadership Wheel((The Leadership Wheel 2005 C. Clinton Sidle. Cornell University (with permission) )). It is focused on the ancient framework of multiple intelligences. What makes it remarkably different and more valuable than the common personality tests is that it accepts that people do not and should not “fit” into pre-existing categories and invites us to explore and expand our way of being. This is critical to sales, negotiations and any other relationship management.
It cannot be learned in a quick 20-minute online session. The learning process for the Circle of Sales Excellence is a multi-day workshop where we learn the theory and then interact with other people in the workshop with time outs, masterminds and debriefs that allow us to fully grasp these important concepts.
This will be the backdrop to the work we do at the September retreat in Whistler and the backcountry of B.C. for top realtors. We will layer in mastermind sessions around current challenges as our industry experiences monumental change and send each individual away with the knowledge, skills, confidence and connections to rise to the very top of the field. Great leaders think differently and escaping the day to day grind of your business is the only way to create the opportunity to work on your business rather than in it.
If you are committed to achieving excellence, e-mail Suze to learn more about this amazing opportunity.