UNDERSTAND OTHERS BY UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF
UNDERSTAND OTHERS BY UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF
“Understand your staff, clients and prospects by understanding yourself in terms of your personality and your personal communications style,” she says. “When you understand yourself you will understand what is going on around you.”
Self understanding is fundamental to success. It requires an honesty which acknowledges our imperfections and an understanding that we have developed definite preferences and prejudices about life. Having imperfections, preferences and prejudices is all part of being human. But it is the failure to recognize the influence they have on our everyday decisions and actions which hinders our progress.
Like most other trainers and facilitators, I have often been asked by those that I am working with whether the senior management are also going to receive training to correct their faults. The inference is that the senior staff are oblivious to their own faults which are so obvious to everyone else.
The truth is that our imperfections, preferences and prejudices do govern our behaviour whether we are aware of them or not. If we are not aware of them we remain under their control as we can do nothing to control them or counteract them. Self aware people, who at least are able to name their imperfections if not overcome them, have more control over their lives as they understand the way they naturally prefer to respond. Before they respond or react they can decide if that is an appropriate response and, if need be, choose to modify their behaviour.
Evans mentions communication style as one of the areas of which we should be particularly aware. We cannot assume that everyone hears things the way we do. Our body language, tone of voice, rate of speech and level of enthusiasm, while natural for us might put someone else off. If we wish to communicate clearly we need to learn to moderate our speech to best match the communication style of the person who needs to hear our message. In sales that means that the salesperson needs to adapt to the needs of the customer.
Once we learn how to understand ourselves, we then have the tools to understand other people.
One of the best ways to retain clients is to make it easier for the client to like you. If they like you they will continue to want to do business with you.
By showing your client you understand them by moderating your behaviour and responses to fit their preferred style, you will develop the relationship and increase their liking of you.
But that can only be done if you have first taken time to understand yourself. You can only successfully adapt you behaviour if you first understand the behaviour which you are adapting.
One of the best ways to begin to understand your preferences is to complete a personality profiling questionnaire. There are many options available. These will help you to highlight your preferences, show you how these influence your decisions and actions, make you aware of the other options open to you and help you understand the preferences of your colleagues, staff and clients. They will help you to understand others by understanding yourself.
UNDERSTAND OTHERS BY UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF - To learn more about this author, visit Jonathan Payne's Website.
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Marketing guru, Wendy Evans, author of the book “How to Get New Business in 90 Days and Keep it Forever,” says that the key to keeping clients is to understand yourself and them.
“Understand your staff, clients and prospects by understanding yourself in terms of your personality and your personal communications style,” she says. “When you understand yourself you will understand what is going on around you.”
Self understanding is fundamental to success. It requires an honesty which acknowledges our imperfections and an understanding that we have developed definite preferences and prejudices about life. Having imperfections, preferences and prejudices is all part of being human. But it is the failure to recognize the influence they have on our everyday decisions and actions which hinders our progress.
Like most other trainers and facilitators, I have often been asked by those that I am working with whether the senior management are also going to receive training to correct their faults. The inference is that the senior staff are oblivious to their own faults which are so obvious to everyone else.
The truth is that our imperfections, preferences and prejudices do govern our behaviour whether we are aware of them or not. If we are not aware of them we remain under their control as we can do nothing to control them or counteract them. Self aware people, who at least are able to name their imperfections if not overcome them, have more control over their lives as they understand the way they naturally prefer to respond. Before they respond or react they can decide if that is an appropriate response and, if need be, choose to modify their behaviour.
Evans mentions communication style as one of the areas of which we should be particularly aware. We cannot assume that everyone hears things the way we do. Our body language, tone of voice, rate of speech and level of enthusiasm, while natural for us might put someone else off. If we wish to communicate clearly we need to learn to moderate our speech to best match the communication style of the person who needs to hear our message. In sales that means that the salesperson needs to adapt to the needs of the customer.
Once we learn how to understand ourselves, we then have the tools to understand other people.
One of the best ways to retain clients is to make it easier for the client to like you. If they like you they will continue to want to do business with you.
By showing your client you understand them by moderating your behaviour and responses to fit their preferred style, you will develop the relationship and increase their liking of you.
But that can only be done if you have first taken time to understand yourself. You can only successfully adapt you behaviour if you first understand the behaviour which you are adapting.
One of the best ways to begin to understand your preferences is to complete a personality profiling questionnaire. There are many options available. These will help you to highlight your preferences, show you how these influence your decisions and actions, make you aware of the other options open to you and help you understand the preferences of your colleagues, staff and clients. They will help you to understand others by understanding yourself.
UNDERSTAND OTHERS BY UNDERSTANDING YOURSELF - To learn more about this author, visit Jonathan Payne's Website.
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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