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Personality Styles and Joint Ventures

Written by: Robin Elliott

Article Overview: Business is about people and if we want to achieve excellence in those relationships, it is critical that we know, recognize and leverage the strengths of people’s personality types and know how to supplement the weaknesses.

Personality Styles and Joint Ventures

A client of mine who owned a chain of restaurants radically improved his business when we tested his employees for the personality styles and re-organized the business. We all have characteristics of all the four major personality styles, however one is normally dominant. In business, it’s important to acknowledge our strengths and leverage them, and to find others to supplement our weaknesses. There’s no right or wrong character type. Here’s a quick overview.

The High D – Dominant style (minority of people, hardest to find) is bottom-line and results oriented, impatient, sometimes tactless, driven and extroverted, with weaknesses in details. Major fear: being taken advantage of / ripped off. Good closers, great pioneers. Need the numbers and systems guys.

The High I – Influencing style is an extrovert, “party animal”, great at meeting people and starting relationships, popular, good opener, weakness is details and time management. Major fear: being embarrassed in public. Needs closers and numbers guys.

The High C – Cautious style is introverted, loves details, numbers and systems more than people, excellent numbers guys and accountants, computer experts, analyzers. Weakness is over analysis; fear is criticism of their work. Needs the extravert's and the drivers.

The High S – Steady style (majority of people) is an introvert, loyal, team player, family type, great systems and support person, needs security and long term relationships, fears risk, conflict and change. Needs others to make things happen and to create change and to take unpopular action when necessary.

This is a simplistic approach, but understanding our strengths and weaknesses and allowing people to do what they’re good at, while avoiding tasks that they’re weak at, is simply smart business sense. For technical sales we use High C’s and S’s. Ideal salespeople are normally High D’s with secondary I’s. One wouldn’t an accountant who is a High D, or a High S to launch a new business. You don’t want a High C to be the host at a cocktail party and we don’t want two High I’s behind a reception desk because they’ll talk all day!

Using personality style analysis has helped many of my clients to be better entrepreneurs and hire the appropriate people. Self knowledge is essential to success. I use the DISC style analysis – there are many others available, including the excellent Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.

Sales Tip
Selling to High D’s: Talk results and ROI and close early and hard.
Selling to High I’s: Build relationship, have fun and close early.
Selling to High C’s: Provide copious details and proof and take time to close.
Selling to High S’s: Prove that the support and relationships will be in place long after the sale is made and close slowly.

Management Tip
Managing High D’s: Give them lots of control and clear objectives and do what you say you will do.
Managing High I’s: Reward them publicly, make them look good and watch their time allocation.
Managing High C’s: Be specific, don’t rush them, and compliment their work (catch them doing something right), set time goals.
Managing High S’s: Make changes slowly, provide lots of security, share long-term plans.

Related Articles
  Joint Venture and NonDisclosure Agreements
  Advantages and Disadvantages of Joint Venture
  Funding Resources
  The Importance of Joint Ventures
  Joint Venture

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Related Forum Posts
Joint Ventures?? - I read this following paragraph in another business forum. Has anyone used joint ventures and had successful results? How do you go about setting up joint ventures? [quote:3vnvuml9]Joint Ventures have been, and always will be one of the most powerful marketing tactics ever, and for good reason. They are easy to set up, and they cost you nothing and if set up correctly will allow you to have more customers than you can handle! So if you promote a great product or service and want to expose it to more prospects, or you you seek ways to increase your sales, but aren't quite sure how to go about it you should definitely consider harnessing the power of Joint Ventures And the best part is that anybody can start using joint ventures to skyrocket their profits. It doesn't matter what you sell, or where you sell it.[/quote:3vnvuml9]
Re: Marketing a company - Get their contacts from someone who had been marketing to them before and do Joint Ventures with the guy
Free Ebook on Joint Ventures - Julie, you might be interested in the free ebook offer through Dollarmakers.com on Joint Ventures that has upto 30 variations for a small business to create joint ventures. Once you've read it I'd be happy to share more advanced ideas based on the book.
Different types of funding - Business Relationship Funding This is another source of funds that can be overlooked. It may be possible to introduce potential alliances to add value to both parties. It may produce an ultimate exit route in the medium to long term. Joint Ventures: Requires a legal agreement embodying the deal and another company Partnerships: Two companies collaborate with possible funding. Joint working relationships: These are an informal partnership which may be more project specific where the parties can share resources. Agencies: These can be geographical or product specific and generally incorporates a payment for the right to the agency. Distributors: Very like an agency but may not necessarily involve up front payment. Alliances: These do not require a separate company and can be embodied by a legal agreement to work together. Trade investors: Otherwise known as Corporate Partnering. This can be a good way to involve a much larger company in the business with a view to possible trade sale further down the line. Associates: This can be a loose arrangement with no fundamental commitments either way, rather like a preferred supplier. Equity Swop: Two companies exchange shares to a similar value to develop both businesses. Franchises: This can allow the business to grow without further direct investment. Licensing: This involves licensing a product or service to enable others to sell it. This requires you to own the intellectual property.
Picking a corporate lawyer - Hi Everyone, I was just curious to know what's the most important criteria a small business owner should look at when choosing a corporate lawyer? -Cost/hr? -Location? -Reputation/Referral? -Experience? -Personality? How did you pick your lawyer? And what's a fair price to pay per hour? Thanks


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