DISC and Sales

New year, big changes. I see it in so many clients. We're all doing a lot of hiring right now. So let’s talk about DISC and sales. Everybody wants to go hire a successful sales person, right? So as we talked about earlier, most people hire somebody with a great track record on their resume. And that’s smart - but most importantly you must hire somebody with the right personality type to understand and get along with you and your clients. 

So what is the best DISC profile for sales?  Everybody immediately says high I. 

In fact, high Is can be the worst because they are really interested in presenting the product, drumming up the relationship and making people happy. But they may be terrible at the details and order. They don’t say “are you ready to buy it?”. They may never ask for the order, they often try to wing it too much and they may not be prepared for the sales meeting.

Any DISC profile can be successful at selling, but that person must find the right avenue to the sale. For example, what about a high D high C with a low I? You would think they can’t sell because they don’t enjoy people, but what they do enjoy is logical. My wife was the number one high-end wine sales person in Nashville, and she has that profile. She isn’t energized by chit chat but she is energized by checking off things. She’s persistent, and she’s direct (she asks for the order) and she knows she has to turn on her personality to do this. She will power up because she logically knows to get a result she has to turn on a smile. Occasionally, she’s seen as too pushy, but that is very rare. High D - C combos have a high degree of competency from studying, and the drive. They can show up consistently, know their product and cut to the chase. A high I will go chit chat for an hour, whereas this profile will go for the kill quickly, and ask for the order with a high degree of competency.

Some people say high Ds are the best salespeople. But what if a high D is selling a retirement home to your mom or dad? Empathy and intuition are not strengths of high Ds, so seeing somebody deal with the emotion of putting parents in a home is not going to be a good fit for their personality. If that’s the widget you’re selling, a high S sales person -- someone who is great at empathy -- may excel in this situation and be seen as a trusted advisor.

All of this said, there is no best DISC for sales. It is extremely situational. What are you selling? Let's dig into individual and team DISCs and make sure you have the right people in the right places to sell what YOU sell best.