Jeweller - November 2021

BUSINESS
Selling
Crucial strategies for selling to
different personality types
BRI WILLIAMS reveals how to tailor your sales message to the two
types of consumers – promotion-focused and prevention-focused.
There’s a wealth of research on how best
to frame your sales message to appeal to
your audience.
For example, advertisements that are
framed positively work best for people
who are promotion-focused – in other
words, people who seek to maximise the
probability of obtaining a positive outcome.
For these promotion-focused people you
can talk about the benefits they’ll enjoy
and what they’ll gain.
It’s a little more nuanced for the other
type of consumers, who are prevention
focused. These people prefer to avoid
negative outcomes rather than seek
positive ones.
If the product is hedonic – that is,
pleasurable, such as a massage or holiday
–they respond more favourably if the ad is
negative, probably because it assuages any
guilt they may feel for ‘indulging’!
Meanwhile, for utilitarian products – such
as a calculator or car wax – positive
advertising works best.
In separate research, prevention-focused
consumers tend to prefer products with
utilitarian-related attributes; they would
choose a laptop with a long battery life,
while promotion-focused people would
prefer products with hedonic attributes,
such as a laptop with appealing design.
This is all very well, but the question is,
how do you know what type of person you
are dealing with in the first place?
Promotion or prevention?
If you are sending an email, having a
meeting, or conversing with a customer,
how can you determine whether to talk
the benefits up, or focus on avoiding the
downsides?
Here are some characteristics to help you
identify someone’s type.
Promotion-focused people:
• Work and make decisions quickly
• Consider a lot of alternatives
Are your customers prevention-focused or promotion-focused ?
• Are open to new opportunities
• Have a rosy, optimistic outlook
• Plan for the best-case scenario
• Seek positive feedback and lose ‘steam’
without it
• Feel dejected when things go wrong,
and happy when they go right
Meanwhile, prevention-focused people:
• Work and make decisions slowly and
deliberately
• Tend to be accurate
• Are stressed by short deadlines
• Stick to known ways of doing things
• Prepare for the worst
• Are uncomfortable with praise or
optimism
• Feel worried or anxious when things go
wrong, and relieved when things go right
During your interactions with a customer,
you can often pick up on clues during the
course of the conversation.
Applying the knowledge
Once you get an idea of whether a person
is promotion or prevention-focused, you
can address them in a way that maximises
their sense of compatibility.
When
communicating
with promotionfocused
people,
be sure to
compliment
them, as they
respond well
to praise. Use
optimistic
terms and
phrases, such as
‘growth’, ‘gain’,
‘opportunity’,
‘benefits’,
‘chance’, and
‘innovation’
They’ll be more likely to be persuaded by
your message if it ‘fits’ with their style.
When communicating with promotionfocused
people, be sure to compliment
them, as they respond well to praise.
Use optimistic terms and phrases, such
as ‘growth’, ‘gain’, ‘opportunity’, ‘benefits’,
‘chance’, and ‘innovation’. Prime them
to think in a promotion-focused way by
getting them to reflect or express their
hopes and aspirations.
When communicating with preventionfocused
people, remember that they can
be motivated by a gentle critique – though
nothing too personal.
Use terms and phrases related to security,
such as ‘protection’, ‘secure’, ‘avoid’, ‘risk’,
‘thorough’, ‘careful’, ‘planned’, ‘accurate’.
Prime them to think in a preventionfocused
way by getting them to reflect or
express their duties and obligations.
You can likewise adapt messages about
your product according to whether your
target market is prevention- or promotionoriented.
For example, if framing a luxury car in a
promotion-focused way, the seller might
discuss its performance and design.
Whereas, framing it in a preventionfocused
way, the seller might focus on its
fuel economy and safety standards.
Playing the odds
If all else fails, and in situations where you
can’t pre-determine what the focus of your
target audience is, I suggest playing the
odds and leading with the positive rather
than negative.
A positive message will give you ‘coverage’
across all promotion-focused people and
some prevention-focused types.
BRI WILLIAMS is founder of People
Patterns, a specialist consultancy
that applies behavioural science to
everyday business issues.
Visit: www.briwilliams.com
76 | November 2021