How can you improve your sales and customer loyalty? Consider your buyer’s personality type, advised ASI Dallas Education Day speaker Chris Vanderzyden. In the session “Interpret Buyer Behavior: How Their Personality Impacts Your Strategy,” Vanderzyden identified six different archetypes and explained to attendees how best to sell to each of them. “If you can be a chameleon and maneuver your way around the personalities,” she said, “your success will soar.”

Some of the personalities included:

Didactic Doris:
This buyer is strong-willed and results-driven – someone who is decisive in what she wants and always wants to win. Vanderzyden suggested matching her decisiveness and always being prepared to offer up answers and success stories. “You have to understand her need and say this is the product for you,” Vanderzyden said. “And she’ll love that you’re decisive as well, and you’ll be on the same plane.”

Team Trudie:
She’s upbeat and nice, but also incredibly slow while she makes sure everyone has a voice in the decision. Her kindness will also work against you when she says she likes your idea but doesn’t mean it. Vanderzyden says be patient, but also employ tactics like asking who else is on the team, and then emailing those decision-makers in the interest of saving your buyer time. “That way you sneakily include everybody on the conversation, and it moves everything forward,” she said.

Friendly Frank:
He’ll spend 50 minutes of your meeting talking about his family, hobbies, TV – anything but the task at hand. That makes him a very loyal client and somebody you want to do business with, said Vanderzyden. She encouraged indulging in small talk with this buyer to build that relationship. However, she suggested that you must focus on the big picture and avoid bogging him down in technicalities. “All he wants to know,” she said, “is that it’s done correctly and will be delivered on time.”