Develop Your Persuasion Techniques for Different Decision-Making Styles
How to effectively persuade your audience is a complex topic that has drawn an enormous amount of interest since the dawn of human social development. Every politician, marketer, entrepreneur, parent, lawyer, and almost all other professions need to persuade.
There are many different theories of how to persuade someone. We will likely cover a few high-impact frameworks in our blog series that have practical applications for business development. In this blog, we'll discuss the framework for persuasion that Gary Williams and Robert Miller created and published in their 2005 book, The 5 Paths to Persuasion: The Art of Selling Your Message.
In a 2-year project from 1999 to 2001, Williams and Miller interviewed over 1,600 executives across a variety of industries to examine their decision-making about making a purchase. This study has deep implications for all business developers on how they could tailor their messages for the buyers based on their decision-making style, thus improving the chance of making a deal.
The results of this study showed that executives can be categorized into five different approaches to making a purchasing decision:
Followers (36% of polled executives)
Charismatics (25%)
Skeptics (19%)
Thinkers (11%)
Controllers (9%)
Persuading different kinds of decision-makers requires differentiated messaging techniques. However, the reality is that more than half of the sales presentations are misaligned with the decision-maker’s style, making the presentations ineffective. We will summarize the five different types of decision-making approaches and the suitable techniques to support each one of them.
Followers. This group of executives makes up more than a third of the polled population. Followers rely on their executive peers, past use cases, testimonials, and success stories to give them confidence in making this decision. The fear of undesirable consequences is a major contributing factor in their thought process. However, it’s unlikely that follower executives will openly admit that they are followers. They want solutions that are innovative but proven, cutting-edge but safe. It’s difficult to sell to a follower if one doesn’t have credible use cases and success stories. They are afraid of making the wrong choices. Addressing the fear of making mistakes is key to persuading followers. Show them that they are adopting your innovative technologies that have been proven elsewhere.
Charismatics. These decision-makers are visionaries. They are enthusiastic about new ideas and innovations. They can think outside the box and are not afraid to make a decision. However, they are also aware that their excitement is not enough to make a sound decision. They value a balanced message with both benefits and risks. They tend to jump to the implementation details to understand how bold ideas can be executed. The most effective approach to persuading charismatics is to present both sides of the proposal—the good and the bad. It’s also important to have a well-thought-out risk mitigation plan for the potential drawbacks. Although charismatics can come across as extremely passionate and engaged during a sales discussion, it is best for the salesperson to remain calm and collected. Showing that you have thought about the risks and have an execution plan will build trust and credibility. The charismatics think big, and they appreciate allies who can think at ground level to understand the impact of the decision. Results and impact are important to charismatics.
Skeptics. They don’t trust the data presented to them, particularly those challenging their own perspectives. They tend to have strong personalities and can be self-absorbed. It’s fairly easy to spot the skeptics based on the aggressive style of their questioning. To persuade a skeptic, you need as much credibility as you can buy, borrow, or build. To gain initial credibility, it’s a good idea to acquire the endorsement of a voice the skeptic trusts and establish a common ground with the skeptic. Sometimes, you may need to challenge the skeptic’s belief to earn that credibility. While challenging the skeptics, make sure you still stroke their egos because they tend to have strong personalities. However, once you convince skeptical executives, they can make decisions very quickly.
Thinkers. They are the hardest group of executives to persuade. They are slow to make a decision. They love all kinds of data to support their analysis. They have risk aversion and want to consider all aspects of the decision. They enjoy outwitting others with intelligent arguments. They enjoy any data they can get their hands on. If you are selling to a thinker, be prepared to send lots of data over a long period of time. Eventually, you hope the thinker will reach their own conclusions. You will need to explain your logic and methodology for making certain recommendations. Because thinkers are highly logical and analytical, it’s better to openly discuss the risks and benefits of your solution. They would enjoy intelligent debates before they showed their real intentions. You should suppress your urge to draw conclusions for thinkers.
Controllers. They are the smallest group of the polled executives. They hate uncertainty and ambiguity. They focus on details and intricacies of processes and methods. They want details that come from an expert. They make decisions slowly and hate to be pushed. The best thing you can do to sell to controllers is to provide them with sufficient information. Controllers share some traits with the skeptics. They trust their own perspectives more than others. However, controllers are driven by their insecurities, while skeptics are less driven by fear but more by the skeptical nature. Because of this difference, the skeptics can make quick decisions once they are convinced by credible sources; while the controllers are slow in making decisions because they want to get deep into the details to fight against uncertainty and ambiguity.
It’s important to note that the categorizations are merely descriptors of the dominant type of decision-making rather than the superiority of any style. Decision-making is a complex topic that has garnered hundreds of years of study and is still going. Although people tend to make decisions in different ways in different scenarios, Williams and Miller’s research has shown that when people are faced with high-stakes decisions that involve complex situations and consequences, they tend to resort to their dominant style.
As business developers, being adaptable is a key skill. We will improve our chances of success if we are able to identify your target’s dominant style of decision-making and adjust our messaging techniques accordingly.
