Client Personality Matrix - simple tea matrix

Cadbury's Mini animals tea break biscuits can teach you a bit about buying psychology and the treat can be motivating.

Cadbury's Tiff Tiger's mates Leroy Lion, Mojo Monkey, Gemma Elephant and Zippo Hippo can teach you about Buyer Personality and remind you how to be flexible in your selling style with different buyer personalities.

You can't change your personality but you can alter your behaviour towards a client.

We have control over our half of the interaction.

What you say
What you do
What you convey

and your understanding of the client's style will determine the quality of the business relationship.

You can learn to develop the skill of relating to their styles and how to move into the other person’s arena of expectations in order to gain endorsement and support.

To orientate yourself around this simple matrix, lay out the biscuit wrappers as follows or look at the photograph.

Top left is the Elephant ( Submissive Introvert) Top right is the Lion ( Dominant Introvert)
Bottom left is the Hippo ( Submissive extrovert and bottom right the Monkey ( Dominant Extrovert)

The matrix coordinates run top to bottom from Reserved to Sociable behaviour, and the horizontal the scale of how much a client likes to control the communication, an axis from left to right Yielding to Dominant

The Recognisable Tendencies and Characteristics of your client zoo.

Gemma ELEPHANT tends to
• Collects information
• Needs accurate details
• Likes to analyse things
• Sensitive
• Vulnerable

Leroy LION tends to be
• Task/results-oriented
• Efficient and effective
• Likes to be in charge
Zippo HIPPO tends to be
• Sensitive
• Tuned in to other people’s emotions
• Vulnerable
• Interested in details
Mojo MONKEY tends to
• Have plenty of ideas
• Knows how to have fun
• Enjoys a joke
• Is very creative

Here are some things to plan for and what to avoid being seen as when dealing with your client zoo.

With Gemma ELEPHANT plan to be seen as …
• clear, specific, brief
• business-like
• results oriented
• ready to stress results
However with Gemma ELEPHANT avoid being seen as …
• vague, too general
• personal, casual
• directive, forceful
• careless with facts



With Zippo HIPPO avoid being seen as …
• Impatient, forceful
• Aloof, too business-like
• Personally disinterested
• Pressing for a quick decision
However with Zippo HIPPO be seen to
• Use a quiet tone of voice
• Be gentle
• Be prepared to go into detail



With Leroy LION plan to be seen as …
• supporting their ideas
• providing incentives
• supporting commitment
• stimulating, thought provoking
However with Leroy LION avoid being seen as …
• arbitrary, directive
• emphasising restraint
• vacillating
• unyielding, too structured




With Mojo MONKEY plan to be seen as …
• well prepared
• working to an agenda
• having evidence
• oriented towards specifics
However with Mojo MONKEY avoid being seen as …
• unstructured, informal
• vague, too general
• intuitive
• oriented toward generalities

Alter your communication style to match each client

With ELEPHANT
• Talk quietly & gently
• Go into detail
With Leroy LION
• Don’t waste time
• Be brief & to the point
• Speak directly
• Spell out the bottom line
With Zippo HIPPO
e a quiet tone of voice
• Be gentle
• Be prepared to go into detail
With Mojo MONKEY
Ask them for ideas and involve them.

Be energetic. Mojo gets bored quickly

OK Tea break over ......back to work

(Post inspired by Nigel Risner's work)