The Four Social Styles and How You Should Negotiate With Them

Driver: The Director.

· Assertive, but not responsive

· Task, rather than people oriented

· Decisive and determined

· Controlled emotions

· Set on efficiency and effectiveness

· Likes control, often in a hurry

· Firm, stable relationships

· Stubborn, tough

· Impatient

· Inflexible, poor listener

To Negotiate With Drivers:

· Plan to ask questions about and discuss specifics, actions and results

· Use facts and logic

· When necessary, disagree with facts rather than opinions, be assertive

· Keep it business-like, efficient and to the point

· Personal guarantees and testimonials are least effective – better to provide options and facts

· Do not invade personal space

Expressive: The Socializer

· Assertive and responsive

· Reactive, impulsive, decisions spontaneous, intuitive

· Placing more importance on relationships than tasks

· Emotionally expressive, sometimes dramatic

· Flexible agenda, short attention span, easily loved

· Enthusiastic

· Strong persuasive skills, talkative and gregarious

· Optimistic, takes risks

· Creative

To Negotiate With Expressives:

· Seek opinions in an area you wish to develop to achieve mutual understanding

· Discussion should be people, as well as fact, oriented

· Keep summarizing, work out specifics on points of agreement

· Try short, fast moving experience stories

· Make sure to pin them down in a friendly way

· Remember to discuss the future, as well as the present

· Look out for the impulse buy

Amiable: The Supporter

· Not assertive but responsive

· Dependent on others

· Respectful, willing and agreeable

· Emotionally expressive

· Everyone’s friend, supportive, soft-hearted

· Low risk taker, likes security

· Group builder

· Over-sensitive

· Not goal orientated

To Negotiate With Amiables:

· Work, jointly, seek common ground

· Find out about personal interests and family

· Be patient and avoid going for what looks like an easy pushover

· Use personal assurance and specific guarantees and avoid options and probabilities

· Take time to be agreeable

· Focus discussion on how

· Demonstrate low risk solutions

· Don’t take advantage of their good nature

Analytical: The Clinician

· Not assertive, not responsive

· Precise, orderly and business-like

· Rational and co-operative

· Self-controlled and serious

· Motivated by logic and facts

· Not quick to make decisions

· Distrusts persuasive people

· Like things in writing and detail

· Security conscious

· Critical, aloof, skeptical

· Excellent problem solver

· Likes rigid timetables

To Negotiate With Analyticals:

· Take action rather than words to demonstrate helpfulness and willingness

· Stick to specifics. Analyticals expect salesmen to overstate

· Their decisions are based on facts and logic and they avoid risk

· They can often be very co-operative, but established relationships take time

· Consider telling them what the product won’t do. they will respect you for it and they will have spotted the deficiencies anyway

· Discuss reasons and ask ‘why’ questions

· Become less responsive and less assertive yourself

If you are serious about developing not just your negotiation skills, but also your all-round communication skills, I do advise you to familiarize yourself with the “Social Styles” model.

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