Dominant Needs

Writing Assignment #1

"Everyone's behavior is guided by his or her unique needs and wants." Salespersons, prospects, customers, and consumers all make their daily decisions based on this fact. By better understanding others needs and wants as well as your own, a salesperson can reach his full potential for attracting new business as well as retaining business while maximizing revenue.

As we discussed in class, there are four major personality traits that differ depending on varying amounts of assertiveness combined with responsiveness to others found common in people's behavior. Of these four; which include communicators, completers, and calculators; I believe myself to be most effectively described as a commander. I still may exhibit other traits commonly found in the other profile quadrants, which in turn makes me a moderate commander. On a scale from 1-10, with regards to assertiveness, I would project myself to be a 7 (10 being high). In addition, I believe I am receptive of others, but with some reservations which would correlate on the same scale as a 4 (more closed than open).

I like to dress well and carry an air of confidence in my walk (well at least when I could walk). I like having control in most situations, whether leading a team athletically or in decision making, I like to be the one making the calls because I trust myself more than others in doing a particular task the right way. I have heard on occasion (mostly from women) that I can be rude in the way I say things if they didn't know me better. I hate being taken advantage of and like to pride myself in sniffing out a bad deal, or fuzzy logic. However, if I am given incentive and am encouraged and recognized for my hard work and talent, then I will continue to loyally plug away in the job arena.

Many of the aforementioned traits I have learned, or as I like to think of it: laid dormant until I gained personal experience with sales and interacted with various people on a daily basis. In high school, I was a marketing representative for Power Windows and Siding, Inc. for more than two years and was very successful. As a salesperson, I would describe myself as a smooth talker. Smooth as in the sympathetic tone and inflection I use in my voice to help establish credibility and put the prospect at ease (I don't consider smooth talking to be regurgitating insincere one-liners). I like to make a friendly introduction and listen to what the client has to say, whether it be about my product or otherwise. In doing so, I am good at picking up mannerisms and information which I would then use, along with my product and company knowledge, to tailor my "pitch" in a way so I was solving the customer's problems (or as this course describes: needs).

To better serve the prospect's needs, understanding my own needs only allowed for an easier and more effective approach of identifying with the prospect, thus making a middle ground of communication possible. This middle ground enables the salesperson and prospect to, ideally, curb their barriers of perception and establish a stronger relationship. Based on exhibit 3-2's list of human needs, my seven most dominant needs are as follows: achievement, dominance, understanding , contrariness, recognition, entrepreneurism, and nurturance (although being a major driving need in my life, I left out sex because I feel that it doesn't serve the purpose of this paper and is a societal fact for guys).

For example, if I own a popular pizzeria, a clever salesperson knows that he has to uncover these needs to understand the motivation behind my behavior. By doing so, he can use what he learned to tailor what he says, or "tactics", to clearly provide solutions to my advertising problems and create a perceived value of his product in my mind.

Since I have high standards, and think that I, thrive in competition (achievement); a salesperson would be wise to give an example of other successful increases in business for other pizzerias that used their quality advertising blocks, knowing that I strive to be the best and doing so would give me a competitive advantage. Furthermore, my dominant nature causes me to want to make all the decisions in the advertising process. Consequently, showing me respect and asking my opinion about my establishment is a good tactic for a salesperson to use to gain my trust and create a possible positioning angle for my business. My need for understanding is motivated by my desire to gather all information to help myself make the best