Getting to know your customers might require some personality tests

It’s been said that opposites attract in romance. In selling real estate? Not so much.

People like to interact with others who are like them. Check it out the next time you’re out and about for business or pleasure. Having something in common is a good starting point for a business relationship that has the chance to develop into something stronger.

Real estate agents and buyers or sellers obviously have something in common, and having a good working partnership benefits both parties now and into the future.

Real estate trainer Jackie Leavenworth recently told a gathering in Southern California about a DISC system that can help business people understand behavior and personality. DISC identifies four major elements of personality: dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance. Dominance is the need for control and challenge; influence, the need to interact and persuade; steadiness, the need for security and stability; and compliance, the need to follow standards and be accurate and cautious.

Buyers and sellers often give indications of their personality type in the way they answer open-ended questions. For example, influencers might talk about how great their home is for entertaining, while a person high in the compliance aspect is likely just interested in the facts. Cues about personalities also can be picked up by voicemail messages, home decoration choices and how clean or untidy the house is.

Obviously, overhauling your personality to suit each client transaction is impossible. If it were, you likely would have gone into the acting profession. But shaping your tactics and approaches to match those of the clients you’re working with is possible. Here’s what Leavenworth suggests:

For sellers high in dominance, lay out the process and ask how they’d like to be involved.

For influencers, make the process fast and easy.

For steadies, provide frequent updates about how the process is going.

For compliers, be fact-based.

A failure to communicate is a surefire way to kill a business deal. Understanding your clients better will go a long toward making sure that doesn’t happen.