By Jan Modelski

If you’re in network marketing, then understanding personality types will give you an unfair advantage when it comes to your network marketing success.

You can obviously speak and understand English. If you met a person from Sweden who could only speak Swedish then you would have some difficulty in communicating with them. Now, if this Swedish person met someone from say, Russia, who could only speak Russian, then there would also be a communication problem.

A similar situation exists between people who speak the same language. Only in this case the difference is in their personality types.

Let’s look at a meeting between two people, Frank and Gary. Frank’s a Green personality type. He’s an engineer. His trousers are always pressed and neat. He wears black shoes that are always polished and clean. His appearance is always smart and he always has a pen or pencil in his shirt pocket. He speaks slowly and carefully and takes his time when answering questions. And his answers are always short and to the point.

He meets Gary. Now Gary’s a Blue personality type. He’s in sales. He dresses casually, usually wearing a colourful shirt. He’ll have some rings on his fingers and he’ll always be talking. If you ask him how many kids he’s got, he won’t just tell you that he’s got two kids. He’ll tell you they’re a boy and a girl and their life histories. And he’ll tell you where they went on holiday last year, that they flew and how much fun they all had, where they stopped off, what they eat for lunch and - how much fun they all had. It’s all about fun. He gesticulates and uses a full range of facial expressions as he speaks. His focus is always on having fun, fun, fun. If he’s not having fun, he’s gone!

Now what sort of answer will Gary get when he asks Frank about his favourite activity? Frank may be very keen on rebuilding classic cars. He’ll go into intricate detail of how he rebuilt the engine on his 1966 Ford Mustang. He’ll tell you it’s size and which version and where he got the spares from, how much they cost, the different variations available and so on. Well, Gary’s lost after the first sentence and nodding off after the second. Gary doesn’t care about the details of the car or it’s engine. All that stuff is BORING. He wants to know how fast it goes and how much fun it is to drive! But to Frank that detail is important. To him it’s vital that Gary knows that information.

Are Gary and Frank going to carry on this conversation? I don’t think so. Gary thinks Frank’s boring going into all that detail and Frank thinks Gary’s boring because ‘How can you have fun driving fast?’ For Frank, having fun is rebuilding the car.

Until Gary understands that Frank is the way he is because it’s just the way he’s wired, he’ll never build a relationship with Frank. And conversely, Frank has to understand the way Gary behaves and thinks, to be able to build a relationship with him. It would also help if they understood the way they were themselves and how they came over to other people. Because then they would be able to adjust to other people’s personality types. And then - magic happens! Frank will be able to relate to Gary’s talkativeness and fun mode and Gary will be able to relate to Frank’s attention to detail and tardiness and brevity in answering questions. And a friendship will start to flourish.

This understanding of personality types helps in building relationships not only in social situations but also with your spouse, your children, your boss, your work colleagues. In fact anyone you meet. And in Network Marketing, it’s the best business building skill you’ll ever have. Find out WHO you’re listening to.

Be a Mentor with a Servant’s heart.

Jan Modelski.