What do Monkeys, Lions, Elephants and Dolphins have to do with marketing?

About a year ago now, I went along to a presentation on sales. The presenter advised us to think about people’s personalities when selling as four key animals – Monkeys, Lions, Dolphins and Elephants. Although all of us have a mixture of these personalities within us, we’re all dominated by one of them too.

Knowing this information can be especially helpful when writing sales proposals; going to sales meetings and writing websites. Ideally you need to have something in there for all of these different types of personalities. Here’s a quick guide to making sure you have something in there that appeals to all sorts of different people.

For instance - for the Lions - those people who like to be leaders:

• Keep things brief and to the point
• List the key benefits and results right at the top of your proposal in bold
• Add in a testimonial of someone who they respect
• Concentrate on RESULTS

For the Elephants - those people who like detail:

• Add in EXACTLY what you're going to do for them
• Throw in a couple of charts/graphs/facts/statistics
• Detail the metrics/results that they're likely to see
• Concentrate on the DETAILS

For the Dolphins - those people who like people and also reassurance

• Give an example of a story (not a case study though, but a story) of someone who has benefited from your product / service
• Show an emotional testimonial
• Ideally include some pictures too

For the Monkeys - those people with ego and like value and shiny objects

• Add in things of value i.e. joint ventures, joint press releases, joint newsletters etc
• Add in additional benefits or extras
• Add in some things to stroke their ego
• Add in EXTRA BENEFITS

It will also help if you identify the dominant animal personality right up front in your sales meeting and then you can tailor the words and phrases that you use to make sure you’re appealing to their nature. This is especially important if you’re a different dominant personality than they are.

I got caught out with this recently by not giving enough detail to an elephant (I’m more of a monkey) and I am now writing my proposals and sales letters to include elements from all different personality types.

Make sure you do too and you may find that by including information relevant to that personality, you have more chance of securing the business.