In today’s cut throat business environment understanding people is just as valuable as understanding your product or service . Companies invest a lot of time and money into market research, customer analysis and skills training in their teams, all in an effort to get ahead of the game . – which helps organisations get a better handle on personality styles, communication preferences and the way people behave. By using these insights businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns, improve communication within their teams and build stronger relationships with their customers.
What does DISC mean and how does it work
DISC is a way of looking at how people behave – a behaviour assessment model that puts people into four main personality types: Dominance (D), Influence (I), Steadiness (S) and Conscientiousness (C) . Each type has its own specific strengths and characteristics, and it helps to understand how people communicate, make decisions and work with others.
- Dominance (D) – being a boss : results driven, decisive and competitive.
- Influence (I) – being a people person : outgoing, enthusiastic and persuasive.
- Steadiness (S) – being a team player : supportive, patient and dependable.
- Conscientiousness (C) – being a perfectionist : analytical, detail focused and systematic.
Unlike standard IQ tests, DISC assessments look at how people behave and communicate, which is super helpful in marketing where understanding how people think and respond is key to getting it right.
Using DISC to get a better handle on customers
One of the biggest benefits of DISC assessments in business marketing is that they let you get inside customers heads and understand what drives them. People are all different, with different motivations, preferences and communication styles. A marketing message that works for one group may not work for another.
By using the DISC principles, marketers can get a better understanding of what makes different customer personalities tick. eg : dominant types often respond well to messages that talk about results, efficiency and leadership , while influential types are more interested in engaging stories and emotional appeals.
By applying these insights, businesses can create marketing content that is more tailored to their audience, and therefore more effective.
Getting your marketing communication on track
Effective communication is what makes or breaks a marketing strategy. DISC assessments help marketers craft messages that really speak to the people they are trying to reach – people with different personalities and communication styles.
When businesses understand how different personality types process information, they can create content that feels more real and more persuasive. This can apply to all sorts of marketing channels – eg : email marketing , social media campaigns , website content , sales presentations and advertising materials.
For example, a concise and results-focused ad might appeal to a dominant type, while an emotionally engaging social media campaign might be more up the street for an influential type.
Personalising your marketing like this can make a really big difference to how customers respond and how strong your brand relationships are.
Building stronger marketing teams
Marketing success isn’t just about getting a handle on your customers – its also about figuring out how to make your internal team work like a well-oiled machine. Marketing departments can be a real mixed bag, throwing together people with wildly different skills, viewpoints and working habits.
By using DISC assessments, team members can start to get a sense of each other’s strengths, communication styles – and where to push back on each other when things start to get hairy. Once that happens, team members start working together like a dream and workplace conflicts go down significantly.
- At the heart of any successful team, you tend to have a few key players – the ones who can push a project forward with tough decisions (because lets face it, not everyone has to be liked).
- The influential types always bring a ton of creativity and energy to the table, while the steady ones are the ones keeping things grounded and on track.
- The steady ones are often the glue that holds a team together, keeping things consistent and on track.
- Conscientious employees are the ones who make sure accuracy and attention to detail are never sacrificed.
A well-rounded team that plays to each members unique strengths in DISC is often more productive, innovative and able to adapt on a dime.
Creating More Effective Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are a fundamental part of how modern marketing teams do their job. Traditionally, marketing personas have focussed on things like age, location and income – but the thing is, those things dont say much about how someone actually behaves.
DISC assessments add a personality dimension to buyer personas which lets marketers create more comprehensive and real profiles of their customers and how they go about making purchasing decisions.
For example – two customers with similar backgrounds may well respond completely differently to the same marketing message because of their unique personality styles. Understanding those differences means businesses can create marketing that really speaks to customers and gets their attention.
As a result marketing just gets better and more customer-focused.
Increasing Sales and Conversion Rates
Sales and marketing are like two sides of the same coin and DISC assessments can help bridge the gap between them. When marketing teams know the real personality preferences of their target audience they can generate leads that are more likely to convert.
Marketing content that is based on DISC insights is always going to speak to customers on a level that matters to them.
For instance:
- Dominant personalities generally respond pretty well to clear calls to action & a competitive edge that really gets them going.
- Influence personalities usually respond to other people singing the praises of a product.
- Steady personalities tend to build up trust if you show them content that lets them feel like they can rely on you.
- Conscientious personalities tend to need detailed product info and data before they make up their minds.
By matching marketing messages to these preferences businesses can boost engagement and increase conversions to boot.
Supporting Customer Retention Strategies
Getting new customers is one thing, but keeping the ones you’ve already got on board is often way more efficient, profitable, and just makes a lot more sense. DISC assessments can be a really valuable tool in customer retention efforts by helping businesses figure out how customers like to interact with their brand.
When you tailor your communication to actually fit the personality of the customer you get a more genuine relationship and much higher satisfaction levels.
For example:
- Some customers just want to be kept in the loop , have a direct line to the company, and be told whats going on.
- Others are totally detail- oriented and need to get detailed reports to know exactly whats going on.
- And some customers just want a bit of recognition and to know they matter.
When you adapt your customer engagement strategies to fit the individuals you’re dealing with, you create a more loyal and long term customer.
Strengthening Leadership and Decision-Making
Marketing leaders are in charge of guiding teams, making strategic decisions and allocating resources – and DISC assessments give you really valuable insights to help you do that job even better. Leaders who understand DISC can communicate more effectively with their team, resolve conflicts and motivate people based on what they are actually like.
When leaders are aware of their own communication style and leadership tendencies they can:
- Communicate more effectively with their team
- Resolve conflicts more easily
- Motivate employees in a way that actually works for them
- Create a really collaborative work culture
Effective leadership has a huge impact on marketing performance, because it lets your teams perform at their very best. Getting Ahead of the Curve
Getting Ahead of the Curve
More and more businesses are flooding the market nowadays, so if you want to stand out from the crowd, you really need to get creative. One of the ways to do this is by making use of DISC assessments – these essentially give you a whole lot more insight into the people you’re trying to sell to, whether that’s your customers or your staff.
Organisations that can get their heads around how to use behavioural data – and that’s in addition to all the usual marketing numbers and stats – are going to be in a much better position to make decisions and come up with strategies that actually make sense. What tends to happen when you get this customer-centric approach right is that your marketing campaigns work better, you build stronger relationships with your customers, and in the end, you end up doing a lot better in business.
Also, businesses that really get the hang of communicating with people in a way that takes their personalities into account are going to be way better equipped to handle those changes in the market that inevitably come along – let’s face it, trends are always shifting, and consumers are always adapting.
The Bottom Line
What successful marketing all comes down to is understanding people. Yeah, demographics and market trends are still super important, but when you add a layer of insight that comes from understanding people’s behaviour, that’s when the magic happens and your marketing really starts to pay off.
DISC assessments are going to help you improve your comms, get your team working better together, get a much clearer picture of what your buyers are like – you get the idea. What it all boils down to is that the benefits of using DISC in your marketing are huge, and can really help you drive results and grow your business in the long run.
As businesses keep on looking for ways to get a bit better, and keep their customers engaged, DISC is going to keep on offering a pretty useful solution. By getting under the skin of the people who are actually making purchasing decisions, you can build real connections with them, drive way better outcomes, and really start moving forward in a competitive marketplace.
