Adapting to buyers by flexing his or her own communication style has been
found to have a positive impact on salespeople’s performance and the quality of
buyerseller relationships. Nevertheless, flexing should not be interpreted as
meaning an exact match between a salesperson’s style and that of a customer.
Not only is it not required, exact matches could even be detrimental. For example,
a buyer and seller with matching expressive styles could easily discover that the
entire sales call regressed to little more than a personal discussion with nothing
of substance being accomplished. However, a buyer and seller matched as drivers
could find it difficult, if not impossible, to reach a decision that was mutually beneficial.
Rather than matching the buyer’s style, flexing infers that the salesperson
should adjust to the needs and preferences of the buyer to maximize effectiveness.
Growmark, an international agricultural product and service organization, teaches
their salespeople to flex throughout their interaction with a buyer by studying different
behaviors a salesperson might demonstrate with each style of buyer (see
Exhibit 3.7).6