How to sell to different buyers with the OCEAN personality psychology framework

Caitlin: Why do some people sign up for your services immediately, while others need a 12 follow up emails at a free consult and maybe even a case study before they'll even consider it. It may not be your offer. It may not even be your messaging. It might be about who's buying it.

Hello, hello. Welcome to the place for offbeat health professionals who have bravely swapped their healthcare hats for nonclinical creative caps. I'm Caitlin, a psychologist, turn copywriter, and this is healers with hustles.

Hi healers. If you are a healthcare professional, stepping into the world of business, whether it's consulting, coaching. Or maybe even providing online education. One of the hardest parts is figuring out how to sell without feeling salesy or without trying to shove your offer down your audience's throat, so to speak.

And one of the, a way that I found to be quite helpful,Different personalities make buying decisions. So today I wanna talk to you aboutA framework that's close to psychology's heart, which is, the ocean model of personality psychology, which is one of the most validated personality frameworks out there.

So let's get into it.

Now, if you've taken a personality test before, you've probably seen things like the Myers-Briggs or even, Enneagram, I believe it's called, but the most reliable or validated model of personality. What psychologists use in research mainly is called the big five personality traits or the ocean model.

it's, openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. unlike personality quizzes this model is based on so much research and it's even shown to apply across, cultures and industries. Even including how people make decisions and buy. So if you're shifting from healthcare into business, this can be quite, helpful

because I'm sure you'll, come to realize that what made sense in a clinical setting where people trust your expertise implicitly isn't necessarily. Be the case in, business because clients have to actively choose you over someone else.

All right. Let's go through the, different personality types,but I do wanna have a little, Asterisk here saying that yes, there's the five types. They're also, each of them are on a spectrum between high and low. So we're talking about the high because that's the easiest to be able to cater to in business and to cater to,

So you want to Cater to these. the first one is openness, which I, call a curious explorer. this is. Maybe like a visionary type of buyer, the one who's drawn to new ideas or freshapproaches and innovation. they might be people looking for out of box solutions. Maybe they love learning, exploring different ways of doing things.

They might get excited by, cutting edge trendsThey don't necessarily need a ton of proof if something really excites them, they're in, and they wanna feel like they're part of something new and that's evolving. So they're probably the people that rush out and buy a new iPhone as soon as it's on the market.

So what works for them? we can talk about like, future focused messaging. So being part of, the next wave of something or being at the, the forefront of a new exciting trend. It might be storytelling or it might be emphasized. what sets your approach apart or why what you are doing is, different, but what turns them off is things that a bit more of the same.

Next we've got conscientiousness, or as I like to call them, the goal oriented planners. So they're very organized, disciplined, detailed oriented, quite reliable, and maybe even goal driven. They might evaluate every single detail on, say, your sales page. They want really clear directions and they want evidence that your product or service will deliver results.

And so ambiguity will make them quite uneasy. So a good way to appeal to these people is to provide clear instructions, so maybe timelines, detailed overview of the modules, or whatever's included in the service or product that you are selling. Maybe authority indicators as well.

So testimonials or how the results that people have gotten. And of course, evidence of success. Next we've got up is extroversion. I'll call these people the connection seekers. they might be really sociable, energetic, enthusiastic, and people focused as well. These buyers thrive on energy and community, so they're drawn to offers that connect people and add excitement.

a good way to appeal to these people is to show how your product builds relationships or enhances social experiences. show your personality and fun as well. But I wanna have a little caveat here as well. that extroversion versus intro. introversion is about how we get our energy, right? And so I think even introverts are quite drawn, can be drawn to.

Environments that are, energetic and fun and lively and have people and all of that. But it's just we need our rest as well. And so I think particularly in business and sales and all of that, it doesn't necessarily mean because you have a lot of fun. Your page is very fun or it's very energetic or social.

It doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna turn off introverted people. I just wanna. Have a little caveat there because sometimes people get a bit confused about what extroversion means versus what introversion means. Next, we've got agreeableness. So these are the feel good buyers. So they're really empathetic, cooperative, kind, trusting, and values driven.

they're motivated by say, harmony, impact. They want to see how your offer or what you are selling aligns with their values, and maybe even that it helps other people. So to appeal to these people, we wanna emphasize the emotional benefits or how your offer will positively impact others. Maybe even being vulnerable and sharing your story.

And last we have neuroticism. a k, a, the risk adverse. Warriors. these are cautious, detail focused, a little bit anxious, maybe, might be risk sensitive and potentially even self-critical. These peoples can be quite cautious. They need a lot of reassurance and safety to feel comfortable buying.

So how to appeal to these people is to offer guarantees, refunds, or free trials. Use calm, reassuring language like risk-free, safe choice, and maybe even using really detailed, frequently asked questions and support options to help ease their concerns.

But the thing is, not everyone is only one type. We might be a broad spectrum of all the types, and so that's why it's really important. In your messaging, in your pages, in your website, anywhere, is to use all five and make sure what you've written speaks to every buyer type.

The thing is, a lot of businesses might, whether they realize it or not, only use one type of bio in their messaging. And that's particularly so because they think that all buyers buy like them. So for instance, buy a little bit on an impulse. If I like something I'm in,

I'd probably call very open, I would say, and maybe even the extroversion. in person. I'm a huge introvert, but I think in my buyer type, how I buy is, openness. And then also I'm probably high on the extroversion in my buyer type rather than myself as a person. But yeah, the problem before I derail this, the problem that most people have is that they might.

Only speak to how they buy rather than thinking about who their audience is and how their audience buys. So for instance, like if I assume all of my audience buys the way I do, I might not even have frequently asked questions. I might not lean on a lot of testimonials and things like that. I might just talk about like how fun it's gonna be, how cool things are, how different it is, like my approach, how it.

Hasn't been done before, those kind of things. But that might not be the messages or the signals that my audience need to hear to buy. And that's why it's super important for you to think about all the different types of buyers and have a big lolly mix bag to help appeal to a lot of people.

And this is not to say that they're all different types of ideal clients. Like you can have your one ideal client. But there might be different personalities of that ideal client.

So if you want a task to do next, take a look at your website or your sales page, or even your Instagram. Are you speaking to the different types of buyers? If not, maybe Add a mix of logic or emotion, social proof, reassurance to your content, and see what happens there.

if you want a written example of what I've, Talked about here in this episode. You can always go to the blog, but you can also look at my Instagram because I did a post about this a little while ago, which I'll link as well in the show notes.

But if this, episode made you rethink about how you approach maybe how you sell, Definitely follow because I talk quite a lot about psychology and messaging strategies every week, but I'm also curious to hear what personality type you think you are in relation to how you buy.

All right, until next time.

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