To me, selling is an art form, and one that not too many people are particularly good at. I haven’t met that many, which you may find surprising seeing as I work in an industry supposedly full of sales people.

I’ve met a lot of very amiable people who are good at chatting to anyone and I’ve met plenty of brash types who show no fear, but equally, no tact.

The best sales people are subtle. In fact, the very best are so subtle you don’t realise you’ve been sold to. They’ll have steered you to a conclusion, yet you end up feeling it’s one you reached on your own.

To master the art requires a number of skill sets; being amiable and chatty is among them, as is having some nerve, understanding body language is another, but a key ingredient few have studied is personality traits. It’s an area that fascinates me.

The most commonly accepted way of assigning personalities is into one of four colour bands; green, yellow, red and blue. Most people will fall into one of these categories, or if they’re a combination of, they’ll have one dominant colour. A top sales person will be able to quickly spot the personality colour of different people they meet.

People’s dress sense, speech patterns and manners are quick giveaways. The skill then is to converse in a manner that appeals to that particular personality colour.

By that, I mean the way you approach a Green person is very different to how you would a Blue or Yellow and so on. If you’re interested in knowing more about this, I’ve put some of the key attributes for each personality on the website version of this week’s Coleface.

It’s good fun to work out what you are, what your partner is, and what your work colleagues are. Understanding the subject can not only help sales people, but also help building relationships and solving disputes.