People come in four predominant behavioral flavors that correspond to the colors red, yellow, green and blue. Once you’re able to recognize them and understand what they mean, you’ll connect and persuade more people with greater ease and speed. You’ll know what to say and how to say it with everyone Right up front, you may be wondering why I use colors to distinguish the behavioral styles. It’s not about how physical colors affect people, and it doesn’t have anything to do with astrology or auras or anything like that. Here’s the real reason: One day in 1988, I was browsing through a bookstore when a book called Personality Plus, written by Florence Littauer, caught my attention. I started looking through it. It began by explaining how we are all unique and how we’re all born with our own raw material that can be shaped by several situations and factors in our lives. The author mentioned that there are four temperaments, and she said that if we understood them, we would be able to appreciate ourselves and other people better. I found this interesting, so I kept reading. During the first few pages, everything was going great and I was getting more and more excited. NULL Then, all of a sudden, she mentioned four words – phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy and choleric. I grew up in the ghetto and didn’t have a clue how to pronounce those words, much less what they meant. Even though I found the concept interesting, I let my inability to pronounce those four words stop me from pursuing the study of the behavioral styles. I just let the whole thing go. About three years later, in 1991, I attended a seminar in Hawaii and heard this 21-year-old lady – who was making over $40,000 per month in her business – talking about how this was a people business and about the four different personality styles. My ears perked up and I waited for those complicated words I had read three years ago: phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy, and choleric. But instead, she mentioned the colors yellow, blue, green and red. I vaguely recalled some similarities with what Florence Littauer was saying in Personality Plus. I figured, hey, if a 21-year-old girl with a terrible upbringing and not much education yet making over $40,000 per month was saying that people skills are more important than product knowledge… well, I’d better work on my people skills! My commitment to master people skills was made, and I decided to do some more research on this personality stuff. What I discovered really got me excited. As a matter of fact, it got me so excited I could hardly stand it. I found out that the information the young lady was sharing and the information in Personality Plus were pretty much identical. The only difference was the names they used for each of the behavioral styles. In other words…
Yellow was the same as phlegmatic. Blue was sanguine. Green was melancholy, and red was the same as choleric.
You see, the reason I got so excited was because I thought I was stuck with that “phlegmatic” stuff. I could hardly say that, but I could say “yellow.” Since that day in Hawaii back in 1991, I’ve reviewed close to one hundred books, reports, videos and tape programs on behavioral styles. Let me give you a little background based on my research. The early astrologers developed twelve zodiac signs and put them into four elemental groupings: earth, air, water and fire. They believed that our behavior has something to do with the position of the heavens at the time of our birth. About 400 years before Jesus Christ was born, the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates grouped human behavior in four categories. By the way, he’s the one that came up with the terms “phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholy and choleric” that took me over five years just to learn how to pronounce! Hippocrates believed that personality was shaped by blood, phlegm, black bowel and yellow bowel. Yeah, I know. It sounds pretty gross, doesn’t it? Well, in 1921, Dr. Carl Jung – who many of us studied in our high school and college psychology classes – wrote a book on personality called Psychological Types. His initial motivation for his research on personality was to figure out why he and Sigmund Freud seemed to view the world so differently. His book turned out to be the most detailed and scientific work ever conducted on personality at that time. In it, he explains how people perceive, interpret and respond to the world in different ways. He also used a four-category model, calling his styles Feeler, Sensor, Thinker and Intuitor. Since then, literally dozens of professionals have used the four-behavioral model to explain personality. Some describe it by using animals, automobiles, symbols, geometric shapes, the weather, blood types, food seasoning and much more. The many people who have made valuable contributions in the field of personality study include Michael O’Connor, David Merrill, Roger Reid, Katherine Briggs, Isabel Briggs Myers, Tony Alessandra, Jim Cathcart, Larry Wilson, Tim LaHaye, Florence Littauer, Dr. Robert Roam, William Marston, Robert Lefton, Bernice MacArthy, Laurence Crabb, Roger Hargraves, Carl Jung, Hippocrates, and the list goes on and on. My personal thanks goes out to everyone who has made a contribution to the research and writings on this topic of personality. They’ve made my work a lot easier. Now, I must say for the record that there are behavioral models that go beyond the four basic styles. Some break down personalities into nine, sixteen, or even more categories. I don’t focus on those models for two reasons: 1) I never wanted to spend a month trying to figure out which of the sixteen personalities styles a person could be, and 2) I’ve found the four-color behavioral style model highly accurate – I would say around 90 percent accurate. So, with all of that said and done, why have I decided to spend my time, energy and money to put this material together? I mean, why don’t I just give you a couple of recommendations and call it a day? Two reasons. First, I’m going to break this information down so that the average layperson can understand it. I’m not coming from a scientific or technical perspective. I’m not a doctor or a psychologist. I’m just someone like you who stumbled across this stuff and got excited. Once you start to learn and use this information, I’m sure you’re going to get excited as well. Second, even though people in all walks of life can benefit from this information, I’m directing this specifically for people in network marketing. I personally know of no other author who has taken these behavioral styles and tailored it to meet the needs of network marketers.
If used correctly, I know for a fact that this information can help explode your business. The bottom line is: this stuff works.
Now, as a networker, why should you learn this? To explain, it’s important for you to understand the relationship between tension and cooperation in human relations. When two or more people get together, you have two factors present. One is tension and the other is cooperation. If the tension level is high, then the cooperation level will be low. On the other hand, if the tension level is low, then the cooperation level will be high. Which do you want – a lower or higher cooperation level? Of course, you want the cooperation level to be higher. Therefore, in developing more rewarding relationships, your mission should be to find out how you can help the other person maintain a certain degree of comfort, which is done by decreasing their tension level.
If they can stay within a reasonable range of their comfort zone, you will increase rapport, which will result in increased cooperation.
Now, there are two main reasons why this works. First, people don’t like change. They resist it. They would rather stay in their comfort zone. Second, people tend to do business with people they like, know and trust. Studies have al
so shown that people tend to develop rapport more quickly with those who tend to be like themselves. In network marketing, the product we’re marketing may be tangible or intangible. It could be anything from nutrition, skin care, education, electronics, insurance, and so on. The compensation plan could be anything from a breakaway, binary, unilevel, matrix, Australian 2UP, or a hybrid of the many plans that are available. The training could be primarily focused on business presentations: one-on-ones, or three-way calls, or direct mail and so on. The focus may be on leading with the products or leading with the business. Your company could be headquartered in the United States, Canada, Japan, Sweden, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, or any of the 100 plus countries where network marketing currently operates. All of those things I just mentioned are variables. They change from company to company, but the one thing you will find the same in all network marketing companies around the world… people.
Downloads
The topics covered range from peak performance training, effective communication strategies, and increasing productivity and profitability in a home based business. Jerry is the producer of over 100 of the most empowering audio programs available in the networking industry, many of which also the authored, such as The Magic of Colors, Creating Magic, and High Achievement Network Marketing, all of these and more can be found through our affiliate link to Jerry's website here: ClubRhino.com
Jerry’s training products are currently being used by dozens of direct sales and network marketing companies in over 35 countries worldwide. Jerry recognizes that change occurs at the individual level, and he’s committed to training others how to improve themselves by teaching peak performance strategies that get results.
His articles have appeared in many major publications such as Success magazine, and he was on the advisory board of Working At Home magazine. Along with being the CEO & President of Club Rhino, Inc., Jerry is the founder of the AMG Business Group and The International Academy of Rhinology™.
You can visit Jerry’s website and learn about all the resources he has available, and sign up for his “Tip of the week” at ClubRhino.com.
- A Giant has Passed – A Video Tribute to Jim Rohn by Jerry Clark - January 1, 2010
- Flying colors by Jerry Clark - May 1, 2008
- The power of generation Y by Jerry Clark - November 1, 2006
