Certified Professional Facilitator

In recently got engaged in a discussion on the role of MBTI preferences in buying.

I believe all 4 scales of MBTI effect how we buy to some extent and here is a personal example.

I wanted to buy a new digital SLR camara a while back that was fairly expensive and this is how I went about buying it:

E - I scale
I personally didn't go into the shop and buy it and I basically had two options - online purchase or get someone to go to the shop for me. In the end I got someone to go to the shop and drop it off for me when we next met up.

S - N scale
When looking which to buy I certainly hunted around for information but was looking for highlights / short reviews of various cameras I though might do the job. I was particularly interested in knowing how the camera would suit the work and hobbies I do and I was interested in seeing results from use rather than the technical details i.e. megapixels, battery life etc

T - F scale
When making the final choice I drew out a quick weighted preferences diagram on the core areas of the camera : price, popularity, available lenses, future proofedness.

J - P scale
Once I had made the decision to buy the camera I planned when would the best time to get it. The person that would buy it for me was in another country and so I had to match up my work travel calender to see when we could get together (the country is also cheaper than mine for cameras). Based on my travel plans I planned when I would need to do a review of my decision and also check certain website for new information and prices changes.

I am not saying with this. that MBTI is the perfect tool to analyse buying / selling preferences but in my experience it certainly helps, especially when the price is high enough i..e 1000 USD / EURO so that you have to think rather than just buy on a whim.

If you have taken the MBTI, how do your preferences match up with how you like to buy "big ticket" items?

For information on selling with MBTI visit the sales training overview page