I’d definitely agree with that. The Myers-Briggs preferences are just that – preferences. I might operate out of a Competitive/NT preference most of the time, but I can definitely buy in Spontaneous mode when I’m on Vacation!

- Jeff

To answer John, I’d say each of us flows from each sector of the chart on occasion. Sometimes I want to be analytical and detailed when I search a site. Sometimes, I’m in a creative, wow-me-with-graphics mood. Besides I believe these elements exert their effects on a subconscious level anyway, so by using as many as you can hits the brain at multiple angles without people consciously knowing it.

Nice video indeed.

Interesting question. On one hand, you definitely want to tailor your messaging and material to your best customers. On the other hand, businesses frequently limit their market simply because their messaging only appeals to a fraction of their potential audience. In the absence of personas or temperaments to write to, business owners often write to themselves, so they appeal to one of four personas well, but not so well to the other three. I’ve seen this happen more than a few times, actually, where my client was convinced that such and such a personality type didn’t like their product or service or company, only to find out that some changes to messaging added a whole boatload of that personality type into their customer base.

I’d balance the two thoughts by saying that the customer profile you want usually isn’t determined strictly by temperament. You might be able to exclude a temperament type or two, but for the most part, not so much. Digging past temperament to look at precipitating events, philosophical world views, life stage, demographics, etc. can help you zoom in on the customer you want. THEN you can make sure your messaging appeals to those people regardless of what decision-making style they prefer. In other words, you overlay temperament ON TOP OF other customer qualifiers, rather than using temperament as the sole determinant of who your customer is.

Hope that clears things up. If not, feel free to send me an e-mail or a Direct Message via twitter.

- Jeff

I really enjoyed today’s blog.

I have been redesigning my site (still in progress) with some of these points in mind. Good to see you reconfirm my strategy; to entice logical and slow business owners that I can fix inefficiencies and bottlenecks in their business to improve the bottom line.

My question is this. In Dave’s presentation, he shows snippets catering to each type of personality on each page, it seems. This seems to me to muddy up the page. Would it not be best to simplify the pages and go after one or two types? I know you are giving up some business, but why not go after the customer profile you want?

Just a thought.

John