DISC Case Studies

HighRadius provides modern financing and accounting software to more than 700 of the world’s leading companies. Brett Johnson is the AVP of Global Enablement, responsible for developing, executing, and improving the company’s processes for their team of 150 account executives.

Unfortunately, there is a widespread problem across sales organizations: most reps do not understand their audience well enough to articulate value quickly, and most outreach falls flat. In this case study, you will see that when sales teams truly understand their buyers, they can differentiate themselves quickly and create a consistent competitive advantage.

Brett Johnson recognized this issue and leveraged the concepts from DISC and the DISC Sales enablement platform to help his salespeople personalize their pitches to potential customers. Below is the process Brett used with his Account-based Marketing (ABM) team:

DISC Training

To successfully implement any cohesive communication strategy, the whole team needs to unite behind a common methodology. DISC has proven to be an extremely powerful framework for sales teams for several decades, so Brett integrates it heavily into his training processes.

The key underlying idea behind DISC is that personality differences lead to vastly different communication styles and buyer preferences. These behavioral patterns are well-validated, and with enough experience, sales reps can learn to identify these patterns and adapt their communication style accordingly.

To train a team on DISC, Brett recommends this process:

• Have each team member complete the DISC assessment and read their own profile.

• Facilitate discussion between team members to discuss what resonates most and how their profiles are different from each other.

• Discuss how each team member’s DISC type might affect the way they view the selling or buying process.

By the end of training, sales reps should learn:

• The strengths, blind spots, and sales styles associated with their own DISC type.

• The buying behaviors associated with each prospect/customer DISC type.

• How does each DISC type prefer to communicate, build relationships, and make decisions?

Practice using DISC

HighRadius runs a tight, consistent, well-structured enterprise sales process, which includes a “pre-meeting” strategy session before each sales conversation.

In each of these strategy sessions, the ABM team uses the DISC Sales enablement platform to:

• Identify the personality and communication style of each stakeholder.

• Decide which benefits to focus on most heavily based on the DISC types involved.

• Personalize the message in a way that will best resonate with the group.

• Prepare for potential blind spots, red flags, and objections ahead of time.

The team developed an effective strategy for the upcoming call with this information. Every account may include champions, decision-makers, gatekeepers, and other stakeholders with vastly different communication preferences, objections, and behavioral tendencies. The insights from the DISC Sales Enablement platform help the sales team understand and act on these differences efficiently.

First Citrus Bank, a $600MM commercial bank ranked as a Top 100 Community Banks, has used DISC since 2020. As a commercial bank offering various financial services, First Citrus uses DISC to help increase conversion rates and develop long-term relationships with their business owner clients.

The bank invests heavily in sales training and encourages “meeting people where their clients are, not where you are”.

In this case study, we found that the DISC Sales enablement platform allows reps to put this philosophy into practice and reinforce their skills with every customer conversation. Before meeting with prospects, sales reps typically create “pre-call packages” to prepare for their client meetings. Personality predictions from the Chrome Extension give practical insights and tips for communicating with prospects with different behavioral styles, motivations, and preferences.

Using DISC for Pre-Call Strategy Sessions

When planning a call or meeting, it’s important to consider the following three questions:

• What do they want?
• Why do they want it?
• How do they want to interact?

You’re setting yourself up for effective, empathetic communication by thinking this way. DISC will help to understand a person’s personality and communication style. It also allows you to easily personalize your approach and navigate through calls and meetings with any personality type:

By being aware of these differences and how they affect an individual’s ability to receive and respond to information and adapting your approach accordingly, you can facilitate a more productive meeting, build stronger connections, and avoid misunderstandings.

Utilizing the insights from the DISC Sales Platform in pre-meeting strategy sessions, as First Citrus Bank does, helps the entire team align before speaking with clients to ensure seamless and effective communication.

Results with DISC Sales

Since implementing the DISC Sales enablement platform, “the calls are much better and engaging, and there is a much higher level of connection and rapport-building than we used to have,” according to EVP David Mastrorio.

Because of their success with the product, DISC has become deeply integrated into the sales process at First Citrus and is now a required part of any important client meeting. Outside of pre-meeting strategy sessions, their team uses the DISC Sales platform to reinforce internal sales training and methodology and to aid in developing relationships to the point of becoming “trusted advisors” for their clients.

In the future, David plans to align DISC more closely with the Challenger SaleTM methodology to give reps more conversation structure.

1-800-BOARDUP is a national disaster recovery organization that assists disaster victims across the United States. Its network of professionals serves thousands of fire departments and citizens nationwide through direct support to first responders and valuable resources to those affected by a disaster.

Stephanie Cancilla and the team at 1-800-BOARDUP are responsible for managing external relations across their various franchisees and partnerships. Cancilla and the team rely on the DISC Sales enablement platform for personalized DISC-based insights across sales and customer relations to ensure every relationship is as healthy as possible.

Going from Prospect to Franchise using DISC

1-800-BOARDUP’s sales team is responsible for developing new partnerships with prospective franchisees nationwide. Given the deep working relationships that 1-800-BOARDUP has with its partners, it’s critical for the team to fully understand every prospect before signing them onboard to the franchise program. 

1-800-BOARDUP leverages DISC for a full 360-degree view of every potential partner. Whereas most personality assessments provide single insights and require an individual to complete an online test, Cancilla leverages the DISC Sales’s AI predictions to gain deeper insights based on DISC for the external parties she and her team are working with.

Managing External Partners with DISC

Once partners begin working with 1-800-BOARDUP, it’s up to Cancilla and the rest of the team to enable them to thrive in the network. Cancilla knows that the partners in 1-800-BOARDUP’s network have incredibly busy schedules as they grow their franchises. She notes that “it’s sometimes hard to engage these partners with our marketing team,” but that engagement is a critical next step in a successful relationship.

To reach partners, 1-800-BOARDUP leverages DISC to understand and connect with everyone in the franchisee’s operation. Using the DISC Learning Platform insights, Cancilla can learn more about the franchisee’s entire team and communicate with each individual more effectively. By personalizing outreach, messaging, and content to the individual, Cancilla has deepened relationships among existing partners and keeps even her most busy partners engaged in nationwide initiatives.

Turn Tough Conversations into Opportunities with DISC

Even with extensive vetting and strong working relationships, some partners still run into challenging situations that occasionally can lead them to want to leave the network. When this happens, it’s critical for 1-800-BOARDUP’s leadership team to understand the partner’s troubles and position comprehensively. If partners are thinking about leaving, Cancilla pulls DISC insights for her leadership team to understand the right negotiation tactics to use.

The DISC Learning Platform  Coach provides Cancilla and the team with an actionable guide for these tough conversations. Instead of approaching these scenarios blindly, the team can base their strategy on the individual’s likes, dislikes, motivators, strengths, weaknesses, and more. While the right approach might work for one partner, it’s not always applicable to the next. Cancilla and the team rely on DISC to strategically turn these tough conversations into opportunities to improve their partnerships.