RIO Methodology

With our Personality Based Sales Methodology, RIO, we guide commercial organizations to embed empathy as a strategic competence and we offer Full Circle Customer Engagement Programs. These are built in co-creation, so that they connect seamlessly with the knowledge already present within the organization.

We try to integrate RIO into every course; it’s our connecting thread.

Tine De Boodt

Trainer and Audiologist at Amplifon

A guide that takes you to the heart of sales and beyond

Our RIO method maps out your conversation partner’s buying preferences and provides you with an exact picture of what is needed to foster trust and collaboration. More than client typology, RIO represents the beginning of a new era in sales in which the authentic connection between customers and commercial professionals takes centre stage. By integrating this knowledge, not only will you grow your revenue, but also your self-worth and the positive influence on the people around you.

RIO is the Chemistry in sales

The RIO model describes three fundamentally different ways in which clients build trust and it shows the impact that this has on their thinking, feeling and acting. RIO offers the sales professional a concrete roadmap for meeting, informing and convincing the client within his or her world. In doing so, the model makes manageable one of the most uncontrollable aspects of sales: human diversity.

Relational Channel of trust

Clients with the relational channel are ‘feelers’. They are gentle and tolerant people’s people.

Informational Channel of trust

Clients with an informative channel of trust are ‘thinkers’. They get their energy from studying information and structuring tasks.

Outgoing Channel of trust

Clients with an outgoing channel of trust are ‘doers’. They get their energy from tackling matters and generating impact.

Can you build rapport with every customer you encounter on-and offline?

Watch our book launch webinar (in Dutch) to get to know RIO.

RIO is compact, simple, recognizable and intense. Everyone knows those training sessions that make you wonder: Are we actually going to do something with this? With RIO, you feel that people are really involved and getting started with it.

Katy Lauwaert

Senior sales coach at Synergie

Reasons to invest in a RIO transformation process

It is evident that sales professionals who are proficient in the three RIO
‘languages’ reach far more customers than those who only speak their ‘native
language’. Spontaneous statements resonate with one-third of the market,
while the remaining two-thirds go hungry. RIO’s leverage in sales growth is
therefore huge.

The customer experience is now an important focus for the entire
organization and not just the sales and service departments. Commercial
tasks, therefore, differ for each prospect, on sales, customer success, complaint
processing and account management. Initally, an important challenge is to
get the right person in the right place. Insight into the RIO distribution within a team provides immediate tools for dividing sales tasks and letting employees contribute to commercial success, each using their natural strengths.

In skills training, RIO forms the bridge between generic sales techniques and the individual motivation needed to successfully apply the tip.

Most sales methods are based on a uniform sales process and generally applicable guidelines. RIO, on the other hand, provides specific instructions for each buyer type when making a custom call. For that reason, the model becomes particularly illuminating when an identical action by the seller has a positive effect in one conversation and a negative effect in another. Where generic methodologies find themselves confronted with a riddle,
RIO offers a logical explanation.

For the business aspects in sales there are terms that all sales professionals know. The human aspects in sales, however, lack the same sort of clarity and everyone tries to describe the customer interaction using their own vocabulary. The RIO model ensures that the human component can be captured in a sales conversation. What was previously only tangible as an easy or difficult customer interaction is now objectified and typical fragments from the dialogue can be discussed.

Our people understand what their channel of trust is and that they, too, can be commercial. During the training courses, they’re presented with techniques and answers for each RIO type. So, it’s no longer “that’s the way to do it” but instead there is a range and thus an opportunity to choose. The “hunger for sales” then comes automatically. Because it’s tailored to their personality.

Koen Vandendriessche

Commercial Manager at Partena

We are a consultancy company that helps organizations drive revenue through hyper personalising sales conversations and customer touchpoints.