Selling with Psycho Check: The 1963 Sales Psychology Method That Increases Conversions Using Buyer Personality Types

TL;DR

• The rare 1963 book "Selling with Psycho Check" by Eugene Tassau Dupont reveals a psychology-based sales system that identifies buyer personality types
• There are three core buyer types: intro buyers (analytical/logical), extro buyers (impulsive/emotional), and ambo buyers (balanced emotion/logic)
• Russell Brunson used these principles to create ClickFunnels' "Mother Funnel" with customized sales messages for different business types
• Modern AI chatbots can now identify buyer personalities through strategic questioning and adapt sales conversations in real-time
• Personality profiling tools like understand.me can segment audiences for more targeted coaching and sales approaches
• The method guarantees increased revenue when properly implemented with personalized sales scripts
• Most businesses still use one-size-fits-all sales messages, missing massive conversion opportunities

What is Psycho Check? A psycho check is basically a philosophy or a system where you identify the type of personality buyer has, and then you create a sales system based on the type of personality. — Russell Brunson

The Hidden Sales Psychology Revolution from 1963

In the world of sales and marketing, most professionals are unknowingly stuck in a pre-1963 mentality. They're using the same approach that car salesmen used decades ago: one script, one message, hoping it resonates with everyone who walks through their door. But buried in the archives of sales psychology lies a revolutionary book that changed everything—if only more people knew about it.

"Selling with Psycho Check" by Eugene Tassau Dupont, published in 1963, introduced a radical concept that most modern marketers have never heard of, despite its profound implications for conversion rates. Russell Brunson discovered this rare gem while hunting for every book on sales and psychology known to man on eBay, ultimately paying $450 for what he believes is the only copy he could find.

The book's core premise challenges the fundamental assumption of traditional sales: that one message fits all buyers. Instead, it proposes that successful selling requires first identifying a prospect's personality type, then adapting your entire sales approach to match their psychological profile. This wasn't just theoretical—it was designed for practical implementation in car dealerships and other sales environments where face-to-face interactions allowed for real-time personality assessment.

What makes this concept particularly powerful today is that while the psychology of buying hasn't changed since 1963, our ability to implement personalized sales approaches has exploded thanks to technology. Yet paradoxically, most businesses have moved further away from personalization, not closer to it. "Most people are still selling the way that we were selling pre-1963," Brunson observes, "Personality types, no matter anything, we're just taking one sales message and we're just jamming it down people's throats."

The Three-Type Buyer Psychology Framework

The Psycho Check system categorizes all buyers into three distinct personality types, each requiring a fundamentally different sales approach:

Buyer Type	Characteristics	Sales Approach	Decision Factors
Intro Buyer	Cautious, deliberate, analytical, fact-driven	Logic-based presentation with data and proof	Facts, logic, detailed analysis
Extro Buyer	Fast-thinking, bold, impulsive, emotion-driven	Experience-focused, emotional engagement	Feelings, excitement, immediate gratification
Ambo Buyer	Balanced approach, weighs emotion and logic	Hybrid presentation with both elements	Combination of emotional appeal and logical justification

The intro buyer represents the analytical segment—people who want facts, figures, and logical arguments before making any decision. These prospects need detailed information, comparative analysis, and proof points. They're the customers who read every review, compare specifications, and want to understand exactly what they're getting for their investment.

Extro buyers operate from a completely different psychological framework. They make fast decisions based on emotion and impulse. "They see something they want and they take action on it," as Brunson explains. For these buyers, the sales experience itself matters more than the logical arguments. In a car dealership, this means getting them behind the wheel, windows down, feeling the excitement of ownership rather than discussing fuel efficiency ratings.

Ambo buyers represent the middle ground—people who need both emotional engagement and logical justification. They want to feel excited about a purchase but also need rational reasons they can use to justify their decision to themselves and others. This type often reflects the internal dialogue many people have: "I want this, but does it make sense?"

Key Insight:

Understanding buyer personality types allows you to speak directly to how each person naturally processes decisions, dramatically increasing your conversion rates by aligning with their psychological preferences.

How ClickFunnels Applied Psycho Check Principles at Scale

When ClickFunnels launched, the company initially followed the standard approach: one homepage, one sales message for everyone interested in building funnels. But as the platform grew, Brunson and his team realized they were serving vastly different types of businesses with varying needs, pain points, and motivations.

This realization led to the creation of what they affectionately called "Mother Funnel"—a project so complex that most of the team wanted to swear every time they discussed it. The Mother Funnel represented a practical application of Psycho Check principles at an unprecedented scale.

The system worked by first identifying the visitor's business type through a simple survey question on the ClickFunnels homepage. Instead of immediately pitching the platform, they asked: "What type of business do you have?" Visitors could select from categories like e-commerce, network marketing, information marketing, affiliate marketing, or brick-and-mortar businesses.

Based on their selection, visitors were directed to completely customized sales experiences. Network marketers saw videos and sales pages specifically explaining how ClickFunnels solved network marketing challenges. E-commerce sellers received entirely different messaging focused on online retail applications. Each path included customized video sales letters, targeted email sequences, and industry-specific case studies.

"We'd have one page, they would have video sales there, and it's like, oh, congratulations, you're a network marketer, let me explain how ClickFunnels works for network marketers," Brunson explains. This approach allowed them to speak directly to each prospect's specific situation rather than forcing everyone through the same generic funnel.

The results were remarkable because the messaging resonated with each visitor's actual needs and context. A network marketer didn't have to mentally translate how an e-commerce example applied to their business—everything was already tailored to their world. This level of personalization dramatically increased engagement and conversion rates across all segments.

The Personality Profiling Evolution: From Basic Segmentation to Deep Psychology

Brunson's fascination with buyer psychology evolved beyond simple business-type categorization into comprehensive personality profiling. This led to the creation of understand.me, a platform that aggregates multiple personality assessment tools including DISC profiles, Enneagram types, StrengthsFinder results, and 16 Personalities tests.

The platform serves a dual purpose: helping individuals understand their own psychological makeup while providing businesses with deeper insights into their customers and team members. Every job applicant for Brunson's companies must complete personality profiling, and all coaching clients go through the same process.

This deep profiling approach revealed patterns that transformed how they delivered coaching services. "When our coaches would show up, they would be able to look at somebody and say, okay, this person, I know that they're a high D, their strength is competition, their Enneagram is a three wing two or whatever it is," Brunson describes. "And they start seeing it and all of a sudden they know everything about the person and they could coach them better."

The transformation in coaching outcomes was dramatic. When coaches understood whether someone was driven by competition (high D), needed social recognition (high I), valued security and relationships (high S), or focused on accuracy and details (high C), they could adapt their entire coaching approach accordingly.

A high-D entrepreneur needed direct, results-focused coaching with clear challenges and competitive elements. A high-I personality required more encouragement, social proof, and recognition-based motivation. High-S individuals needed patient, relationship-focused coaching that honored their need for security and stability. High-C personalities wanted detailed processes, systems, and logical explanations for every recommendation.

>

Key Insight:

The same coaching advice delivered differently based on personality type can produce dramatically different results, with properly matched approaches leading to much higher success rates.

The AI-Powered Future of Personality-Based Selling

The most exciting development in applying Psycho Check principles involves artificial intelligence and real-time personalization. Brunson's team has been experimenting with AI chatbots that can identify personality types through strategic questioning, then adapt their sales conversations accordingly.

Traditional personality assessment requires lengthy surveys or complex questionnaires. But AI chatbots can identify core personality traits through just 5-10 strategic questions woven naturally into a conversation. The system can determine whether someone is a high-D, high-I, high-S, or high-C personality type, along with other relevant psychological markers, within minutes of initial contact.

Once the AI identifies the personality type, it completely shifts its communication style. For analytical personalities, it provides data, comparisons, and logical arguments. For emotional personalities, it focuses on feelings, experiences, and social proof. For balanced personalities, it combines both approaches strategically.

The next level involves real-time copy customization. "What if we rewrote the copy in real time?" Brunson asks. "So somebody opts in, it pings our database, say, oh, this person's a high D, strength finder is a whatever, and this is their Enneagram, and then have AI rewrite this headline for someone who's a D, three wing two, and a whatever."

This represents selling with Psycho Check on steroids—moving from three basic personality types to comprehensive psychological profiling with AI-powered personalization at scale. Instead of creating separate funnels for different segments, the technology can adapt any funnel in real-time based on who's viewing it.

Common Mistakes in Modern Sales Psychology

Despite having more tools and data than ever before, most businesses make critical errors when attempting to personalize their sales approaches. The biggest mistake is assuming that demographic segmentation equals psychological segmentation. Just because someone is in e-commerce doesn't mean they're an analytical buyer, and not all network marketers are emotional decision-makers.

Another common error is creating too many segments without enough traffic to optimize each path. While ClickFunnels could support dozens of customized funnels because of their massive traffic volume, smaller businesses often spread their testing efforts too thin across multiple variations.

Many companies also fail to train their sales teams on personality identification and adaptation. They might create different marketing materials but don't equip their salespeople to recognize personality types during conversations and adjust their approach accordingly. "Prior to this, what happened is the salesman's got a script, someone would come in and they would go through the script and try to sell the person," Brunson notes, highlighting how this outdated approach still dominates most sales organizations.

How to Apply Psycho Check Principles in Your Business

• Start with Basic Buyer Type Identification: Create a simple survey or questionnaire that helps identify whether prospects are analytical (intro), emotional (extro), or balanced (ambo) buyers.

• Develop Type-Specific Sales Materials: Create different versions of your core sales presentations, each tailored to speak the language of each buyer type—logical arguments for analytical buyers, emotional experiences for impulsive buyers, and balanced approaches for mixed types.

• Train Your Sales Team on Personality Recognition: Teach your salespeople to identify verbal and behavioral cues that indicate personality type, then adapt their presentations accordingly.

• Implement Progressive Profiling: Use tools like understand.me or similar platforms to gather deeper personality data over time, building comprehensive profiles of your best customers.

• Test AI-Powered Personalization: Experiment with chatbots that can identify personality types through conversation and adapt their responses accordingly.

• Segment Your Email Marketing: Create different email sequences for different personality types, speaking to their specific motivations and decision-making processes.

• Analyze Your Current Customer Base: Review your best customers and identify patterns in their personality types to better understand what approaches work best for each segment.

Key Insight:

The goal isn't to manipulate people but to communicate with them in the way they naturally prefer to receive and process information, making the sales process more comfortable and effective for everyone involved.

Measuring Results and Optimizing Your Approach

Implementing personality-based selling requires careful measurement and optimization. Track conversion rates for each personality type separately to identify which approaches work best. Monitor not just immediate conversions but long-term customer satisfaction and retention rates, as properly matched sales approaches often lead to better customer relationships.

Pay attention to which personality types respond best to which team members. Some salespeople naturally excel at logical presentations while others are better at emotional engagement. Matching personality types between salespeople and prospects can further improve results.

The key metric to focus on is not just overall conversion improvement but conversion rate consistency across different personality types. A truly effective system should see strong performance across all three buyer types rather than just optimizing for one segment at the expense of others.

Brunson's confidence in this approach is absolute: "I guarantee you will make more money by making this one little tweak." The psychology hasn't changed since 1963—only our ability to implement it at scale has improved dramatically.

FAQs

---

This article was created from video content by Russell Brunson. The content has been restructured and optimized for readability while preserving the original insights and voice.