Why You Should Hire An Introvert as Your Next Salesperson
Sales is a challenging profession; the competition is fierce, the stakes are high and the pressure to deliver can be stressful. Despite this, companies are never short of candidates for sales positions. The high salaries, enticing bonuses and exhilarating nature of the job are attractive draws. It’s challenging but it’s exciting, and there’s the potential to earn a lot of money — if you’re good at it.
According to the Harvard Business Review, certain personality traits tend to influence a salespersons success or lack thereof. Common wisdom suggests that the most successful salespeople are extroverted, thick-skinned and pushy, not too dissimilar to the ‘Wolf of Wall Street’, perhaps. While it’s true that extroverts can be — and most probably are — very successful, to say that those with such characteristics make the best salespeople is a popular misconception, and actually quite unfair. Introverts make excellent salespeople and should never be overlooked as candidates.
Introverted people tend to be much more considered in their approach to sales. Favouring strong and meaningful relationships, they’ll prefer to mingle in small, intimate circles, rather than going straight in for the hard sell. Generally speaking, introverts tend to qualify leads well and are less likely to be persistent to the point of irritation. Crucially, introverted people tend to notice details that others don’t; shifts in body language for example, a trait that could play a pivotal role in building a lasting and profitable business relationship.
Simply because someone is introverted, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are shy. Although stereotyped as shrinking violets, they don’t necessarily shy away from the spotlight. As such, they often make excellent pubic speakers, preferring to present to large anonymous crowds to networking with groups of people at a conference — so they could make a convincing and engaging speaker.
While it is true that extroverted salespeople may bring in leads left, right and centre, consider for a moment how qualified those leads are.
Let’s say you’re a Sales Director and you’re at a conference with two of your sales executives; one is an extrovert, the other an introvert. The extrovert is jumping around the room handing out business cards and delivering elevator pitches to anyone who meets their eye. The introvert, on the other hand, has been sitting down enjoying a coffee with the same two people for 20 minutes.
On the face of it, you may think that the extrovert is having a more successful day; 54 business cards exchanged means 54 leads, right? How many of those were sold to and just took the business card to end the conversation? How many of those will ignore all the follow-up emails and calls because they weren’t interested in the first place? How many actually have a need for the product or service? Meanwhile, the introvert only exchanged a handful of business cards, but, each lead is qualified; they appear to have a genuine interest in what you’re selling and will likely agree to a follow-up meeting.
Of course, I’m probably playing up to the stereotypes a bit here but hopefully, you get my point: just because someone is an introvert, it doesn’t make them any less of a salesperson. For most companies, an effective and thriving sales team is crucial to longevity, having a mix of personalities within the team could be the key to success.
Listen to this excellent talk for more on introverts: Susan Cain — The Power of Introverts (Ted)
