Sales for Introverts
I am an introvert. And I am not an AI.
So, being an introvert hurts sometimes. I overthing how people think of me, even when we’re just networking.
Networking is awkward for someone like me. Even though I’ve been pretty successful in finding partners through these events, it still is. It makes me anxious regardless of the fact that I know that it is effective and it’s just a bunch of people networking in hopes to find a new opportunity, or a solution to a problem, or just to spice up their worklives.
I also overthink after the networking event. Was I asking the right questions? Was I telling my story nicely? Was I an interesting person, in the first place?
Are introverts fit for business?
Business people are generally extroverts. This is probably what most people think and I kind of agree with that. Most introverts, like myself, try to avoid a sales or business development career. Which makes the batch of business people into a lopsided distribution of intro- and extro-verts. But just because it’s unpopular doesn’t make it unfit for introverts.
For introverts, there’s a lot of reflection before and after engagements. So there aren’t any “casual” meetings for them. Each and every meeting is important and a lot of preparation involved. I once had a discussion with an extroverted salesperson (very good at her job) and a young intern. The intern was seeking advice on how to ask a client for a favor. I replied, “well, the way I do it is that, I run a simulation of the phrases I’d use for the ask. Think of plan-A, B, and C, and use backups when things didn’t go perfect.” I said so because that was actually the way that I had prepared, and gave me peace-of-mind. The outcomes, I would say, was pretty good given that I wouldn’t be able to ask if I hadn’t been prepared in the first place.
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The thing that surprised me is, the extrovert looked at me puzzled and said, “Do you really have to prepare that much? I mean, you’re kinda overkilling a simple ask.” It shocked me to realize that many people do these things naturally, without any preparation, naturally.
I’ve thought about this as well, over the years. And it turns out that, what is natural is extremely hard to change. Because of the reason it is not deliberate, unlearning it is pretty hard. So if you are selling things without deliberately changing the strategy, you may either be good at it or bad at it. To be more accurate, the success rate will be a function of how your behavior fits the specific customer and the product. So if you’re working on a new market or a new product, it would be mere chance that, your native sales process is perfect for that purpose.
On the other hand, some guys default to deliberation. It sucks to be an introvert because you can’t go into a meeting open handed. And it sucks more because you get hurt when the outcome of the meeting isn’t as good as should be. Well the bright side of it is that you learn a lot more when it hurts. And the more you learn, you can be deliberate and be operational under different strategies or situations. It is very powerful if you’re trying to explore a new market or trying to sell a new technology.
I do not mean to say that some individuals are so great at selling that it works for most products and markets. They are likeable and they tell great stories and are connected and are good persuaders and understand the customers’ struggles and great at closing deals and,….great at writing proposals and invoices. It turns out, that these people are so good at selling that they eventually sell the most expensive products that never run out such as real estate or financial products. Another way to say this is that introverts cannot compete with extroverts when selling houses, jewelry, or stock because the best naturally born sales people are in the same market.
That is why when it comes to new innovations, things change dramatically.
Customers want to solve a problem that hasn’t been solved before. The products have a new technological breakthrough. The market is to be defined and need to be figured out how to best position the product. You can’t sell these things ‘naturally’, by definition. A lot of methods have to be tried out, and a lot of different kinds of customers need to be heard. The simple task of networking may also need attention. Networking alone might be a simple task but you may never know who could be a great partner because in these new projects, that is something to be figured out — uncertainty, for short.
Uncertainty, they say, is the future. Whether you are an intro, or extro, we need to deal with that.
