Among many of the misconceptions about salespeople, I think it’s easy to assume that to be a good salesperson you have to be an outgoing, extroverted personality. Like most misconceptions, there’s some truth to it, but in a lot of ways, it’s dead wrong.
There’s a conversation piece I’ve talked about when it comes to Sales called Match Minus One. The basic idea is reading the person you’re talking to and give them a scale of 1-10 on how interested you think they are and then you go down a level below them. This is extremely helpful when engaging some prospects who seem completely uninterested.
When people think of salespeople, they probably think upbeat, fun, and optimistic — which is sometimes true. It’s great to have people who can show you their excitement for something. After all, if someone’s excited about something it often makes you more excited about it.
However, there are exceptions. For instance, in a relationship, sometimes there’s a miscommunication. One of the people in the relationship is upset at the other person and is being very quiet about it. Something that will not help in that moment is being upbeat and optimistic about the situation. It makes them feel like you’re not even paying any attention to what they’re feeling.
There are some people that seem not to be able to control their emotions. If they’re happy they have to express it loudly if they’re sad, they make sure everyone knows about it. These aren’t the people you want working in sales.
In sales, you have to be able to change in a moment’s notice what your interest and enjoyment level is. That’s why I say you don’t necessarily have to be an extrovert. And while you don’t have to be an extrovert, you do occasionally need to be able to act like you’re an extrovert.
If you get on the phone with someone and try and sell them something and they’re a very animated person and your product is exactly what they need, they may be very excited about it, if you’re not able to match (minus 1) their excitement, you’re going to cause them to second-guess or doubt their decision. After all, why would you not be excited to help solve their problem?
On the other hand, when someone is not interested at all and you keep your level of excitement high, you cause the person on the other side not to trust you, and as I mentioned earlier, you make them not feel like you’re actually hearing them or trying to help them.
This is often the experience with people who may call you to sell something, they act excited no matter what and won’t let you hang up the phone. If someone doesn’t sound interested, act like you were forced to make the call and would just like 20 seconds to ask a question to see if you would fit the solution. You make it clear that you’re trying to figure out if they’re a good fit rather than pretending like they’re already qualified for your product before they even know what your product is.
The truth is, Salesman have to be both introverted AND extroverted. You have to be able to shift your personality to who you’re talking to. If you can’t do that, you are going to find yourself struggling to land some deals with people who you don’t match well with.