Introverts Are Sales Naturals
The thing about introverts is, we are naturally
in a listening mode, and in business, listening to what your customers want is
everything. The normal association with successful salesmen is that they are
“sweet talkers,” or “fast talkers,” or they have “silver tongues.” All of this
implies that they do a lot of talking. Actually, it’s not the amount of talking
that matters, it’s the kind of talking. Words are key to any business
communication, but which words you choose and how relevant they are to the
customer are more important than how snappy your rejoinders are.
Personally, I hate salesmen. If you run your own
business for any length of time, I’m sure you’ll come to hate them too — even
if you are, yourself, a salesman! That’s because there are too many pushy,
over-promising, motor-mouthed salespeople in our world, many of them hired by
people who think that talking a lot equals a great salesperson.
It’s true that being outgoing will allow you to
meet new people and form new connections. But that doesn’t mean that you’ll
actually sell anything to them.
Cold Calling for Cold Feet
If you’re introverted, and the thought of cold
calling someone frightens you, don’t worry. It frightens extroverts, too. Cold
calls almost always yield cold results, so don’t let that scare you. Those
calls that instead stretch into longer, passionate exchanges are often the
product of someone on the other end of the phone either being a talker, or
really wanting what you have to offer.
Like anything else, if you do it long enough,
you’ll get better at it. While cold calling can be painful at first, in time
you’ll find that being conversant and engaging is a skill you can learn. It may
come more naturally to extroverts, but in all honestly, introverts do a better
job with it. Unlike our extrovert counterparts, we are usually better
listeners. This means that when we do talk, it’s generally about the other
person’s needs, not our own.
Passion Makes the Sale
One of my startups, Top Echelon, is built on
networking with recruiters and job hunters. I’ll admit that when I thought of
the concept, I didn’t realize how hard I would have to work to sell the idea
itself, and then take that even further to sell my service. When I started the
company back in the 80s, I thought it was a genius idea. And genius ideas sell
themselves, don’t they?
Nope.
No ideas sell themselves, but ideas that you’re
passionate about have a much better chance of success than ideas you aren’t
invested in. If you’re starting your own business, then you should, by default,
be invested in what you’re selling.
I’d never been much good at selling the ideas of
others, but when it came to selling my own ideas, it was easy. I wanted people
to know how great they were; if not for the sales, then at least so I could
hear how impressed they were when I explained my idea to them.
When selling my own ideas, I didn’t force myself
into a conversation where I talked about something I didn’t care about, and
hope that I wouldn’t get rejected. Instead, I was talking about something that
I connected to very deeply and passionately—and that passion always came out,
despite my reserved nature.
Whenever possible, find something about the
product or service you’re selling that really turns you on; something you can’t
stop talking about; something you’ll get a “wow” with. Passion is the bedrock
of sales, and if you find something you’re passionate about, people will see it
and want, if nothing else, to experience that same passion.
Join Clubs!
I went to college In the late 1970s, at Ohio
University (OU). Back then it had a reputation of being a party school. Every
year I was there, multiple magazines rated OU as one of the Top 5 Party Schools
in the USA. But, apparently that didn’t matter to my engineering professors.
They made sure that my engineering classes were excruciatingly difficult.
One of the things I wanted to get out college
beside an education was a chance to meet women. Every Friday and Saturday (and
often many other nights), the local fraternity houses were having parties, and
all the parties were well attended by many of the college’s most beautiful
women.
Most engineering students spent the majority of
their time studying, and very few participated in social fraternities. But, I
did. It was a way to gain access to the people—in this case, ladies—that I
wanted to associate with. While my engineering peers were studying on Thursday
nights, I was busy dancing the night away at my fraternity’s weekly parties.
I started off as a bump on a log. But, over time,
my fraternity brothers coaxed me into doing more and more activities that
brought me further and further out of my shell. Before you know it, I was
judging sorority beauty contests and coaching sorority intramurals. I even got
kissed when we won.
You may not be able to go back in time to your
college years, but that’s okay. There are lots of groups you can join that
will, despite your initial reservations, help you break down barriers.
Moreover, you’ll find that those groups are key in helping you generate sales
leads. Extroverts join clubs and groups as well, often for the same reason.
Take Risks; Make Jokes.
Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that can
happen to you if you speak up and try and sell yourself? Will you be
embarrassed? Will people look at you funny? Will they scream “no!”?
Now, ask yourself: What might you miss out on if
you don’t speak up?
Risk is something that you can build up a
tolerance to. The more of it you take, the less fearful or averse you’ll be to
taking more. And in business, you have to take risks. Start
small, and work your way up. Before you know it, asking questions with tough
answers won’t seem so tough. You’ll find yourself shrugging off the word “no,”
and you won’t bat an eye at the prospect of embarrassing yourself.
In the early days with Patriot Software, I
realized that I needed to do a convention in order to help all the recruiters
in my network build trust. But if you have a convention, then, generally
speaking, you have to have a speaker and an emcee. At my first convention, I
didn’t have the business clout to reach out and pull in big name speakers, so I
had to give the keynote address and be the master of ceremonies. That’s a lot
of talking for someone who is an introvert, but I also knew that my business
wouldn’t survive if I didn’t run this convention.
It didn’t take long for the embarrassing things
to start happening. During the introductory dinner, I walked out in front of
over 100 recruiters and introduced myself. Most of these people had never
worked with me face to face, so when they saw how young I was, a group of men
in the front shouted incredulously, “You’re Mike Kappel? What are you, like
twelve years old?”
“Ha, of course I’m not twelve. Could a
twelve-year-old grow a mustache this luxurious?” I said, racing a finger over
my mustache. “I’m fourteen!” At least, I think that’s what I said. To be
honest, I was so nervous that I’m surprised I even spoke at all. But the joke,
especially at my own expense, broke everyone’s tension including my own.
Moreover, by the time the convention ended, I had made a slew of new friends.
And, for the record, friends are much easier to sell to, regardless of whether
you’re an introvert or not.
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