In this Expert Insight Interview, Matthew Pollard discusses introverts and selling, focusing on both networking and sales. Matthew Pollard is the author of The Introvert’s Edge to Networking and The Introvert’s Edge to Sales.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- Why introverts are hesitant to become salespeople
- The grey area in the introvert vs extrovert classification
- How introverts can be more successful than extroverts in “extrovert arenas”
Adopting a System
There are so many introverts out there who want to be exceptional leaders and salespeople, as well as those who want to network and run their own businesses. The unfortunate thing is that these people have always thought that they could only expect sub-par performances of themselves, which prevented them from even trying.
What’s funny about this is that many people in sales leadership are introverted, too, except they gravitated to a system. There’s this widely accepted belief that introverts can’t sell, yet some of the most successful salespeople happen to be introverts.
Introvert vs Extrovert Scale
People tend to see things as very black and white in many ways. For example, we classify people as either introverts or extroverts. This is problematic because, like many things in life, introversion vs extroversion is a scale. There are many introverted extroverts and extroverted introverts out there, as counterintuitive as that may sound.
There are many nuances to this matter, which is perhaps what often prevents many introverts from going into sales. In other words, they just believe that sales are an extrovert’s game, and they don’t even dare to get involved.
Extrovert Arenas
When introverts get successful in so-called “extrovert arenas,” it is because they’ve learned the skills to be successful in them. Matthew Pollard stipulates that there is no such thing as extroverted arenas.
Introverts can out-sell, out-network and out-lead their extroverted counterparts because they focus on processes and systems, which introverts always handle more successfully. Systems and processes will always overcome over “just winging it,” but the problem is that extroverts can “wing” things from day one, which makes introverts think they should not get engaged. However, if an introvert focuses on a system from the very beginning, they can beat any extrovert at their own game.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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