How to Sell as an Introvert, and Why They Are Perfect for Sales

by Ben Lai | Mar 19, 2018

How to Sell as an Introvert: Sales Training for Introverts

I am a natural introvert. When I first started my sales career, I was terrified to pick up the phone to call existing clients to sell our products. The fact that I am now a sales trainer is proof that if I could become successful in sales, you can too! Here are my top three tips for how to sell as an introvert.

1. How to Sell as an Introvert #1: Change Your Mindset

Last week I wrote about how to improve sales performance with a simple mindset shift. If you can consciously ignore the negativity and endeavour to be better than them, you will be miles ahead. Simply focusing on giving value rather than taking money from people can make a major difference in your sales.

As an introvert, we are naturally good at asking diagnostic questions. A helpful mental image is of a doctor. Typically, when seeing a patient, they will ask numerous questions before making a diagnosis and recommending a treatment. Using this imagery will do wonders to your self-esteem, sense of purpose, and selling ability!

2. How to Sell as an Introvert #2: Plan Your Sales Questions

Doctors are prepared in advance the questions they need to ask when presented with a medical problem. You must do the same. Consider what you need to know before you can make an appropriate recommendation for your client. Next, design questions around these criteria so you can best advise your buyer.

In the actual sales meeting, listen carefully to the answers. Use active listening to validate your understanding. At the end of the session, closing the sale will be a simple case of recommending the appropriate product for the buyer. Note: It should go without saying, that if your product is not a good fit for the person, that you don’t recommend they buy!

3. How to Sell as an Introvert #3: Practise, Practise, Practise!

Not having the “gift of the gab” can work in your advantage in selling. Asking questions is by far more effective at persuading people to buy than simply telling them. Nevertheless, whatever your strengths, you have the ability to improve. As I stated earlier, I pushed through my weaknesses and became excellent at selling. Hard work and perseverance will out-do talent any day!

Read the books. Attend the seminars. Hire a sales coach. The key is to keep improving little-by-little every day. You’ll be amazed by the exponential returns this approach can bring over the years!

Take Action!

As a natural introvert, make a conscious choice to re-think selling. Prepare your questions like a doctor, knowing that this will sell more than a talent for speaking will. Finally, practise your questions and presentation, improving yourself on a regular basis. By combining these together, you’ll be surprised by how much you will grow and achieve!

Related: Check out our sales training for introverts course!

3 Reasons Introverts are Perfect for Sales

Transcript: Hi, it’s Ben Lai from Sales Ethos. Today’s topic is “Three Reasons Why Introverts Are Perfect for Sales.” The stereotype for the ideal sales person is usually someone who’s extroverted, who’s got the gift of the gab. But times have changed for the sales profession. Now, introverts are starting to go on the rise in terms of those filling sales positions. And today, I’m going to highlight just three reasons why they are a perfect fit for the sales profession.

But in addition to that, I’m going to address their potential weaknesses. So I’m going to give some advice for how to offset your weaknesses as an introvert. By the way, I’m a natural introvert who, for some reason, enjoys public speaking! But that puts me in an ideal position to share with you some ideas on how to help you with your sales.

Introverts are perfect for sales because they are focused on good service

So Reason number one that introverts are perfect for sales is that introverts are service oriented. When you are service oriented, people tend to trust you more. They get a sense that “Yeah, he’s got my interests at heart.” And this is the perfect place to start, because sales in essence is a service that you render to other people.

Which brings me to the weakness of introverts – we tend to have a disconnect between selling and service. We tend to think that they’re two different things. So the way to counterbalance that is to recognize that without you selling your service, or your product, the person and your clients are going to be worse off as a result.

You see, if you have the mindset that your product or service helps to improve the quality of life of the person buying, then why wouldn’t you want to sell it? You are actually helping them by making the effort and selling.

Introverts are perfect for sales because they are problem-solvers

So point number two for why introverts are perfect for sales is that they’re great problem solvers. You see, a lot of people who are introverted tend to get the customer service roles, or they tend to be the engineers. These people are really good at the technical side of the product. And as a result, when they’re talking with their clients, they ask really good questions to figure out what are the problems and whether the solution can actually fit the problem. So that’s a really great trait to have.

However, the problem with this is that a lot of introverts tend to be too focused on the details of the product. And as a result, you want to give as much information as possible to your clients. Because coming from that service point of view, you want to educate them, and you want them to make an informed decision. But the trouble with this is that when the client has too much information, it actually becomes harder to make a decision.

One of the roles that I’d like you to put yourself into is a curator of information. And here’s the key principle I want you to live by: Give enough information so that your client can make a decision. Only include the most important details that actually will influence the person’s ability to make a decision, and leave it at that. If they want more details, they can get it at a later stage after they purchase the product! So that’s the counterbalance for being a problem solver and making sure you don’t give too much information.

Introverts are perfect for sales because they aren’t pushy

The third strength of introverts is that they’re not pushy, which is very natural to us! We don’t like to assert ourselves on other people. We don’t like conflict! And this is great, because as you probably know, when you were pushing on someone, they tend to push back. And that’s not the kind of response that we want from people.

But it becomes quickly obvious that the weakness of this trait is that we tend to not to ask for the sale. And that is my advice for you to counteract this weakness. You need to assert yourself enough to ask a closing question in a non-pushy way. And I’ve written some content about this before – the difference between being pushy and being assertive.

The key difference is that assertiveness is thinking about the client’s best interests. Whereas, being pushy is only thinking about self-interest. And that’s why we hate pushy sales people, because they’re only concerned about themselves and the commission that they are going to earn. So with your service mindset, remember that you’re in this for the client, but that it is in their best interests for you to ask the closing question. You need to help them to make an informed decision!

Conclusion: Why introverts are perfect for sales

So there you have it! Those are the three reasons that introverts are perfect for sales. Firstly, they are service oriented. Number two is that they’re great problem solvers. And number three, they’re not pushy. So what do you think? What are the traits of introverts that are advantageous for sales? Or you may even want to vouch for the extroverts – write your comments below. Don’t forget to like and subscribe, and remember that integrity plus skills equals success!