A Brief Insight into myself :
I used to be somewhat shy. I think still i am to some extent.....
OK, may be not shy in the wallflower sense of the word. But I am not a natural extrovert.
In fact I took one of those personality tests a few years back, and it told me what I already knew. It told me that my comfort zone is being an introvert.
And that was one of the reasons I made the decision to go into sales. I had always been interested in persuasion, influence, and speaking, so when an opportunity came to join selling industry as professional salesman, it seemed like just the right thing.
"I figured the fire of selling would develop me into a stronger more charismatic man."
"I thought I would become this great powerful speaker by going into a career in selling."
Something different happened though instead.
I found out that modern selling isn't all about giving presentations.
No.
It's more about conversations.
I've sold stuff with 7-figure prices attached, and very,very little of my sales success was ever the result of a"presentation" I made.
The sale almost always happened in a small conversational meeting with 3 to 4 people OR 3 to 4 phone calls. Things aren't always as they expected you were when you started them.
A common misconception about selling is that you need to be an extrovert to do well at it.
Now it is good to be able to talk to lots of new and different people and about many different things. That's something extroverts are natural at.
You also need to be able to listen to other's well, to contemplate what is being said, and to probe further for the real meaning in a conversation. Those are skills that introverts are good at.
The truth is to be great at selling you need to be able to play both as an extrovert and as an introvert. And contraryto some people's beliefs about the fixed nature of human personalities, both extrovert and introvert skills can be learned.
You can't just stay in your comfort zone of being either an introvert or an extrovert.
"To be complete as a sales person,you need to be able to do both well."
SID......
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I am very impressed with the article. I would like to share something here, even I was an introvert by nature and used to feel shy even to look into the eyes of a person and talk. And now I am working as a HR. HR is all about dealing with clients, managing people, recruitment's, interviews etc. With time, I realized I need the skills of both, an introvert as well as an extrovert. As Sid mentioned here, in the sales business one should always try to understand the customers, their feelings, what are their preferences rather than just convincing and proving one's point. A salesperson should be a good listener first, to be successful.
ReplyDeleteI am sure Sid, your passion towards your work will take you to the heights of success. You have done a great job!!