To be successful: Extroversion or Introversion?

What are the traits that characterise the best salespeople?

It is common to think that the most effective salespeople are outgoing, assertive and enthusiastic, and that these traits contribute to selling success.

Extroverts are attributed a special focus on the customer as they feel comfortable early on in the cordialisation process.
The enthusiasm, confidence and involvement they generate enhances their ability to persuade and engage the interlocutor.

Fuelling the particular interest that this behavioural preference has aroused in recent years have been several studies showing that extroverted people are more likely to be selected for management positions than introverted ones.

In our training activities in management and sales, we uphold the principle that the true leader is the one who manages to modulate both orientations.
It is no coincidence that the successful salesperson must be able to adapt not only to his or her interlocutor, but in particular to the business he or she is conducting.

The study carried out by Antony Grant in 2013, a professor of psychology at the University of Sydney, tests the hypothesis that ideal salespeople are extroverts.
Grant’s study is based on the hypothesis that ideal salespeople fall in the middle range between extroversion and introversion and are referred to as Ambiversians.

The Ambiversi are balanced, communicators and good listeners, attentive to the content of the message and the context in which the message is conveyed.
Attentive to each other’s needs and determined to achieve their goal, enthusiastic and analytical, they are able to translate customers’ needs and interest into sales actions.

Grant’s (2013) study was conducted on 340 outbound-call-center, sales representatives, measuring their extroversion and monitoring their turnover over a 3-month period.
Participants completed a personality questionnaire, consisting of 20 questions, which measured the subject’s behavioural preferences and orientations including extroversion.

The analysis confirmed a curvilinear relationship between extroversion and product turnover.
Salespeople who were low in extroversion or high in extroversion produced lower economic results than those with an average extroversion value.
The Ambiverse in fact produced:

• 32% more than extroverts

.

• 24% more than introverts

.

Grant argues that extroverts are more effective when they are able to adopt certain characteristics of the opposite type, such as flexibility, listening, and reserve.
This analysis provides a ‘new perspective’ in psychology and confirms the possibility that people with opposite orientations exist.

Eighteen years of experience and research in the behavioural field also allowed us to carry out a study on a sample of 620 Italian managers of the most important multinationals, to whom we administered the Success-Insights questionnaire that defines behavioural preference through the level of intensity of the four typologies defined by Carl Gustav Jung: two referring to extroversion and two to introversion.

The questionnaire was delivered in the initial phase of the training course and found that there is a complete coincidence between the natural and the adapted behaviour of the manager.

This result shows that behavioural flexibility, i.e. the ability to adapt one’s natural behaviour to people with opposite types, or to the context, or to a role where such adaptation is required, is not as common a characteristic as is often believed. The ability to adapt and flexibility can be developed through continuous training that nurtures the transversal skills that are needed in various professional contexts today.

However, there are people who possess this ability from birth.

The research in fact confirms that 16% of the sample also possesses the characteristics of the opposite type and is therefore considered to be a Ambiologist.
Of this percentage, however, only half succeed in modifying their behaviour and most of them (75%) obtain lower ratings in the adapted style.
The reasons for this may be manifold and relate to the needs of the company, rather than a lack of correlation between work environment and expected behaviour.

Companies wishing to be competitive in today’s dynamic marketplace need to train their managers to acquire the flexibility required to manage the sudden internal and external changes necessary for success.

Daily experience with our (multinational) clients attests that the ability to cope with and manage change is usually related to the following 13 managerial skills:

1) creativity
2) curiosity
3) proactivity
4) self-determination
5) adaptability to change
6) open-mindedness towards people, methods and experiences
7) orientation towards learning and updating
8) orientation towards innovation
9) market orientation
10) results orientation
11) stress management
12) emotionality management
13) risk-taking ability

These competences are measurable and comparable through established assessment tools such as special behavioural and motivational analysis questionnaires or assessment sessions to measure personal potential.

The use of behavioural analysis methodologies such as SuccessInsights supports the change process through the identification of one’s own type, and enables the structuring of a path to align behaviour to the company’s demands.

Because everyone holds their own key to success it is not enough to identify one’s own strengths and areas for improvement, one must commit to change and believe in one’s own potential to achieve success and related gratification.

Being aware means being able to identify and understand one’s characteristics but also knowing where one wants to go and identifying the best strategy.

Knowing one’s potential allows one to achieve the desired success in both one’s professional and personal life.