The best salespeople are extroverts

First, I want to thank Joe for bringing the subject up. Most people think high earning salespeople are extroverts, because that's what they see in the movies, and pitchmen tend to be hyper enthusiastic.

I've seen great salespeople of every type except Phlegmatic (submissive).

But I think it has less to do with their personality type, and more to do with their ability to ignore rejection, and their ambition.

A salesperson making $50,000 a year, who is happy making that much...will almost never make a consistent mid six figure income. Their self image simply doesn't match a higher income.

But a salesperson that is us to a high income, will be uncomfortable with less. And they will work harder to avoid that discomfort.

Salespeople have an advantage over most others. They can determine their income by the work they put into their selling, their ability to learn, and their immunity from rejection.

About rejection.

I know of two types of people that aren't paralyzed by rejection (or fear of speaking to large groups)...

People who are broken. Some people aren't phased by rejection because they can't see it. It doesn't register with them. It may be a lack of social skills, or slight mental illness.

People who hold others in slight contempt. I have several wealthy friends. This isn't something we like to talk about, but high achievers sometimes don't see others as equals. Rejection doesn't bother them, because they don't see the other person as important enough to affect them emotionally. This doesn't mean that they are bad people, just unequal in their self image.


When I was selling in the home, I went to a convention. The month before, I had sold 25 high end vacuum cleaners, out of 26 presentations. To the uninformed, that's like running a 4 minute mile. I was feeling pretty good about myself.

At the convention, I met the winner of a national sales contest. She was pleasant, and knew who I was. She asked me about my sales, and how I sold 25 out of 26, the last month. After I bored her with the details, I asked her about her award. I asked how many she sold the last month. She said "60". As my eyes dilated (I knew the figure was true), I asked how she did it. She said, "I gave 120 presentations".

This was more than twice the work output that I had ever seen from even the most ambitious salesperson. So, my question is...who was the better salesperson? My take is that I was more skilled, but she was better. She had ambition and a work ethic, that I had never seen in our business.

Was she outgoing? Not really. Was she warm and caring? Not more than normal. But she was driven. During several long discussions with her, and watching how she interacted with people, I could see that she was pure Choleric. She directed even the most benign of discussions. I pointed it out to her, and she admitted it, and laughed about it.

She was driven by income and recognition, I was driven by my need to be the most accomplished salesperson.

Two sharks circling the pond.

They had a gun?

Because a large part of my business relies on people paying an upfront fee and then a balance upon completion I have to agree with the desperation aspect or anxiety that can be "in the air" after a period of "light" selling.

It is a bit like the sharemarket where rises tend to be gradual with occasional breakouts that if you are a chart follower tend to be indicated by rising flags.

In selling one can get on a roll and whether that is just confidence shining through in your presentation or demeanour, or whether it is because you have gathered a group of prospects who are drawn into a purchasing frenzy where they have been influenced by others around them making positive purchasing decisions.

I'm yet to really work out why there are sudden slow downs but sometimes you have to just shut out the negative thoughts when those situations arise and continue to sell as if the result didn't really matter to you other than to deliver the best outcome for the purchaser.

Even when it's tough I tend to try to portray the impression that I've always got more than enough business to be going on with.

Most of my prospects are usually referrals or have been through pre-qualification sequences, whether they know it or not, so usually by the time they are in a sales consultation they already know they are there to buy and it is just a question of what the best result will be for both of us.

Well let me rephrase that for you then, Based on personal experience and going back many moons, getting a sales role and having that as a commission only job, you have 2 choices, you learn to sell well, or you starve.

I see so called sales people today who will not take sales roles as comm only for fear they wont get paid or if they like they can slacken off and still take their pay home.

Often through life comm only roles were my best paying gigs, where taking home on average 2 - 4 times the average worker was the norm and often more, so to put it into better perspective then for some people being hungry as a term of speech / not desperate ( having a wife and family and bills to pay ) can be a motivator for some to improve their craft in selling and become better at it through the need to succeed, it can and was scary back in the early days, where knowing people relied on you to get the job done or go hungry, so you took every detail every lesson and learnt at every moment.

Yes I have seen and worked with the people who you talk of, they are dime a dozen hopefuls who are desperate but also do not have the time / ability to make the whole thing work, so you are correct when you say that.

A bit like this forum really, desperate people who think this is where to make some money and they try everything desperate for 2 minutes and throw their hands in the air and then there are the few who sit back, learn and develop their skills and become successful, not much changes really.

I don't think she can.

I believe she is related to MarcParkinson and MarkHernandez, at least if their habits and posts over the last 48 hours are any indication.