Use Your Personality to Your Selling Advantage

Michele Warg
Posted by


Your personality can have a dramatic effect on who will buy from you and why. Recognizing your sales personality and how it affects others can give you a competitive advantage as a salesperson. Whether you are warm and outgoing or cool and introverted, your sales personality is a valuable asset that can help you move goods and services. When you embrace your personality at its fullest, it can help drive sales and influence others.

Conventional wisdom holds that the best possible sales personality trait is extroversion. Extroverts naturally congregate with others and seek out social interaction. They express themselves fully and openly, delivering a sales personality that others find themselves drawn toward by sheer force of charisma. If you are an extrovert who gains energy and passion from interacting directly with others, you can integrate this sales personality trait into your work. Use it to help you anticipate the needs of others and address them before potential issues or questions arise, helping break the ice and ensuring customers feel comfortable with their purchases.

Sales experts aren't always extroverts, though. Introverts can make excellent salespeople once they learn to overcome the basic shyness that plagues many with an introverted personality. Salespeople are experts at influencing people and helping them make the best purchase for their needs. This lends itself well to the model of the studious introvert. Salespersons with introverted sales personalities should strive to influence others through information and assistance, instead of relying on charisma or making a grand initial impression. Introverts are also traditionally experts at presentation, carefully assembling and disseminating information. This adds another tool to your sales arsenal.

One of the most important traits for salespeople is a likeable personality. Many who look to capitalize on sales tips for extroverts and introverts may not recognize the existence of a third common sales personality. Ambiverts borrow traits from both introverts and extroverts. They have a built-in regulator that keeps them from overwhelming others with their personality or becoming too shy to approach potential customers. Sales tips may ignore this personality because it is hard to quantify, but those who fall between the extremes can make the most of the positive aspects of extroversion and introversion while navigating the potential pitfalls with relative ease.

Whether your personality is extroverted or introverted, or if you fall into the middle of the pack with other ambiverts, it gives you a great starting point for driving sales. Keep in mind that making sales requires understanding the needs of customers and promoting goods and services that meet those needs. Your sales personality can help you make the most of your customer interactions, increasing your sales by recognizing your innate traits and creating methods that let you turn those traits into tools that can influence others.

 

(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)

Comment

Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.

Jobs to Watch