You heard me right, that is an indirect quote from this Inc.com article.  This topic comes up often in our sales hiring activities as the conventional wisdom is that extroverts make better salespeople.  Not true.  Successful salespeople have a wide variety of abilities that go far beyond their communication style.  And that is the point here, introvert/extrovert is more of a communication style than anything else.  It is important to know a salesperson’s style, but it is not predictive of sales success.

Here is some excellent advice from the article (emphasis mine):

“When selling as an introvert, use your abilities as a good researcher to really know audience, know what matters to them, and figure out a product match before you go in. You’ll be meeting with people, so rest up before social interactions with those you are selling to or speaking in front of. Prepare and practice because as an introvert you will think before you speak – as opposed to extroverts who speak as they think. So having a few lines ready, or thoughts composed in advance will be beneficial. Rest, prepare and practice is the magic formula because of the way introverts are wired.”

Extroverts need to start talking to get to their point.  Introverts have to think of their response before they speak.  This point is never more obvious than when you are interviewing sales candidates.  When I sit in on interviews with my customers, I always make sure to tell them if the candidate is more extroverted or introverted.

My experience is this – an introverted hiring manager will be unimpressed by an extroverted sales candidate in terms of communication.  The hiring manager has a tendency to comment on the candidate’s rambling answers, long-windedness and tangential topics.  At this point I explain that the candidate is extroverted and needs to start talking to get to his or her response.  If they are strongly extroverted, they will have to rev up their answer a bit before delivering the point.  This isn’t necessarily a weakness, it is simply a style issue.

I have seen a recent rise of the introvert in one key sales area – relationship selling.  The reason is this:

Introverts do well with deep relationships and conversations rather than chit-chat.

If you have a relatively long or extended sales cycle, an introverted selling style is probably a more natural fit for your sale’s requirements.  As sales move away from one-call closes and on to relationship-based deals, introverts will play a prominent part in a sales team’s success.

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Full confession – I despise meetings.  I have spent much of my career sitting through insanely inefficient meetings – I prefer to call them “boil the ocean” meetings.  The topics in these meetings usually lacked clarity and focus so the meeting would drift…badly.  Of course, when your boss is sitting in the meeting (or worse, was the one who called it) it is difficult to exit early.

But alas, I have found an inspiring article with a fantastic idea.  This is from Inc.com (emphasis mine):

“Interaction should be constant, not crammed into meetings once a week. You just turn around in your chair and bounce an idea off one of the other 10 people in your office. Keep the floor plan open so people can talk to each other. As the company gets bigger, keep dividing it into smaller and smaller groups. Follow Jeff Bezos’s two-pizza rule: Project teams should be small enough to feed with two pizzas. At Hunch, we don’t have meetings unless absolutely necessary. When I used to have meetings, though, this is how I would do it: There would be an agenda distributed before the meeting. Everybody would stand. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone would drink 16 ounces of water. We would discuss everything on the agenda, make all the decisions that needed to be made, and the meeting would be over when the first person had to go to the bathroom.”

Caterina Fake is the co-founder of the photo-sharing site Flickr. Her new start-up is Hunch, a website in New York City that takes user input to make recommendations on thousands of subjects.

“When I used to have meetings…” – fantastic.  If I were there, I would drink a pot of coffee myself before heading into that meeting.

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From Shine on Yahoo comes one of those surveys that makes me think we are over-surveying (emphasis mine):

…96% of Americans report experiencing rudeness at work, and 48% say they are treated uncivilly at least once a week.

This kind of manners meltdown can have a direct effect on the bottom line. According to surveys conducted by Pearson and her colleagues, 48% of poorly treated employees have intentionally decreased their productivity and 12% say the boorish behavior compelled them to quit. Workplace rudeness costs employers an average of $50,000 per worker. “There are very high costs associated with even seemingly inconsequential inconsiderate words and actions,” adds Pearson.

Insert yawn here (maybe that was “boorish behavior” on my part).  $50K per worker due to rudeness?  Where does that number come from?  I have a hard time believing that one.

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I received a PR email notifying me of a 3-part series starting tonight on Nightly Business Report. Here are the details:

“Social Networking”

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Similar to the introduction of TV in the 1950’s, social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter are rapidly becoming a core component of many Americans’ daily lives.  But where businesses could easily impact the American consumer through TV advertisements, the road map for marketing through social networking is a bit more complex. The rules are certainly different, but as NBR’s Scott Gurvey finds out: the rewards may be even greater.

Tuesday 1/26: Pt. 1 – In part 1, NBR reveals some of the basic ground rules for companies participating in the world of social networking.

Wednesday 1/27: Pt. 2 – Businesses large and small use social networking in different ways.  In part 2, NBR digs deeper into the unwritten rules of social networking by examining recent campaigns from Pepsi and Fetch Pet Care.

Thursday 1/28: Pt. 3 – In part 3, NBR examines the multiplier effect of social networking along with some helpful advice on dealing with consumer complaints.

I have the DVR set and may I suggest you do the same?  Perhaps this short series will change my perspective on Twitter.

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I know the Twitterheads are going to flame this, but I have to agree with Ricky Gervais:

But after composing only five Tweets, Gervais gave up on January 9, telling his 13,000 followers he was going to stop his updates because “I don’t see the point.” He followed up with an explanation on his blog, calling Twitter “undignified.” (As opposed, say, to David Brent dance.)

“I just don’t get it, I’m afraid,” Gervais wrote. “I’m sure it’s fun as a networking device for teenagers but there’s something a bit undignified about adults using it. Particularly celebrities who seem to be showing off by talking to each other in public.”

I have not invested much time into Twitter so I have probably a comparable amount of knowledge regarding it as Mr. Gervais.

Flame on.

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Here is one from the weekly Herman Trend Alert of which I was not familiar:

“corporate cocooning” – staying put out of fear

A rather appropriate construction for today’s economy, wouldn’t you say?  Here is the paragraph from which it is used:

Due to “corporate cocooning” (staying put out of fear), the “unprecedented churning” of the labor market we have forecast in the past has not yet happened. Now, we again see a high level of expectation of job hopping. Wise employers will heed this warning and take steps now to engage their valued employees and avoid this unwanted turnover.

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I’m sure you have encountered those people who you wonder if they have any social skills whatsoever.  I used to work with a guy who would walk in to any conversation between people and just start talking about his topic.  No waiting, no gentle interruption – he just walked in and started firing away.  Totally annoying.

In that light comes this article from CNNMoney.com.  The pull quote from the Q & A article:

For one, my old boss, who laid me off from my last job with no warning (and no severance pay), has sent me a friend request.

That is some hubris on the boss’ part.  However, I have to agree with the suggestion made by the author:

Indeed, even if your old boss did you wrong, he was just doing the company’s dirty work, and now apparently wants to keep in touch. Why not take him up on it? The same goes for your other professional acquaintances. You never know who might be in a position to help your career a year, or five years, from now.

The times they are a changin’, aren’t they?  Who would of thought of such complicated work questions just 10 years ago?

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This is the opening sentence from an email caught by my junk filter:

Sorry for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before making you this offer as it is utterly hell confidential and genuine by virtue of its nature.

“…utterly hell confidential” is a new construction for me.  This example is anecdotal – the larger issue is the prevalence of email communication in selling.  The days of cold calling are receding while initial email communication is advancing.  This fact adds another factor to successful sales hiring.

The ability to be effective on the phone will always be important in successful selling, but the email approach is replacing the cold call.  In our business, we’ve worked hard to attract interest in our services.  The attraction piece, where prospects contact us, has moved to a 50/50 phone call vs. email split.  When we started this company over 5 years ago, almost all of the initial contacts were phone calls.

Unfortunately for many salespeople, writing ability seems to be a less common skill in today’s world.  Ridiculous sentences like the one listed above are becoming more common.

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I’m on hold this past week with my website hosting company with some questions about our account.  I have a somewhat complex question/request for them which requires the customer service rep to put me on hold to obviously research it.

I don’t mind being put on hold as I am ever hopeful they come back with the solution.  However, I was a bit shocked by the hold music when she put me on hold the first time.

The song was Another One Bites the Dust.

I kept waiting for the dial tone as surely she was preparing to hang up on me.  I was relieved when she returned.  I explained my question further at which point I was put on hold a second time.

I found myself thrust into the middle of Puff the Magic Dragon.

How bizarre.  Oh, and I didn’t get my question solved.

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I received an email recently from someone I presume to be a salesperson looking for work.  Obviously this is a common occurrence these days, but here is the error in the delivery – the email had no writing.  Yup, it was just a blank email with an MS Word attachment that appeared to be a resume.

This approach is a wasted effort in today’s world.  I never opened the attachment for fear it may be some malicious, virus-infested computer-killer.  Dramatic, I know, but the point is valid.  It is similar to a phone call that comes in on your home phone at night and lists nothing more than “Out of Area.”  I wonder who it may be, I think about answering it, but I usually let it go because I suspect it is a telemarketer.  The same approach grips me with these types of unknown, unsolicited emails.

My standard operating procedure is to simply delete them an move on.  I am certain if that was a legitimate email, the person did not intend for this outcome.  This seems like an obvious point – take the time to write something for a cover email.  This salesperson’s approach leads me to make assumptions about his technique and abilities based on the clumsiness of his first contact.

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