I have a confession. Before last week, I had never heard
the word “ambivert.” Apparently, it’s
been around since the 1920s (where have I
been?) and is now gaining some verbal traffic thanks to a recent study that
asked: are extroverts the best salespeople? (note: one in nine U.S. jobs is in
sales).
Conventional wisdom insists that in the field of sales,
it’s the extrovert – that outgoing, vibrant personality – that excels. But a new study led by organizational
psychologist Adam Grant (Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania)
upends that decades-long notion and forcefully claims that ambiverts – people
who skillfully blend the art of talking, with the art of listening – are the best
salespeople.
And he has the data to prove it. Grant gathered three months of sales records
from 300 salespeople (each one took an extensive personality assessment
beforehand) to see which personality did the best. His findings? The ambiverts finished on top – in a
three-month period, they made 24% more in sales revenue than introverts, and
32% more in revenue than extroverts.
Said the study abstract:
“Despite the widespread assumption that extraverts are the most
productive salespeople . . . ambiverts achieve greater sales productivity than
extraverts or introverts do. Because they naturally engage in a flexible
pattern of talking and listening, ambiverts are likely to express sufficient
assertiveness and enthusiasm to persuade and close a sale but are more inclined
to listen to customers’ interests and less vulnerable to appearing too excited
or overconfident.”
In analyzing the study results, David DiSalvo, writing
for Forbes, pointed out:
“Perhaps even more surprising, Grant found that the two extreme
personality types pulled in roughly the same percentage of sales. Being highly extroverted wasn’t even a plus
when compared against the personality type we generally think of as the worst
candidate for high-performance sales.
“The reason for these results may simply be that extroverts pour it on
a bit too thick for their own good, and this tendency negates any charismatic
advantages they might otherwise enjoy. For example, their overflowing
enthusiasm for the sale can cause them to not listen closely enough to the
needs of the customer, and this in turn hurts their chances of closing the
sale.”
I must admit, I’ve always paused when I hear friends
label themselves, or others, as introverts or extroverts. We are, after all,
rather complex human beings, and boiling our entire personality down to a
single word seems, how shall we say, so imprecise. Now that a third
classification is on the board, perhaps we’ll start to break away from these
labels.
More than that, Grant’s findings open the door for a full
scale reassessment – both by sales managers and prospective employees. Explained Grant, in a story by
Phillynews.com: “My findings suggest that less-extroverted people may be
missing out on productive careers . . . and hiring managers may be missing out
on star performers."
Grant is author of the book “Give and Take: A
Revolutionary Approach to Success.”
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