Great Salespeople Arenā€™t Born Extroverts. Hereā€™s What They Are.
Nov 03, 2026
Picture a great salesperson. Most people see the same person. Loud. Confident. The first to work the room at a networking event.
I hear the flip side of that picture all the time. Engineers, accountants and analysts tell me, “I’m not a salesperson, Bram. I’m just not the type.”
So is the picture true? Let’s put it under the microscope.
What the myth gets right
Selling involves people. Lots of them. You need the energy to start conversations and pick up the phone. Extroverts often find that easier. It costs them less energy.
So extroversion can help you get in the door. The real question is whether it helps you win the deal.
What the research says
In 2013, Adam Grant at Wharton studied around 340 salespeople in an outbound call centre. He measured their personality. Then he tracked the revenue each of them brought in over three months.
The extroverts didn’t win. They came last.
The top performers were the ambiverts. These are people in the middle, neither strongly extroverted nor strongly introverted. They brought in about 24% more revenue than the introverts and about 32% more than the extroverts. The most extreme extroverts did no better than the most extreme introverts.
Why? Ambiverts move naturally between talking and listening. They ask for the business. They also listen properly.
Steve Martin at the University of Southern California found a similar pattern. He profiled around 1,000 top B2B salespeople. 91% scored medium to high on modesty. More than eight in ten scored extremely high on curiosity. And on average, they scored around 30% lower on gregariousness than below-average performers.
If anyone is born to sell, they’re not born loud. They’re born curious.
Volume versus range
Here’s the reframe. Extroversion is a volume setting. Great selling is about range.
A high I who can’t turn the volume down will overwhelm a careful high C buyer. A high S who can’t turn it up will never move a fast high D to a decision.
Years ago, I trained a salesperson called Mel. On DISC, she was off the chart high I. She was so loud and energetic that she scared the introverts. I told her to soften her voice and slow down. She took it on board. Mel went on to become a top performer in civil construction.
She didn’t need a new personality. She needed a wider range. And range can be learned.
Build range, or build a team around superpowers
Most of us aren’t strong across the whole sales process. That’s fine. You have two options. Build range, or specialise.
One of my industrial clients had a high I with moderate S whose only job was booking meetings. Prospects loved talking to her. The managers she booked meetings for were mostly D, C and S styles. They matched the clients the business was going after. The I opened the door. The right people walked through it.
This is where I part ways with most sales methodologies. They take one winning profile and teach it to everyone. Your high S gets told to be more challenging. Your high C gets told to tell more stories. Buyers can feel when someone is pretending.
Communication Mastery works the other way around. We start with who your salesperson already is. They learn to read the buyer. Then they adapt three things: pace, priority and language.
What to do next
- If you’re an extrovert, ask one more question in your next three client meetings. Then wait. Let the silence do some work.
- If you’re more introverted, your listening is an asset. Your stretch is asking clearly for the next step before you leave the room.
- If you lead a sales team, map your sales process from first enquiry to signed contract. Next to each step, write the name of the person who’s naturally best at it. You may find your door openers closing and your closers chasing leads.
If that’s a conversation worth having, book a free discovery call.
