I’m an Introvert, But I’ve Sold My Whole Career.

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Career · Mindset

By Feras Asakrieh · 5 min read · Issue #48

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Early in my career, I landed one of my first real sales jobs. And with it came the conferences.

Big rooms. Big dinners. Tons of prep work just to fill my schedule with meetings.

I did all of it. I shook every hand. I sat through every dinner.

And the whole time, one thought kept running in the back of my head.

I can't wait to get back to my room.

Not to work. Not to sleep. Just to be away from everyone. Close the door and hear nothing.

I thought something was wrong with me. Maybe sales wasn't for me. Maybe being around people all day was too much, and I'd picked the wrong career.

But there was one thing I couldn't explain.

Every time I sat down with one person, I closed faster than anyone on the team.

So the selling wasn't the problem. The rooms were.

I'm an introvert. And I've been in sales my whole career.

Feras in a black t-shirt and white jeans, sitting in an ornate gold armchair against a stone wall, smiling at the camera

The Selling Was Never The Problem

We've all been sold the same picture of a great salesperson. Loud. Charming. Works the room. Never runs out of energy. Last one at the bar.

That picture is wrong.

Adam Grant at Wharton studied more than 300 salespeople. The most outgoing reps didn't outsell the quietest ones. They brought in about the same revenue.

Then Gong looked at 326,000 sales calls. On the deals that were lost, reps did 62% of the talking. On the deals that were won, they talked less.

Sales was never about who talks the most. It's about who listens best, and who knows what to do with what they heard.

That's the part introverts are built for. Most of them just don't know it yet. I didn't.

Why Introverts Think They're In The Wrong Job

The problem isn't the job. It's that we judge ourselves against the loud version of it. And the thoughts sound true.

"Something is wrong with me." Nothing is wrong with you. You get your energy from a different place. That's all.

"I'm not a people person." You probably are. You're a one-person-at-a-time person. That's different.

"I'll never own the room." You don't need to. Deals don't get signed by the room. They get signed one person at a time.

"I have to fake being loud." You can try. It shows. Customers can tell when you're playing a part.

"If I need a break, I'm weak." Athletes rest between sets. Nobody calls them weak.

Here Is How To Sell Your Way

1. Find out what drains you and what fuels you.

Once I knew I was an introvert, everything made sense. The rooms drained me. The one on ones filled me back up. So stop asking "Am I good at sales?" and start asking "Which parts of sales cost me energy?" For one week, after every meeting, call, or event, write one word: drained or fueled. By Friday you'll see your pattern. Then build your week around it.

2. Put alone time on your calendar.

This one changed everything for me. On long days, I started scheduling a few minutes by myself. Not lunch. Not a call. Just quiet. Ten minutes between sessions at a conference. A short walk before the big dinner. Book it like a meeting, because it is one. You're meeting with the person who has to close the deal.

3. Work the room one person at a time.

I used to walk into a room and feel the whole thing at once. Now I start with one person. I still pay attention to everyone. But I start with one, go deep, and work my way out from there. One real conversation beats twenty handshakes. And the person you talked with for fifteen minutes is the one who remembers you.

4. Pick your people before you walk in.

Extroverts can wander a room and feed off it. Introverts pay for every minute. So don't wander. Before any event, pick the three people you most need to meet and learn about them. What they care about. What changed in their business this year. Walk in with a plan, and you spend your energy where it counts.

5. Listen for what nobody heard. Then ask for the next meeting.

Later in my career, I was invited to meet one of our biggest customers in the middle of a contract negotiation. It had been going badly for months. My team and the customer couldn't get to a good place.

In that meeting, I mostly listened. And I heard things the customer had been saying that nobody had picked up on.

After the meeting, I asked our sales manager to set up a time for me with their EVP, so we could talk about what I'd heard.

That meeting changed the deal. Their EVP reconsidered our offer. Not because we were louder. Because he felt someone had finally listened.

The quiet person in the room often hears the most. Your job is to do something with it.

Final Thoughts

For years I thought I had to become someone else to win in sales. Louder. Faster. Always on.

I didn't. I just had to stop selling like someone else.

If you're the one who can't wait to get back to your room, nothing is wrong with you. You're not in the wrong job. You might be in the right job, doing it someone else's way.

You don't need to get louder.

You need to listen better than everyone who is.

I'm an Introvert, But I've Sold My Whole Career.

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