Why You Should Never Underestimate the Introvert Entrepreneur

People think of entrepreneurs as outgoing, outspoken creators that naturally draw attention to themselves. And sure, a lot of entrepreneurs are those kinds of extroverts that find success in the spotlight. But there’s another side to successful entrepreneurship – and it’s about being an introvert. 

Matthew Pollard, niche marketing expert, and sales systematic coach joins us today on today’s episode of Making Bank to discuss how being an introvert led him to be a successful entrepreneur. Talking about how introverts can build up their strengths and play off their weaknesses, he gives tips that he learned from his journey of success.  

Perception of Introverts  

Matthew Pollard is the living proof that being an introvert doesn’t mean that you’ve got to be the quiet kid in the back of the room. “The truth is you can actually outsell, out network, out lead, and out speak from the stage all of your extroverted counterparts. It’s just that your path to success is different.” 

Being an introvert isn’t a bad thing. Matthew observed that a lot of people think that because they are introverted, managers will be less likely to want to work with them. Sometimes, introverts even have thoughts of not being able to reach certain business goals or successes like extroverts can. None of that is true, however. 

Extroverts often have the problem of not listening to what is being said. They’re too ready to ask the next question. Of course, they can work on these qualities and be better. All humans have their burdens. Where extroverts have weaknesses, introverts use that as their strengths, and vice versa. 

Matthew himself struggled with being an introvert. “Us introverts a lot of times need a system and a process to be better at networking and sales. And gosh, I wish somebody had told me that when I was first getting started.” At a glance, Matthew looks like he’s naturally at ease with talking and connecting with people. But in high school, he had the reading speed of a sixth-grader. He had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. 

 

Using Motivation to Push Comfort Zones 

After graduating from high school, Matthew took the year off to try and find himself. After working in real estate for a few weeks, he applied for commission and sales roles, where he worked in telecommunication. He found himself not knowing what he was doing, and he didn’t like the job he was doing at all. 

“And I think a lot of the entrepreneurs that are listening at home, probably have lived in this world of one of two things. And I think the entrepreneur has the kind of ‘we’ll hustle it out, we’ll grind it out mentality. This is great if you’ve got a great strategy, but in truth, eventually, you’re going to run out of energy. You’re going to get exhausted and you’re going to spin out or give up.” Matthew says that during his job, he wanted to make the most of it. He wanted to stick it out and learn from the experience. 

 From there, he stumbled upon a bunch of YouTube videos that taught him the steps of the sales process. Matthew spent hours at a time studying and practicing scales techniques and then putting them into action throughout the days he worked. He spent every day working and then practicing. Eventually, he got better. Matthew was making a sale on average every three doors, instead of 70 or 40. 

Matt’s company got the national sales figures, and he individually was the number one salesperson in the company. “They had over a thousand sales reps and this quiet introvert was the number one salesperson all because he watched YouTube videos and practiced a system, right?” 

From the beginning, Matt never doubted himself as an introvert. He just didn’t know what he needed to do to succeed – and after all the learning experiences and his sales experiences, a decade later he is responsible for multi-million-dollar stores. The realization that he stumbled on that showed that introverts just need a system to sell is a path of success. 

  “So leveraging all of those introverted strengths, all of a sudden introverts with a plan can be amazing salespeople. And you know, my new book on the introvert’s edge to networking talks about applying the same system and process methodology to the active networking.” Matt encourages introverts to plan and prepare so that at the moment they can be more present. This reflects the habits of the top 10% of entrepreneurs or businesspeople that can sell – no matter if they are introverted or extroverted.  

Matt says that you don’t need to try to be anyone but yourself to be a successful introvert. “You just have to go in with a strategy that’s external to yourself that allows you not to be someone else, not to be more extroverted because that’s a key for success, but the best version of yourself, a well-practiced book.”