An extroverted customer is often very interested in social interactions, openly expresses his needs and tends to convey his experiences through interactions with employees. On the other hand, introverted customers are often polite, reserved and a little timid when it comes to social interactions with employees.*
Of course, no one is completely extroverted or introverted, however, in this text we will talk about introverts when shopping.
For introverts, shopping can be frustrating. Especially in the case when they come across an extroverted salesperson or a salesperson who follows all the sales models he has perfected in training. Listening to customers’ answers to classic questions for establishing a sales conversation, such as: “How can I help you?”, “Are you doing well?” and the like, and later the customer’s behavior itself , can help the seller in choosing the communication method. What exactly does this mean in practice?
We share part of the experience of our colleague, who is a big fan of shopping and at the same time an introvert.
A salesperson’s well-intentioned attempts to learn the buyer’s needs can backfire with introverted buyers. As happened in the above situation. Objectively, the employees were polite in their communication, they offered products, they were with the customer all the time. From the company’s side, the employee did everything he needed to do. However, the sale failed. Where is the problem then?
Most of the classic sales rules are aimed specifically at extroverted buyers. Those who like to talk to employees, are happy to enter into communication with other customers, and in general the conversation with them simply “flows” naturally. However, for introverted shoppers, these interactions drain energy. **
It begs the question: How do you give introverts a great user experience when they’re not interested in communication?
Employees generally do not have enough time to evaluate the type of customer who visited them. Therefore, it is necessary to follow the answers to those initial, classic questions from the beginning of this text. If the customer immediately accepts the story, asks additional questions and is interested in “small talk”, it is most likely an extrovert person and the sales conversation with him will go smoothly.
However, introverts are different. There is a possibility that they will immediately say what they need, buy the product and leave, or they will often say that they just want to look around and will initiate the conversation on their own initiative. if they want.
Introverts won’t mind being asked a simple introductory question. However, they will be very frustrated if employees don’t get the hint and continue to try to build a superficial personal/social relationship.
Employees should be able to quickly determine whether the customer is more introverted or extroverted based on the answers to questions and body language, and adjust the sales conversation accordingly. With just a little practice, employees will be able to adapt their way of communication to such customers, who we cannot ignore (some studies show that 30-50% of the population is introverted) and thus increase the satisfaction of all their customers.