How Introverts Can Become Successful Entrepreneurs Too

There are many ways to serve your market — this one might be for you

I’m an introvert. Shocker, I know. I like using the phone as much as I enjoy getting my teeth cleaned, or scooping the cat box. I enjoy face-to-face selling almost as much. While I don’t hate people, I do have a hard time speaking to strangers. Get me in the room with someone I feel comfortable with and you can’t shut me up. But if I’m in a cold-calling situation, or a social setting where I’m the outsider — nothing but anxiety central.

I’m also an entrepreneur.

Since I don’t have this go-go alpha, outgoing, people-centric persona, it would be silly for me to choose a business model requiring cold, in-person interaction for it to work. Instead of forcing myself to fit my business model, I forced the business model to fit me.

I sell with text instead.

I build my indie publishing business around an email-centric model. As an introvert, I like to know what I’m going to say before I say it. With a written sales and marketing model, I can pre-write my words and edit them before they go to my customers. As a bonus, I can adjust my words for future customers, if anything needs tweaking.

Just because I’m quiet doesn’t mean I don’t like business.

But I chose a model that fits my personality, so I can do more of it. If I chose a cold-calling business, where I had to give myself a daily ulcer, I doubt I could sustain it. Since I don’t need much personal interaction to feel fulfilled by my business, I can work 10X harder using my text-based model, because I use a marketing model I enjoy.

I’m able to listen to my customers better.

With email, I can listen in bulk. I have the ability to categorize responses, and customize products based on those responses. Instead of trying to be the loudest person at the table, using hard sales tactics, and refusing to settle before I leave the building with a sale, I’ve adopted a softer approach.

Even though I use a softer sales approach I still sell.

I’m a writer. I understand writers. I serve writers and most writers happen to be introverts too. If I used an extroverted, hard-sell technique to get business from my introverted customers, the process would repel them immediately.

Since I’m an introvert I know how to serve introverts. Introverted customers don’t want you to call them. They want a hard-copy of the information so they can make an informed, calculated decision over time. Introverted customers would rather make a decision inside their caves, or at least with someone who they know and trust — not the person selling to them.

Yes, there are a thousand gradations of both introversion and extroversion. I’m making generalizations, based on the way I see the world. You may look at things differently.

There are many introverts who are both more and less outgoing than me.

But not every entrepreneur is straight out of Boiler Room or Wall Street. Some of us prefer a quiet life, away from the limelight, but we still have similar aspirations of the most-outgoing entrepreneur. I’ve got huge aspirations. So, instead of bending an extroverted system and shoe-horn myself into it, I connect with my customers the way I like to connect.

The delivery medium isn’t as important as the effort put in.

Introverts can sell remotely, with email, and get similar efforts as their extroverted counterparts. Instead of a public lecture, maybe you create videos or podcasts. I’d argue that introverted marketing practices are geared more towards multiplication of effort. I also know I’ve got to write every day if I want to build my business, just like the extrovert needs to knock on doors.

Email isn’t only for introverts, either.

Anyone can sell with email. But if you’re not an introvert, the disconnect between you and the customer may not be a sustainable relationship for you.

Build your business to fit your personality

There’s no such thing as work-life balance. It’s all life. Wouldn’t you rather have a business model that fits the person you are, versus forcing yourself to fit into a mold you aren’t?

Introverts aren’t flawed or less-than.

We’re fifty percent of the population. It’s not a disease. This is the other way of being, besides extroversion. It’s not like introverts are a one-percent group in a ninety-nine percent world. The reason many introverts get a bad rap in business, because more extroverts are the ones out there speaking publicly about business.

If you’re the entrepreneur the rules are yours to make.

Sure, if you’re terribly shy, it may be to your advantage to work on opening-up to others. Introversion and shyness aren’t synonyms — another myth that needs busting. But those who are extremely shy will have a few business disadvantages than their outgoing counterparts.

No matter what model you choose, ensure it works best with the way you communicate. Introverts are hard-wired to appreciate inward thinking, and thoughtful responses. We may not do as well with in-person meetings.

I can’t argue my way out of a paper sack. I hate face-to-face confrontation.

When I’m stuck in arguments, without the ability to pre-think my responses, I freeze and become tongue-tied. I can’t write thousands of words in one sitting. I’ll never run out of writing ideas. But if you put me on the spot, face-to-face, I’ve got nothing. So, instead of trying to force myself to be, at-best, a mediocre arguer, I focus all my efforts on written communication.

You can do this with your business too.

Introversion isn’t a handicap. There is plenty of room for introverted entrepreneurs and plenty of customers who welcome their communication style, especially through email marketing.

We’re waiting for you.

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August Birch (AKA the Book Mechanic) is both a fiction and non-fiction author from Michigan, USA. A self-proclaimed guardian of writers and creators, August teaches indie authors how to write books that sell and how to sell more of those books once they’re written. When he’s not writing or thinking about writing August carries a pocket knife and shaves his head with a safety razor.