In To Sell is Human, Pink introduces the idea of the “ambivert advantage”. This is the idea that, contrary to popular opinion, extoverts are not the best at sales because they can have the tendency to talk too much and overwhelm the customer. In addition, introverts have the tendency to be too shy to initiate the sale and too timid to close the sale. To Pink, the happy medium is the ambivert, who is believed to have better listening abilities than the extrovert, but can still speak up and make the sale, contrary to the introvert.
While the Myers Briggs doesn’t deal with ambiversion, it does talk about functions, which are part of each personality type. Sensing, intuition, feeling, and thinking manifest themselves differently for each type. They either focus on their outside world (extroverted) or focus on their inner world (introversion). So, while you may be an extrovert, you will still have an introverted function because you personality may process things like feeling internally. Or you may be an introvert but can still have an extroverted function.
While Pink argues for the ambivert advantage, I would say that there is an extroverted feeling advantage over introverted feeling. Extrpverted feelers are collective. They put the emotions of the group, or emotions of their relationships above their own, individual emotions. They can easily understand and identify other people’s emotions and strive to put them at ease. They types that are extroverted feeling are ESFJ, ENFJ, INFJ, ISFJ, ESTP, ENTP, INTP, and ISTP. Introverted feelers are individualistic. They are very aware of their inner emotions and have a strong set of personal values and feelings that guide them. They are typically more in touch with their own needs and desires than the desires of a group of people and cannot identify with people as well as extroverted feelers. This is not a bad thing, it is just a different way of processing information. The types that are introverted feeling are INFP, ISFP, ENFP, ESFP, ISTJ, INTJ, ESTJ, and ENTJ.
Extroverted feelers would be easily able to be attuned to the needs of their customer and to the needs of the room, if they are selling to more people. They naturally have the principals of perspective taking, empathy, and mimicry that are key to Attunement, and I imagine would be great salespeople.
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