Extroverts make the best salespeople and leaders. Wrong.
Ambiverts — the people in between — outsell both introverts AND extroverts by 24%. Extroverts come last.
"Extroverts make the best salespeople and leaders" is a myth. The supporting research is cited below. Read on for the full evidence.
"Extroverts make the best salespeople and leaders"
False. In a 2013 study published in Psychological Science, Wharton professor Adam Grant measured actual sales revenue against personality scores and found that ambiverts — people in the middle of the introversion–extroversion scale — outsold both introverts and extroverts by 24% on average.
Hire the outgoing one. Promote the person who works the room. Introversion is widely associated with poor performance in sales and leadership, and many companies still explicitly screen for extroversion when filling client-facing or management roles.
The Surprising Truth
In a 2013 study published in Psychological Science, Wharton professor Adam Grant measured actual sales revenue against personality scores and found that ambiverts — people in the middle of the introversion–extroversion scale — outsold both introverts and extroverts by 24% on average. Pure extroverts ranked near the bottom. Grant theorizes that ambiverts listen well AND assert themselves at exactly the right moments — a balance that full extroverts consistently overshoot. For leadership, a separate meta-analysis by Grant, Gino, and Hofmann found that introverted leaders outperformed extroverted ones when managing proactive teams, because they implemented employee ideas instead of dominating the room.
What This Means for You
Before assuming extroversion is a career advantage in sales or management, test where you actually fall on the spectrum — and recognize that the ambivert sweet spot is exactly where most working adults land naturally.
Primary Sources
- [1] Grant, A.M. (2013). "Rethinking the Extraverted Sales Ideal: The Ambivert Advantage." Psychological Science, 24(6), 1024–1030.
- [2] Grant, A.M., Gino, F., & Hofmann, D.A. (2011). "Reversing the Extraverted Leadership Advantage." Academy of Management Journal, 54(3), 528–550.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do extroverts make better salespeople?
Ambiverts — the people in between — outsell both introverts AND extroverts by 24%. Extroverts come last.
Are extroverts better leaders than introverts?
In a 2013 study published in Psychological Science, Wharton professor Adam Grant measured actual sales revenue against personality scores and found that ambiverts — people in the middle of the introversion–extroversion scale — outsold both introverts and extroverts by 24% on average. Pure extroverts ranked near the bottom. Grant theorizes that ambiverts listen well AND assert themselves at exactly the right moments — a balance that full extroverts consistently overshoot. For leadership, a separate meta-analysis by Grant, Gino, and Hofmann found that introverted leaders outperformed extroverted ones when managing proactive teams, because they implemented employee ideas instead of dominating the room.
Where do most people fall on the introvert–extrovert scale?
Before assuming extroversion is a career advantage in sales or management, test where you actually fall on the spectrum — and recognize that the ambivert sweet spot is exactly where most working adults land naturally.
How We Verified This Claim
SmartAss Facts evaluates every popular belief against a three-tier source hierarchy: primary sources (peer-reviewed research, government datasets, and court records), secondary sources (reputable journalism citing the primary), and tertiary sources (blogs and general reference sites). Only primary sources are cited. If a claim can only be traced to a blog or an unsourced assertion, it is not used.
For this myth — Extroverts make the best salespeople and leaders — we reviewed the cited sources above and checked the claim against the published findings. The claim was then cross-referenced with the SmartAss Facts database of over 5,000 verified facts to identify related content.
If you believe our verdict is incorrect or you have a more recent primary source that changes the analysis, the science always wins — we revise pages when the evidence warrants it. Last reviewed: 2026-10-13.
More Career Myths Debunked
Every claim below has been checked against published research.