Selling with emotional intelligence

Emotions shape all human interactions. Emotions are particularly important in sales because of the need to engage, understand and motivate customers. Emotional intelligence helps sales professionals to become authentic in their conversations with clients and create positive relationships.

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize and regulate your emotions. Emotions are nature’s way of communicating with us. You must understand what you are feeling and why you are feeling it, then realize how your emotions affect you and the people around you. This minimizes miscommunication and misunderstanding. The bonus: increased connection, deeper trust and improved relationships.

Individuals with high levels of (EQ) manage their interactions with customers in a more effective manner. When you understand how others feel, you manage relationships and sales situations more successfully and more effectively. Emotionally intelligent sales people are self-aware, socially skilled, empathic, resilient, self-motivated, confident, intuitive, and read other people’s emotions very well.

Emotional intelligence is not a just a buzzword or fad.  EQ is at the core of relationships, and in sales relationships are everything.  Emotional intelligence is here to stay. EQ is often referred to as “the other kind of smart.” Unlike IQ and personality which is fixed and stable though life, EQ is not fixed at any point. It continues to improve every decade.

Change your EQ and you will rapidly change your sales results.

Many sales professionals only communicate at the superficial level of selling features and benefits with a one-size-fits-all approach. This approach creates an unstable foundation when attempting to connect, engage, inspire and build value.

Emotions drive sales! Emotions are powerful and they control our thinking, behavior and actions. Many people know what they need to do when they’re selling. Often in tough selling situations, salespeople let their emotions drive their behavior. They talk too much. They offer discounts and avoid negotiations. They oversell. They fear asking for the business. They continue to meet with people who are unqualified.

The sales skills and techniques used in role play scenarios and low risk sales situations are not utilized when they are most needed – during higher risk, challenging or difficult sales situations. Despite the role plays, intense training and attending seminars/workshops, too many individuals fail to do what they know and have been trained to do. They lack the ability to perform (in the moment) the skills they trained so hard to learn. Their emotions are triggered and their skills and common sense go out the window. They may even say, “I know what I need to say but I forget to say it, or “I know what I am supposed to do but I don’t always remember to do it.”

Many times there is a big gap between knowledge of something and translating that knowledge into action. This is the classic knowing-doing gap. People resolve to change their behaviors but quite often, little or no action is taken and they relapse into their old patterns. They know what they need to do but don’t do it. Like losing weight, everyone on the planet knows how to lose weight; eat less, move more. But few actually succeed because knowing how to eat right and exercise is much harder than taking consistent action to eat right and exercise. When knowing and doing are combined, the results are powerful.

When sales professionals master the dynamic of human interaction known as emotion, their income skyrockets, and they close more sales.