The challenge many sales managers and business owners face is transferring the sales skills that made them a superior sales producer to their sales team. When you step into the role of sales manager, it’s no longer about what you can produce; it is about what can make others produce. In the words of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE,
“Before being a leader, success is about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is about growing others.”
Sales managers and hard working business owners invest hours in training and empowering their sales teams. In too many scenarios, your efforts fall short. The sales team is not consistently executing on their new prospecting and selling skills. Excuses range from “I forgot” to “I feel uncomfortable” or “I’m getting ready.”
The motivated sales manager listens and invests even more time and energy in teaching sales skills and techniques. For the madness! The reason your sales team isn’t executing may have nothing to do with sales skills; it has a lot to do with a lack of soft skills, also known as emotional intelligence skills.
Right now you might be thinking:
• So what the heck is emotional intelligence?
• Why should sales organizations care?
• Is it the latest fashion?
• Can soft skills really produce hard sales results?
In simple terms, emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive one’s own emotions, understand why the emotion is felt, and adjust actions to achieve better results. Here is the business case for the “return of emotions”:
When analyzing data from 40 different corporations, the differentiator between average and star performance was the level of emotional intelligence versus raw intellect and experience. (Goleman, WEI, see Jacobs and Chen, 1997)
American Express financial advisor sales increased 18% after attending an emotional competency training program. (Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations)
The US Air Force found that by using emotional intelligence to select recruiters, it improved hiring practices that generated a profit of $3 million a year. (Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations)
People with high emotional intelligence earn more money, an average of $29,000 more per year. (Bradberry and Greaves, Emotional Intelligence 2.0)
Emotional intelligence training is the key to improving sales performance because it bridges the gap between knowing and doing. We have worked with thousands of salespeople and seen them perform a sales role play flawlessly during a training workshop. Then the salesperson ends up facing a difficult prospect, starts to give in, and offers free consulting and/or discounts. The seller knew what to do, however he didn’t.
On the other hand, a salesperson, who was attending the same training workshop, faced a similar difficult sales scenario and failed to keep the appointment. He applied his new persuasion and sales skills, didn’t budge, and turned the difficult prospect into a customer. What was the cause of the different results? The same instructor delivered the same sales content that yielded different results. This puzzling behavior led us to explore emotional intelligence to discover the missing link between sales training and sales results.
Emotional intelligence training helps sales managers better diagnose performance problems and be more effective in their role as a sales leader and coach. Sales managers with this knowledge base develop sales teams that consistently achieve revenue targets, even in tough economic times. Ei Selling™ is a unique selling approach that integrates a consultative sales process with emotional intelligence skills. Identifies gaps where soft skills training is needed instead of or in parallel with sales skills training.
Emotional Self-Awareness: First Things First:
A successful sales manager has multiple titles: teacher, doctor, counselor, and coach. The common denominator in all titles is the responsibility to help people improve. The first step in helping people improve is the proper identification and diagnosis of problems and challenges.
As a professional sales manager, the first diagnostic area is to examine your salesperson’s self-awareness, the foundation of emotional intelligence. Emotional self-awareness is the ability to recognize personal feelings, know why you are experiencing the emotion, and guide the feelings toward a better outcome. In simple terms – “know yourself.”
Many well-meaning sales managers spend hours training sales skills, only to have the salesperson come up with solutions too soon, discount, or fail to make deals to meet all buying influences. These bad sales behaviors are not fixed with more training in sales techniques. Instead, work with your sales team on managing the emotions brought on by difficult prospects that lead to poor sales execution.
When a salesperson allows emotions to run wild, the brain freezes. Sales responses practiced during role plays are not recalled. The salesperson loses control of the call and becomes a high-priced answering machine. “What is your price? Who else are you doing business with? Why should we choose your company?” The result is a price-driven sale; it is not a value-driven sale. Understanding how the brain works is helpful in understanding a salesperson’s emotions and resulting action.
There is a portion of the brain that receives all incoming stimuli called the amygdala. It is an almond-shaped mass of gray matter that resides in the temporal lobe of the brain and is known as the “reptilian brain” or the “old brain.” The job of the amygdala is to receive and filter all the stimuli that reach the brain. It’s like a doorman at the reception. Just as a salesperson must win over the gatekeeper to reach the decision maker, a salesperson must also win over the amygdala to influence buying decisions.
Take the case study of a salesperson who has been taught the old-fashioned sales methodology to overcome objection seven times. The pushy salesman sounds the alarm in the amygdala which goes into fight or flight mode. The result is a prospect who is defensive or a prospect who ends the call early. Either scenario results in no closed deals.
This brain insight is also important when educating your sales team on their responses during a sales call. When faced with a more difficult prospect, are they able to manage their emotions and think rationally, or do they go into fight or flight mode?
An example of a fight response is when a potential customer requests a discount early on in the sales call and the salesperson tersely responds, “You get what you pay for!” An example of a flight response in the same scenario is, “Sure, we can give you a 10% discount” without discussing a concession strategy. The rational response is: “I certainly understand your discount request, however, let’s back up and ask ourselves a few questions to determine if:
1. The problem is big enough to worry about or fix.
2. We are the most qualified company to fix it or address the challenge.
3. Your company agrees to invest resources to solve the problem.
Then we can start discussing the budget and resource allocation. Do you think it is a good plan? “
The emotionally intelligent salesperson controls their emotions to give an answer that redirects the sales call into a qualified conversation.
Research shows that highly successful people excel at managing their emotions. Take the profession of trial lawyers, such as litigators or prosecutors. Is it knowledge of the law that wins trials or is it the attorney’s ability to handle the many dynamics that occur in the courtroom, i.e. a tough judge or an opposing attorney who says “I object” every 60 seconds? ? The answer is both. A good lawyer needs knowledge of the law and the ability to handle a tough opponent.
Now, let’s take a look at the sales profession. Is it experience that wins deals or the ability to handle all the dynamics that occur when interacting with multiple personalities and buying influences? The answer, again, is both. Help your sales team become more self-aware by slowing down and analyzing sales calls. Analyze the emotions and unproductive actions experienced during a difficult sales call and discover the root cause of the emotion.
• Were you intimidated?
• Were you too concerned with having the answers instead of having the questions?
• Was she too concerned with herself and not with the prospect?
The number one attribute highly successful people do to improve self-awareness is to slow down. It is in downtime that people can be introspective and reflect on their actions or inactions during the day. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, writes of Richard Abdoo, CEO of the $2 billion Wisconsin Energy company: “Richard is determined to set aside eight hours a week for solitary reflection. In his words, ‘You have than forcing yourself to spend some time away from the hustle and bustle of your job to get back to reality.'”
Downtime allows you to ask thoughtful questions and reflect:
• What was the reason for my reaction?
• What would have been a better answer?
• What can I do differently to avoid getting into that type of sales situation?
A best practice to establish in your sales organization is to teach your sales team to slow down to speed up. When a person has time to think, the result is greater clarity, creativity, and positive change. Create tech-free zones and turn off electronics. The emotionally aware salesperson takes time to figure out what stimuli elicit a reaction. In simple terms, what are your hot spots during a sales scenario? The emotionally intelligent salesperson knows that stimuli can’t always be changed (difficult customers and prospects), however, one thing can be controlled…the reaction.
Be a great sales teacher, doctor, counselor, and coach. The correct diagnosis leads to the correct prescription for change and results.