In actual fact, emotional intelligence is a key indicator of success across all professions. A study carried out by TalentSmart compared the role of emotional intelligence on performance with 33 other workplace skills. What they found was that emotional intelligence was the strongest predictor of performance success, accounting for 58% of success across all job roles. Emotional Intelligence is more significant than education, IQ and experience put together in determining performance success.

In the first of a 2-part blog on Emotional Intelligence in sales, we explore what impact emotional intelligence has on sales performance.

Why Emotional Intelligence is Important for Sales People

1. Emotionally Intelligent Sales People Achieve Higher Sales Numbers – Because emotionally intelligent sales people are more adept at moving their customers through the buying cycle, understanding fully their customer’s needs and challenges and pitching solutions in a way that engages and excites their customers, they are, inevitably, more successful when it comes to winning deals, hitting targets and delivering profit. A study conducted by researchers Sue Jennings and Benjamin Palmer at multinational pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-Aventis, pitched one group of 40 sales reps who were given Emotional Intelligence training, against a control group who were not given the training and found that the group receiving the EI training outperformed the control group by an average of 12%. For the company, this equated to more than $2million in increased revenue.
2. Emotionally Intelligent Sales People Achieve Greater Customer Satisfaction and Retention – Emotionally intelligent sales people are more able to flex and adapt their approach to suit their customers, to deal with customer challenges and, critically, to build trust-based relationships. As such, it follows that they are more likely to have happier, satisfied customers and to retain those customers. One study (Forum Corporation on Manufacturing and Service Companies) which looked into why customers moved to alternative suppliers, found that 70% of the reasons supplied for losing customers were directly related to emotional intelligence. Another, conducted with sales people from multiple Fortune pharmaceutical companies, found that an increase in empathy, understanding and self-control resulted in a 31% improvement in the quality of their relationships with their customers.
3. Emotionally Intelligent Sales People are More Likely to Stay in Their Jobs – Individuals with higher emotional intelligence are far more likely to enjoy collaborative relationships with their colleagues, meaning they are less likely to leave a job because of poor or strained relationships. A study by Initiative One found that individuals with managers who had a high level of emotional intelligence are 400% less likely to leave. Of course, workplace relationships aren’t the only reason people leave their jobs, but because those with higher emotional intelligence are more likely to be able to constructively and effectively address any areas of their work life they’re unsatisfied with, these issues become less significant too. Leading UK hospitality business, the Whitbread group, found evidence of this when they made the decision to place greater focus on emotional intelligence across the organisation – they found that their restaurants which had high EI managers in place had a lower turnover of staff (as well higher customer satisfaction and 34% greater profit growth). Similarly, beauty giant, L’Oreal, benefitted from a 63% lower turnover rate in the first year, for sales people who had been selected on the basis of their emotional intelligence level.

Emotional Intelligence in Sales People has been found to improve sales performance, customer satisfaction and retention and even significantly increase the likelihood of a sales person remaining in their job. Emotional Intelligence is something that can be improved upon.

When it comes to improving Emotional Intelligence, there are a number of ways you can do this; there are  training programmes available and there is plenty of reading you can do on the subject. Personality tests, such as Myers Briggs, Social Styles and 16 Personalities are invaluable in improving EI. These tests uncover our own biases, preferences and tendencies when it comes to the way we like to process information and to communicate with others. They also highlight the differences between our own and others’ preferences. Once we are aware of these differences, we are able to adjust our own style to favour that of the other person.

These tests work by assigning individuals to a personality ‘type’ and each type is defined by a specific set of communication-style preferences and commonalities. For sales people, where relationships lie at the heart of how successful they are, recognising and understanding a customer or prospects ‘type enables them to more effectively build trust, demonstrate value, pitch a solution and handle objections.

Whilst no-one is suggesting that an individual will always behave in a way consistent with their ‘type’, or even that it is always possible to identify an individual’s type accurately from observations alone, what we do know is that most people tend to deviate very little from their usual patterns of behaviour. This means that, with some knowledge of what to look for and by paying very careful attention to the way our customers respond and communicate, we can make predictions and best-guesses as to how best we should communicate with them going forward. For sales people who are able to make these observations and with the skills to flex and adapt their own style, this can significantly improve their success rate.

How Sales People Can Improve Emotional Intelligence

The only way you’re really able to improve Emotional Intelligence is to dedicate significant time and effort to developing it – whether that be through Emotional Intelligence training, self-guided research or through any of the aforementioned personality tests. However, there are some key things that sales people can look out for, which can offer valuable insight as to their customers’ communication preferences. Try thinking about a specific customer and answering the following questions – consider how you might adjust the way you communicate with them now that you have thought about these answers:

• Does your customer appear to be formal/conservative, or more relaxed, casual and easy-going in their approach and style?
• Do they appear to prefer structure and detail, or do they prefer more of a ‘big picture’ approach?
• Is your customer quiet and reserved, or more gregarious and outspoken?
• Do they seem to prefer to digest and think things through before making a comment, or are they more impulsive and impetuous in their reactions?
• Do they seem to be led more by facts and figures, or by emotion and how something makes them feel?

Inevitably, in the majority of sales conversations, you will observe differences between your own preferences and tendencies and those of your customer and this is where sales people with high levels of emotional intelligence are really able to outperform their peers. By adapting their own style, in line with their customers, emotionally intelligent sales people instantly make themselves and their propositions more appealing and because communication is more effective, the sales person is able to guide their customer through the buying cycle more quickly and more adeptly.