In recent weeks, salespeople have been grinding away from home offices. Often, it has not been an easy task with commission-based or budget conscious reps feeling discouraged by the end of the day.
Leveraging emotional intelligence (EQ-i) can be the difference in moving the needle. For years, research has found EQ-i is a key factor for success in business. In sales, EQ-i is the rep’s ability to connect well with clients on a personal level.
How can you make this work for you?
NOTICE YOUR MOOD AND THE IMPACT
Your level of self-awareness can affect how a prospect or existing client perceives you. If you can identify your own emotions and their impact on your prospect’s responses, you can have more control over interactions and the interactions’ outcomes.
Think about your last client call. What was going on in your head? How were you feeling? How did the person respond to you?
FINDING YOUR RHYTHM Self-regulating emotions mean finding a way to channel them in a way that is appropriate for the task at hand. We all have bad days or “off” days. Creating a rhythm to your emotional life can help reduce the frequency of negative emotions that impact your sales calls. One way you can find your rhythm includes creating a daily routine. Elements could include setting the same alarm time each morning, meditating or working out, having family breakfast, reading or learning, and writing your plan for the day. During our daily COVID client coaching sessions, we ask our clients what are your three accomplishments from yesterday; what is your challenge today; how can we turn the challenge into one of the three opportunities of the day?
DISCOVER YOUR VALUES OR WHAT GIVES YOU A NATURAL HIGH
Little spurts of caffeine or excitement will not sustain you in the long run. When you focus on what “matters” to you, you are energized and enthused.
To find your inspiration, take a moment to look at the “big picture”. Why do you do what you do? Do you love work because you love your coworkers? Do you find meaning in the mission of the company you work for? Do you enjoy setting and achieving difficult goals?
Behape has access to a values assessment to help give words to the things that matter to you.
FIND YOUR TRIBE – KEEP YOUR TRIBE
Social regulation can aid you in finding your client base by noticing prospects’ emotions and responding appropriately in each interaction with them. Social awareness can help you maintain your client base by maintaining an awareness of how the connections you make become relationships with longevity.
Reflect on your capacity for social regulation in your recent calls. If the prospect was in a hurry, did you notice? Did you offer them the “Cole’s Note version of the call? Did you suggest an alternate time? If they rejected your offering, did you overcome your own feelings of rejection to understand what they were feeling?
The icing on the “Tribe” cake is social awareness. Social awareness is an understanding of the relationships you have and how to sustain them in the future Ask open-ended questions that can lead to future calls and conversations. Spend less time talking about you and more time talking about them and how you can help them in the future.
GREAT NEWS
EI is teachable and can be significantly improved with learning, practice and patience. The benefits are significant. Research conducted on a pharmaceutical company sales team found reps who increased by a mean of 18% later improved their total sales revenue by an average of 12%.
Behape works with a Canadian based company called MHS. Its Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i 2.0®) is the first scientifically validated assessment tool for emotional intelligence skills. The EQ-i 2.0 is the most widely used, most flexible, most studied of EQ competencies in the world.