Our company enrolled five of its team members in the EI Sales Training seminar series, hosted by Colleen Stanley and based on her book Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success.
Our goal was to improve sales skills and to become better listeners. One of the first concepts is the power of self-awareness, when you realize that your own emotions of the moment of interaction greatly affect what you hear. If you are anxious, frustrated or afraid, what you hear may not be what was said.
Colleen’s thinking and enthusiasm led our company to its own model of approaching prospective clients. Our process is focused on learning the prospect’s story rather than just offering a canned solution. This process has become the core of our sales playbook through four EI-based questions that prompt someone in telling their story. These questions are:
- What is important to you? (Why are you doing this rather than being a dentist or NASCAR driver?)
- Where would you like to see your company go? (What is your vision or passion?)
- What is stopping you? (What are your pain points?)
- Do you want to fix it? (If we don’t see a sense of urgency then there is no opportunity to help.)
These questions reveal a person’s motives, goals and passion. They need to be clearly understood to build a sustainable business and for us to better understand the prospect. Sustainability of any organization requires emotional maturity to maintain a focused and committed team. Successful leaders have high self-control, and are decisive, and they also are empathetic and listen well.
Recognizing and controlling your emotions will make you much more effective in your work with people. This control allows you to respond rather than react when someone asks a hard question or “pushes your buttons.” You can avoid the “fight or flight” reaction which is basic human nature when we feel threatened.
Listening and thoughtful response are central to the EI approach to human interaction. We have learned how to listen, ask leading questions for further understanding, and to share our stories with you. The result is a human connection and in our work, nothing happens until we start building trust.
All businesses must have sales to survive. How you manage the sales process determines if you have a sustainable customer relationship that results in repeatable or multiple sales. Emotional intelligence in your sales process produces relationships and they produce repeatable sales. These sales can be through multiple transactions with a customer or through multiple referrals from a satisfied customer.
We recommend that you get a copy of Collen Stanley’s book – Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success.
Give us a call (303) 417-6353 to share a few ideas!
