Within most organisations sales management are well aware that the success rate of calls made to customers and prospects alike is at best modest and by extension the failure rate of sales calls made especially in trying to secure new business is alarming high.
In fact, well over 90 per cent of all selling effort fails to achieve its objectives. It is not uncommon for sales and business development people – who have been calling on the same customers within a designated territory and who have been visiting them for years – to fail to make a single sale, take a single order or even alter the thinking about where the brand they represent fits in to the pecking order of brand preference.
Despite this alarming information coming as no real surprise to any experience sales person, it certainly is hard to reconcile with the amount of effort and the level of resources that goes into training sales people from initial training to more advanced, consolidation training phases that typically occurs within 12 to 18 months of the representative joining the firm.
This training generally ticks some important boxes, including providing the trainee with high levels of product knowledge for the businesses’ brands, detailed information on key rival brands, current sales trends that highlight prevailing behavioural norms and detailed customer analysis with high levels of key data from company structure, key decision makers and currently used brands.
Beyond this, there is usually also an adopted sales model in place which is often part of a global tool kit and made available through a parent head office internationally which provides a basic framework around which someone can build a discussion around and try to move someone from not using a product through the stages of awareness, interest and ultimately trial, where a comparative evaluation can be made against existing brand choices.
But despite all this, the numbers are anything but flattering so the obvious question is: what don’t they have that would make them more effective in a real world setting?
Simply put, the missing link for most sales people is not product information, territory management planning or even work rate.
It is simply the skill to deliver their key messages and then, through the use of concurrently applying the key principles of emotional intelligence, be able to identify and act on signals that are being given by the customer that are currently not being seen or understood and therefore represent missed opportunities in being able to not only build a strong working relationship with someone but be able to leverage that relationship to facilitate ongoing win-win outcomes that benefit both parties equally.
These principles that have at their core both your own self-awareness and equally important, social awareness of others where you have an equally clear awareness of the needs and feelings of your customer.
These represent the true starting point to genuine partnership and long-term sales success.
Those who have already been integrating these key emotional intelligence principles with their selling skills will not be surprised that the result is greatly enhanced performance; emotional intelligence has been show in research to be twice as powerful as IQ and technical skill combined as a predictor of future success.
Perhaps nearly 30 years since the term emotional intelligence was first coined in 1990, it may be finally time for even the conservative world of sales to adopt a new strategic ally that can elevate it to new heights.
Daniele Lima is the managing director of Road Scholars Training & Strategic Consultancy and the author of “The Practical Guide to Selling with Emotional Intelligence”. Available at:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Practical-Guide-Selling-Emotional-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B01MU72HXO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489787878&sr=8-1&keywords=daniele+lima
In fact, well over 90 per cent of all selling effort fails to achieve its objectives. It is not uncommon for sales and business development people – who have been calling on the same customers within a designated territory and who have been visiting them for years – to fail to make a single sale, take a single order or even alter the thinking about where the brand they represent fits in to the pecking order of brand preference.
Despite this alarming information coming as no real surprise to any experience sales person, it certainly is hard to reconcile with the amount of effort and the level of resources that goes into training sales people from initial training to more advanced, consolidation training phases that typically occurs within 12 to 18 months of the representative joining the firm.
This training generally ticks some important boxes, including providing the trainee with high levels of product knowledge for the businesses’ brands, detailed information on key rival brands, current sales trends that highlight prevailing behavioural norms and detailed customer analysis with high levels of key data from company structure, key decision makers and currently used brands.
Beyond this, there is usually also an adopted sales model in place which is often part of a global tool kit and made available through a parent head office internationally which provides a basic framework around which someone can build a discussion around and try to move someone from not using a product through the stages of awareness, interest and ultimately trial, where a comparative evaluation can be made against existing brand choices.
But despite all this, the numbers are anything but flattering so the obvious question is: what don’t they have that would make them more effective in a real world setting?
Simply put, the missing link for most sales people is not product information, territory management planning or even work rate.
It is simply the skill to deliver their key messages and then, through the use of concurrently applying the key principles of emotional intelligence, be able to identify and act on signals that are being given by the customer that are currently not being seen or understood and therefore represent missed opportunities in being able to not only build a strong working relationship with someone but be able to leverage that relationship to facilitate ongoing win-win outcomes that benefit both parties equally.
These principles that have at their core both your own self-awareness and equally important, social awareness of others where you have an equally clear awareness of the needs and feelings of your customer.
These represent the true starting point to genuine partnership and long-term sales success.
Those who have already been integrating these key emotional intelligence principles with their selling skills will not be surprised that the result is greatly enhanced performance; emotional intelligence has been show in research to be twice as powerful as IQ and technical skill combined as a predictor of future success.
Perhaps nearly 30 years since the term emotional intelligence was first coined in 1990, it may be finally time for even the conservative world of sales to adopt a new strategic ally that can elevate it to new heights.
Daniele Lima is the managing director of Road Scholars Training & Strategic Consultancy and the author of “The Practical Guide to Selling with Emotional Intelligence”. Available at:
https://www.amazon.com.au/Practical-Guide-Selling-Emotional-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B01MU72HXO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1489787878&sr=8-1&keywords=daniele+lima
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