Three Soft Skills that Produce Hard Sales Results

    DENVER, CO, August 04, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Can soft skills really produce hard core sales results? Come on, doesn't the word soft indicate a salesperson is too focused on their inner child or lacks the fortitude to negotiate? There is a growing body of research that shows soft skills, such as emotional intelligence skills are the new competitive weapon in winning business. It's no longer good enough to hire a person with the highest IQ unless that IQ is accompanied by a high EQ. (Emotional Intelligence.)

What is emotional intelligence? In layman's terms, it's the ability for a person to perceive their emotions, understand why they are feeling the emotion and adjust their actions to achieve desired outcomes.

Here's the business case for 'return on emotions':

- American Express Financial Advisors sales increased 18% after attending an Emotional Competence Program.
- The U.S. Air Force found that by using emotional intelligence to select recruiters, they improved hiring practices which provided a gain of $3 million annually.
- People with high emotional intelligence make more money--an average of $29,000 more per year according to the latest book by Bradberry and Greaves, 'Emotional Intelligence 2.0.'
- At a national furniture retailer, salespeople hired based on emotional competence had half the dropout rate during their first year. (Hay/McBerResearch and Innovation Group, 1997.)
- At L'Oreal, sales agents selected on the basis of certain emotional competencies significantly outsold other salespeople for a net revenue of $2,558,360.

There are several emotional intelligence traits to examine. Here are three that make a real difference in sales results.

Impulse control - This is also known as delayed gratification. It is a person's ability to resist a temptation to act. Here's how lack of impulse control shows up during a sales call. The salesperson has done a good job of engaging the prospect. The prospect shares a problem he is experiencing with an existing vendor. In sales, it's called a buying signal. Without impulse control, the salesperson buys the buying signal without asking further questions to learn of the financial or personal impact to the prospect. They have given into the impulse of presenting their solutions without a complete diagnosis. We call it "spraying and praying technique." The salesperson sprays information and prays someone will buy. Salespeople have been coached to death about not presenting too soon. The sales manager doesn't need to preach one more sales sermon on asking questions. Sales coaching needs to focus on helping the salesperson learn how to improve his impulse control and delay the gratification of presenting his solution and ideas. It's emotional intelligence skill training, not sales technique training that produces a better sales outcome.

Assertiveness - An assertive salesperson know how to state what he/she needs without becoming aggressive or pushy. She is good at moving the call forward and disqualifying poor opportunities early on in the sales cycle. A salesperson scoring low in assertiveness often ends up in 'chase mode' because they aren't comfortable setting firm agreements for the next step. Or they do a lot of practice proposals because they're not assertive enough to ask for a meeting with ALL the decision makers. It's a classic example of the 'knowing and doing' gap. The salesperson knows what to do, however, caves when they meet resistance. The lack of 'doing' comes from poor assertiveness skills. Sales managers often misdiagnose the sales problem and provide even more sales skill training. What the salesperson really needs is focused attention on assertiveness training or.... reassignment to another department.

Empathy - In the book, "Discover your Sales Strengths, the Gallup Organization study of 250,000 sales representatives show that top salespeople consistently score high in empathy. Have you ever heard the expression, 'I feel your pain?' Empathy is the ability to step in another person's shoes and see things from their perspective. The biggest problem facing sales organizations, as it relates to empathy, is the inability of salespeople to focus and be present. Lack of focus (and care) is often modeled by senior management. Think of the last company meeting you attended? How many participants were really present? How many participants showed bad manners by checking their blackberry while a colleague was speaking? Many salespeople have lost the ability to focus intently on the prospect for an hour without checking something electronic or thinking of the next thing on their to do list. As a result, they miss subtle clues during the sales meeting such as a shift in the eyes, expression or change in body language. A missed clue is a missed opportunity to ask a question or adjust your style on the call.

Get soft this year and start working on the right end of sales problems. Incorporate soft skills training, emotional intelligence training, with consultative sales training. Soft skills do yield hard sales results.

Colleen Stanley is president of SalesLeadership Inc., a business development consulting firm specializing in sales and sales management training. They are experts at integrating emotional intelligence training and consultative sales training. Colleen is also the author of "Growing Great Sales Teams: Lessons from the Cornfield." Reach Colleen at 303.708.1128 or www.salesleadershipdevelopment.com.

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