Why do salespeople frequently fail to execute-even when they know what they should do?

Even skilled salespeople buckle in tough selling situations—getting defensive with prospects who challenge them on price or too quickly caving to discount pressure. These fight-or-flight responses are something salespeople learn to avoid when building their emotional intelligence. Sales trainer and expert Colleen Stanley cites studies that show how emotional intelligence (EI) is a strong indicator of sales success--and offers tips on how you can sharpen your skills and expand your emotional toolkit. Increasing your emotional intelligence is a sure way to overcome tough selling encounters. In Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success, you’ll learn: how to increase impulse control for better questioning and listening, which EI skills are related to likability and trust, how empathy leads to bigger sales conversations and more effective solutions, how emotional intelligence can improve prospecting efforts which EI skills are most common among top sales producers, and much more. Customers can get product information and price comparisons online. The true differentiator between you and a bot is your ability to deftly solve problems and build relationships. Emotional intelligence plays a vital role at every stage of the sales process. From business development to closing the deal, emotional intelligence will drive your performance--and your success.

The best way to get ahead in sales is by developing the critical soft skills that will enable you not just survive but thrive. Chronic complainers, no accountability finger-pointers, or learning-resistant laggards—these culture-killers costs sales organizations more in productivity than being weak in the so-called hard skills of selling. Sales leadership expert Colleen Stanley shows how emotional intelligence and the development of these critical soft skills improve sales leadership effectiveness and outperforms doubling down on more sales technology tools and fads. In Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership, Colleen provides sales secrets that: Shows sales leaders why ‘real world’ empathy and emotion management are the key to building strong relationships with their sales team. Offers simple steps on how sales leaders create sales cultures that embrace feedback and change through the development of critical emotional intelligence skills. Provides guidance on how to identify key emotional intelligence skills needed in your hiring process to build resilient sales teams. Walks readers through the process of training sales teams on soft skills that ensure the consistent execution of the right selling behaviors. The missing link is in hiring for and developing emotional intelligence skills in sellers and sales leaders. Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership will connect with anyone charged with growing sales in business-to-business or business-to-consumer sales.

The New Psychology of Selling The sales profession is in the midst of a perfect storm. Buyers have more power—more information, more at stake, and more control over the sales process—than any time in history. Technology is bringing disruptive change at an ever-increasing pace, creating fear and uncertainty that leaves buyers clinging to the status quo. Deteriorating attention spans have made it difficult to get buyers to sit still long enough to “challenge,” “teach,” “help,” give “insight,” or sell “value.” And a relentless onslaught of “me-too” competitors have made differentiating on the attributes of products, services, or even price more difficult than ever. Legions of salespeople and their leaders are coming face to face with a cold hard truth: what once gave salespeople a competitive edge—controlling the sales process, command of product knowledge, an arsenal of technology, and a great pitch—are no longer guarantees of success. Yet this is where the vast majority of the roughly $20 billion spent each year on sales training goes. It’s no wonder many companies are seeing 50 percent or more of their salespeople miss quota. Yet, in this new paradigm, an elite group of top 1 percent sales professionals are crushing it. In our age of technology where information is ubiquitous and buyer attention spans are fleeting, these superstars have learned how to leverage a new psychology of selling—Sales EQ—to keep prospects engaged, create true competitive differentiation, as well as shape and influence buying decisions. These top earners are acutely aware that the experience of buying from them is far more important than products, prices, features, and solutions. In Sales EQ, Jeb Blount takes you on an unprecedented journey into the behaviors, techniques, and secrets of the highest earning salespeople in every industry and field. You’ll learn: How to answer the 5 Most Important Questions in Sales to make it virtually impossible for prospects to say no How to master 7 People Principles that will give you the power to influence anyone to do almost anything How to shape and align the 3 Processes of Sales to lock out competitors and shorten the sales cycle How to Flip the Buyer Script to gain complete control of the sales conversation How to Disrupt Expectations to pull buyers towards you, direct their attention, and keep them engaged How to leverage Non-Complementary Behavior to eliminate resistance, conflict, and objections How to employ the Bridge Technique to gain the micro-commitments and next steps you need to keep your deals from stalling How to tame Irrational Buyers, shake them out of their comfort zone, and shape the decision making process How to measure and increase you own Sales EQ using the 15 Sales Specific Emotional Intelligence Markers And so much more! Sales EQ begins where The Challenger Sale, Strategic Selling, and Spin Selling leave off. It addresses the human relationship gap in the modern sales process at a time when sales organizations are failing because many salespeople have never been taught the human skills required to effectively engage buyers at the emotional level. Jeb Blount makes a compelling case that sales specific emotional intelligence (Sales EQ) is more essential to success than education, experience, industry awareness, product knowledge, skills, or raw IQ; and, sales professionals who invest in developing and improving Sales EQ gain a decisive competitive advantage in the hyper-competitive global marketplace. Sales EQ arms salespeople and sales leaders with the tools to identify their most important sales specific emotional intelligence developmental needs along with strategies, techniques, and frameworks for reaching ultra-high performance and earnings, regardless of sales process, industry, deal complexity, role (inside or outside), product or service (B2B or B2C).

REVISED AND UPDAT ED WITH NEW RESEARCH INTO EQ AND PERSONAL AND CAREER SUCCESS What is the formula for success at your job? As a spouse? A parent? A Little League baseball coach or behind the bench of a minor hockey team? What does it take to get ahead? To separate yourself from the competition? To lead a less stressful and happier existence? To be fulfilled in personal and professional pursuits? What is the most important dynamic of your makeup? Is it your A) intelligence quotient? or B) emotional quotient? If you picked "A", you are partly correct. Your intelligence quotient can be a predictor of things such as academic achievement. But your IQ is fixed and unchangeable. The real key to personal and professional growth is your emotional intelligence quotient, which you can nurture and develop by learning more about EQ from the international bestseller The EQ Edge. Authors Steven J. Stein and Howard E. Book show you how the dynamic of emotional intelligence works. By understanding EQ, you can build more meaningful relationships, boost your confidence and optimism, and respond to challenges with enthusiasm-all of which are essential ingredients of success. The EQ Edge offers fascinating-and sometimes surprising-insights into what it takes to be a top law-enforcement officer, lawyer, school principal, student, doctor, dentist or CEO. You will learn what the top EQ factors are across many different kinds of jobs, from business managers and customer service representatives to HR professionals and public servants. The EQ Edge will help you determine which personnel are the right fit for job opportunities and who among your staff are the most promising leaders and drivers of your business. And because all of us have other roles-parent, spouse, caregiver to aging parents, neighbor, friend-The EQ Edge also describes how everyone can be more successful in these relationships. "Finally, a practical and usable guide to what emotional intelligence is all about. This book peels the onion on what EQ really is and teaches the reader to assess their own EQ and how to increase it. This is the holy grail for career success."—Michael Feiner, Professor, Columbia Graduate School of Business and author of The Feiner Points of Leadership

Secret to sales success starts with higher emotional intelligence (E.Q.). Improve your E.Q. and watch your sales soar! Emotional Intelligence (E.Q.) is the ability to relate to people and maintain positive relationships, and is now widely regarded as more critical to workplace success than I.

"Includes a new & enhanced online edition of the world's most popular emotional intelligence test."