Emotional Intelligence From a Place of Scarcity and Fruitfulness

The Sales Perspective

You know that desperate salesperson at the mall, where you feel and hear the desperation in their voice, the pressure of the sale? This person makes you despise the craft of sales, because sales is a craft that takes time and patience. When you are operating from a place of fruitfulness versus a place of scarcity, you are sending a confident, helpful message rather than the feeling of pressure from the sales associate. The question becomes; How do I get to a point where I can operate from a place of fruitfulness? What does this look and feel like? It’s about your thought process before, during and after the sale. 

When I first started out in sales and would see my colleagues winning, it would make me upset. I would immediately ask myself why haven’t I sold anything? The reason is because I was too concerned with what they were doing. We have to keep our minds positive, focused on ourselves and on what the goal is for that day. When we observe someone’s else win, genuinely congratulate them and learn what it is they did to win. Understand their process and ask questions. This is how we learn to become better. In sales the best teams that win are the ones that share stories of triumph and stories of how they lost. These stories are how patterns are learned either good or bad. These stories help us learn what buying signals are and how to seek them out. When we are operating as our best selves and from a place of fruitfulness we are able to understand that our agenda is in direct correlation to learning the agenda of everyone else's. That means the agenda of those who win, those who do not win and  that of your customer/client. 

The Operational Perspective 

Uncertainty is simply that… uncertainty so what do you do when you don't know what to expect? You use your past performance to level up on courage and you build your confidence from there. Here is what we do know, business has not stopped, slowed down, shifted and pivoting yes, stopped no (in the context of the 2020 Covid-19 Crisis). So how do you gauge the temperature of your prospect during uncertainty? The most important thing you can do is be CONSISTENT.  As you seek to create greater opportunities with your business partners,  prospects and clients the leverage you gain is in your ability to be consistent.  If you normally call them, keep doing that. If you have standing meetings, maintain them and allow them an opportunity to request the adjustments as necessary. Be the big thinker, be the strategist, the idea magnifier. Be a partner of significant value. You can create an unprecedented source of reliance and trust by remaining constant and available. 

The evidence of your impact may not be hyper visible now but trust that as you dig in with your clients, they will remember your presence and consider the value you brought as an anchor in the process of emerging out of uncertain times. This will also cause you to remain very focused and help you resist the sheer desire to submit to the challenges you may be facing as well. A focus on service and being a resource will drive your actions, mindset and focus. It’s really a win/win for everyone. This is not to negate your personal needs or ignore your emotional intelligence, it is truly about activating the servant leader within you.  It's really about being a real service provider. Think about it, you know your clients needs...this is your opportunity to serve them.

Tip #1:Staying current on the industry impacts, trends will support your ability to consider future needs that the client may have. Stay as far ahead of the curve as you can.

Tip #2:  Be sure to build a strong and focused network around you so that you have reliable, focused supportive people to lean on both professionally and personally.