How Emotional Intelligence Drives Sales Execution

There are common traits I’ve found in successful sales organizations.

They execute. They take action. 

Now, there are also common traits found in the “not so successful” sales organizations.

They procrastinate. There is always a lot of talk about what they should do and very little follow through.  

I love this quote from Tony Dungy, former NFL coach and Super Bowl XLI winner:

Sales leaders, if you desire to build a sales team of execution and no excuses, develop your sales team’s emotional intelligence skills. These skills eliminate procrastination and create “sales-action-ation.”   

And important EQ skill is reality testing which is the ability to see things as they are rather than how you’d like them to be. It’s the opposite of a DENIAL mindset.

Sales teams grounded in reality recognize and are able to embrace change. Instead of wishing for the good old days to come back, they get busy making new and better days. These sales teams don’t waste time complaining about they’ve had to change their approach to conducting sales calls through a hybrid selling model. They don’t whine about how much harder it is to build rapport and trust over video calls.

They take action. They execute.

They execute learn how to be as influential on a video sales call as they were in person. They study and role play with peers to improve this new and required selling skill. They are in tune with the reality that new ways of selling and connecting with prospects and customer are here to stay.  

The second EQ skill that creates a sales culture of execution and no excuses is the emotional intelligence skill of self-regard. Sales teams possessing this skill are self-aware and self-confident. When a mistake is made---which is absolutely going to happen---they own it. They are confident in both their strengths and weaknesses to admit the mistake quickly.

They practice a concept called get to the truth fast.

Sales organization that get to the truth fast execute fast. No time is wasted finger pointing or trying to find the cause of a problem. They know the cause of the problem. Communication is open and transparent. Time and energy is immediately directed towards fixing the problem and EXECUTING on a better solution.

Today’s business environment requires sales organizations that can flex, change and execute. Improve your sales team’s ability to consistently take action by improving their emotional intelligence skills. Soft skills do produce hard sales results.