Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success: Connect with Customers and Get Results

Very helpful

There is no doubt that Colleen Stanley is a Top Gun sales trainer built on a successful career of as a salesperson and sales manager. This book contains a lot of gems that even experienced salespeople will find useful. The tactics she describes on how to elucidate the decision making structure of an organisation and meet with the various decision makers are the best I have ever read and well worth the price of the book alone.What Colleen Stanley has done is then marry to the sales process some of the basic concepts of Emotional Intelligence such as delayed self-gratification, flight-or-fight, and Goleman’s competencies such as self-awareness, self-management, empathy, etc. Unfortunately her book then suffers from the same weakness as Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence – the lack of a theory of emotions.She tries to use a combination of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and DISC to provide a template but in my view fails. Not because of her efforts but because of the basic flaws in NLP and DISC. NLP while widely used lacks scientific validity. DISC has some value but is very simplistic. Unlike many DISC devotees Colleen is to be congratulated on at least referring to the book of the founder of DISC, William Moulton Marston’s book, the Emotions of Normal People. It is difficult to believe she has read it. I found Marston’s book a torrent of psychobabble. The following quote which Moulton emphasised was the essence of his methodology says it all:“The total of psychonic (synaptic) excitation, existing at any given moment in the subject organism as a result of reflex tonic motor discharge, may be called for convenience, the ‘motor self’. Definition of the term does not include any phenomena not objectively described or indicates.Phasic motor impulses forming psychonic conjunction with tonic motor excitations may be conveniently termed ‘motor stimuli’, and are to regarded as being in exactly the same relation to the motor sefl as are afferent impulses to the organism’s sensory mechanisms. Motor stimuli thus objectively defined, are not to be confused, under any circumstances, with environmental stimuli, which may be defined as objects or forces acting upon the organism’s sensory receptors.”It is a tragedy that Colleen is not familiar with a decent theory of temperament such as the Humm-Wadsworth. If she knew it and used it, this book would be terrific.On the other hand there were some great quotes about emotional intelligence in the book which I had never heard before and well worth remembering:Dale Carnegie: You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.John Wooden: When you’re done learning, you’re done.Calvin Coolidge: No man ever listened himself out of a job.

With all the resources to learn sales the question is "why aren't people getting better?" As a Sales Manager I've tried everything - from micromanaging, to teaching to closing sales for others. Most sales people not only have the skills to sell but they have the knowledge to sell. So why aren't they selling? That is what keeps all of us who make a living selling up at night, both for our teams and for ourselves.Ms. Stanley says, "I've seen too many salespeople work too hard for the lackluster results they achieve, never attaining the income and satisfaction they desire and deserve. Why? Because they misdiagnose their sales challenges and, as a result, prescribe the wrong solutions. They focus only on improving their "hard" sales skills when, in fact, something far different than just poor selling techniques are getting in their way.""Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success offers an important solution to that conundrum! Perhaps it isn't the hard skills of selling, e.g. prospecting, qualification, presenting, closing, etc. Perhaps the answer isn't in more data, more CRMs, more activity. The answer can be found in the emotional intelligence we have.This book isn't the first book on Emotional Intelligence and won't be the last I'm sure. However it is one of the best. Learning how to control our impulses, to respond and navigate the challenges of selling, and to stay the course makes the skills and knowledge we have much more effective.For example, we all know that we need to prospect, that our having a full pipeline is a critical success factor impacting our final sales number. Why then do so few of us prospect on a regular basis? Generally it is because we don't like it, it isn't fun, and we don't have enough EQ to push through those emotional barriers.For every major selling activity Ms. Stanley lists the emotional components, teaches on how to maximize their impact, includes several case studies and then has an action plan for developing the emotional reliance to be successful - from prospecting to negotiating.There are a million books on selling. There are all kinds of selling systems. Knowing is not the same as doing. It is time to become effective. "Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success" will show you how. Read and apply this book, one of the most important and vital books newly available, and you'll make more money, have greater success and enjoy the process much more. A great and important book for all salespeople, sales managers and business leaders. A must read in my opinion.Good Selling...Russ

Helps one think about getting personal with clients and why that is Important. Pushed me to think about connection. Not a lot of deep exercises on making that happen.

I hate sales books. My company makes us read one a year. I hate most self-help books, though I do like the concept of constantly learning. Most books are the same jargon repackaged with new acronyms and catch phrases. And there's alway SO MUCH SPORTS TALK! Ugh! I'm in sales, not football! I stumbled upon Colleen Stanley when looking for some motivation after a terrible month. I was so impressed by her website I decided, for the first time ever, to buy a sales book on my own, without prompting. Wow. I saw Zig Ziglar speak, attended Pepperdine University's negotiation training, and even took the Harvard Manage Mentor Management training. THIS IS THE BEST SALES TRAINING I'VE EVER RECEIVED. Colleen is smart, thoughtful and logical. It's not too salesy or preachy or sporty. It's just great advice, insight and a reality check. I love this book. I bought the kindle and the audiobook. I listen to it on the way to work and I'm better at my job. I'm going to ask my company to assign this one next year, because I want my whole team and segment to benefit from her training. Thank you for creating a great book, Colleen.

Very on time

Learned a few things about the need for emotional intelligence in regards to selling, and the impact that making an emotional connection with prospects (and ensuring you're they're advocate) can have on the bottom line.

What a book, it's completely changed the my thinking towards prospect or customer to providing the service to them, earlier I was always a discount coupon guy, bit this had really changed my thinking.

Good

I found some good tips that are easy to apply straightaway and that I hadn't heard about before because in sales courses they tend to talk only about sales techniques.