Recent research and field data from Princeton University support the premise that Emotional Intelligence is a major contributing factor to sales success. Daniel Goleman and Cary Cherniss in their book The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace evaluated three predictors of job success; Relevant Experience, Emotional Intelligence, and Outstanding IQ. They found that job success could be predicted:
> 71% of the time by the candidate’s Relevant Experience
> 74% of the time by the candidate’s Emotional Intelligence
> 48% of the time by the candidate’s IQ
Goleman and Cherniss go on to say that the higher and more significant the position, the greater the role Emotional Intelligence plays. In fact, at the Top Sales and Senior Executive level, EI factors are as much as 80% responsible for long-term success.
According to Stephen Blakesley, President of Management Systems, Inc., numerous studies specific to sales and Emotional Intelligence found:
In one organization, sales reps with high EI were 127 times more productive than sales reps that had average EI.
In another large, multinational organization sales people selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence sold, on average $91,370 more annually than other sales people in the organization.
Additionally, those selected on the basis of Emotional Intelligence had 63% less turnover during the first year than those selected based on experience.
No doubt about it. Emotional Intelligence is more important than experience when it comes to success in sales.
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Steve Clark