04/07/2024
On emotional intelligence and sales success...
About 13 years ago, I followed up on a life insurance prospect. This must have been my 4th touch point on follow-up with this particular prospect.
He planned to start an education endowment plan for his kids and it was to last for 10-15 years. He had filled out the form and gave me supporting documents which in insurance, is the basis of the contract. All that was left was the first premium, to activate the policy, which was structured to be quarterly; N60,000.
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I was already calculating my projected first commission and the bonus that comes with the aggregate sales for the month at this time.
As a professional salesperson, I called to ask if I could come over for him to activate the policy as he planned to pay by cheque. He agreed that I come over the next morning for the cheque.
An hour before setting out, I called to confirm that our appointment was still intact, and he confirmed in the affirmative.
So I set out from Alapere, Ketu on the mainland to Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island on the island. I got to his office, brimming with excitement about the sale to be made.
Now, his office was an open office with a circular cubicle setting. Normally, he had his own secluded office but he asked that we sit in that open office.
As I was finishing with my greeting I asked for the cheque.
He said, "I don't know what we are trying to do and the whole thing is beginning to irritate him". This was not in a whisper. He continued, "I know that I asked you to come but I don't think I want to continue with this, thank you."
At this point, I was battling with a series of emotions, from anger to embarrassment to disappointment, you name it.
I was able to summon enough composure to say, "Wow, Mr. X, you must be in a bad mood this morning and I thought we had this wrapped up. No worries, I guess plans changed and I will be available when you are ready, thank you."
If it was my first few months on the job, I would have closed for the day and been depressed for another two days but I thank God that I had some self-talk handy.
I simply said, "Some Will, Some Won't, So What, next!". I began to do cold canvassing and I entered a then Diamond Bank, prospected a single lady who did an N100,000 monthly, 2-year savings plan with me, and got two more promises from the same branch to close the next week.
You see, as a professional salesperson looking to excel in your career, emotional intelligence must be one of your top skills to have because you are dealing with people and you are a human being yourself with blood running through your veins.
You must master yourself and discipline yourself to do what you have to do even when you don't feel like it. You will fall into mediocrity if you allow your emotions to get the better of you than being in control.
If it were easy, everyone would do it. However, life becomes easy when you are hard on yourself.
I hope you gained some value from this. If you did, kindly share it so others can get a boost from it.
Please share your own emotional intelligence test.
