• Those with higher emotional intelligence self-ratings also tended to perform better on product distribution, the number of new accounts sold, and employee promotions earned. • Where manager-ratings were higher, employees tended to have overall higher performance and a larger number of new accounts sold. 39 Again, the skills of emotional intelligence seem to be a foundation for effective relationships. The Forum Corporation on Manufacturing and Service Companies conducted extensive studies asking why customers left vendors. 30% of the reasons related to product quality and technical excellence. Meanwhile 70% related to emotional and relationship factors. 40 If you think about your own vendors -- from corporate needs to personal shopping -- how likely are you to remain loyal to a company that seems uncaring, disinterested, unresponsive, or distant? In a pioneering EQ project, American Express put a group of Financial Advisors through a three-day emotional awareness training. In the following year, the trainees' sales exceeded untrained colleagues by 2% – which might sound minimal, but the millions of extra earnings off a three-day program convinced the company to expand EQ training. 41 Likewise, when MetLife selected salespeople on the basis of optimism -- one of the emotional intelligence competencies -- they outsold other MetLife salespeople by 37%. 42 Emotional intelligence skills seem to drive both the relationship aspects of sales, and the internal focus and drive of top sales performance. So the emotional skills of people in your organization have a profound effect on the relationship between the organization and its customers.
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White Paper The Business Case for Emotional Intelligence
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