Green Eggs and Ham is the ultimate salesperson’s training guide. It describes how you should never give up until your qualified prospects sits through a demo and finally “buys” your product. I love this book so much that I wrote a blog entry describ…

Sam does a fantastic job of deploying emotional intelligence throughout his ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ sales process. He knows what is and what is not being sold, and fearlessly attempts to discover the correct ‘fit’ for how Green Eggs and Ham will solve a specific need or pain experienced by the prospect. Salespeople are often emotionally reactive to objections and rejection, blinding them from even identifying the shape of the prospect’s pain, commonly resulting in anger toward the prospect, the product/service sold, their own self-confidence, or any combination thereof. Sam displays usage of emotional intelligence through understanding that a sale or no-sale is a function of solving the ‘fit’ equation- finding where one piece of a sales puzzle fits perfectly with a corresponding shape. Sam-I-Am knows that puzzle pieces are all different- just like people, product features, and customer needs. In order to find the right fit, salespeople must become familiar with the different shapes of the pieces to see how they might fit together. Puzzle piece in hand, eyes scanning the puzzle for the right fit, and attempting to fit the piece in a myriad of positions on the puzzle is how the right puzzle piece fit is properly discovered. How easy this process becomes is directly correlated to the emotional IQ utilized by the puzzle solver.

Sales processes are exactly the same. A salesperson must understand what shapes (features/benefits) are intrinsic to what is sold, subsequently, they must identify and test how those shapes could fit with another puzzle piece (sales prospect). Sam-I-Am doesn’t get angry at his prospect, his Green Eggs and Ham, his confidence in Green Eggs and Ham, or at any element of what he’s selling. He simply tests one fit after another until he finds one that works. Regardless of the emotional state of the prospect, Sam-I-Am remains unwavering in his confidernce because he doesn’t see the problem characterized as a crummy prospect, product/service, confidence level, or otherwise. Sam-I-Am sees the problem characterized as rationally fitting the pieces together, testing and adapting the fit to finally solve the puzzle (make the sale). This is an easier lens to see the sales process through; it does not involve temporary feelings about oneself or one’s products or services, it simply involves discovery of a proper fit for the puzzle pieces within the sales process, eliminating ups and downs salespeople commonly experience thus facilitating more consistent sales environments.

Once the right fit is uncovered, the pieces fit seamlessly together. Salespeople should attempt to uncover the perfect fit between a product/service and its user in the same fashion.

Test your E-IQ:

Q: When attempting to solve puzzles in the past, does anger arise toward the pieces and/or the puzzle when it seems impossible to find a fit? Perhaps thoughts that the puzzle creator must have made a mistake in the design, or perhaps thoughts arise that a particular piece may belong to a whole different puzzle entirely? Do conclusions that the puzzle is inherently flawed result in the puzzle being thrown to the trash?

a) Yes, I hate puzzles. They make me mad and it takes too long to put them together. I’ll never do another puzzle as long as I live.

b) Once I did have a problem where I found pieces from a different puzzle in the box of the puzzle I was attempting. It frustrated me so I gave up and decided it was too much hassle to organize the pieces.

c) No, I don’t get upset at puzzles. I enjoy them because they require delicacy, patience, and problem solving skills to complete successfully. I’ll take a whirl at a good puzzle any day; I love the challenge.

d) Some puzzles are harder than others. If they aren’t too complicated, I don’t mind taking a snap at it; but if the puzzle is for advanced puzzle enthusiasts, I’ll pass.

e) Often times I start puzzles but am unable to finish because they get too hard and they take too long. I generally let my friends go at it after I’ve given up.

f) It really depends on the kind of day I’m having. Some days it seems like I can put together pieces in a puzzle without even thinking about it, and it’s really easy. Other days though, it is as if none of the pieces will fit, and sometimes I even try to force them. In this case, my frustration takes days for me to get over and finally I muster the energy to go back and attempt where I left off, praying the day is one of my lucky days.

What kind of sales E-IQ profile was your best match?

If you answered,

a) You probably don’t have the patience for sales. Sales is a process, and successful salespeople can’t get upset just because the process gets brutal at times. It is part of the process, and if it creates misery when attempting sales, a better job ‘fit’ in your company is probably a better alternative.

b) Make sure you know what it is you’re selling. If you came from a different style of sales job than your current one, and you are finding it difficult to adjust, don’t get upset. Sometimes bringing in the wrong pieces (sales concepts/features) from a different box (company) can throw you off. This becomes frustrating during the sales process because trying to employ sales techniques that aren’t relevant to your new sales job, or highlighting features and benefits that aren’t necessarily relevant to the products or services you are now selling simply does not uncover the proper product-user fit. Your new sales job might involve selling something completely different that what you’re accustomed too. Keep in mind the sales process specifics are generally different from one company to another.

c) You are Sam-I-Am! Sam handles the sales process delicately by politely listening, behaving patiently in approaching the prospect, and going through a discovery process to reveal the fit between Green Eggs and Ham and the Prospect’s needs. He does this all while enjoying the process of solving the problem. Sam is confident that what he is selling has a fit for the prospect, and is eager to accept the challenge of finding that fit, irrespective of the difficulty involved.

d) You’ll do fine in sales environments where there is not common rejection, but attempting a sales job that requires cold-calling would probably not be the right sales job fit for you.

e) Sales is probably a tedious task for you, and you would probably be doing something else if you had the choice, so you probably should make that choice. Find people like Sam-I-Am for your sales force unless you don’t have that option.

f) You are a shooting star salesperson. When you’re on, you’re on; but when you’re off, you probably don’t even show up to work. You like the rewards that sales jobs can provide, but it becomes an emotional roller-coaster for you because you are unable to identify what that secret ‘juice’ is that makes everything perfect on the ‘good days’, thereby creating an inability to know what it takes to perform consistently over time. You must figure out what makes you tick on the good days, and figure out a way to return to this state when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed on your bad days. This is the most difficult E-IQ profile to adjust- on those days that you aren’t working, you set yourself and your company back more and more by ignoring and blowing off potential clients. These kinds of salespeople often think the great ‘lucky’ days justify the bad days, and this is generally not true. This belief can easily poison part or all of a salesforce, which can result in bigger losses than those incurred on the ‘off days’ of just one person, it affects the entire sales team. These people are great because they sometimes come through in crunch times, but they will cause big headaches for any enterprise.

First, sales E-IQ is focused on understanding where one fits on the emotional profile spectrum- this can help to determine if one should even attempt to go into sales, and can save people lots of time and stress.

Second, sales E-IQ focuses on mental and emotional agility. This takes the knowledge of a current emotional IQ profile and designs a solution to ‘adapt’ a person’s emotional IQ profile in order to enhance current sales performance. (i.e., a superstar salesperson adjusting their emotional perspective on sales in general- although very difficult to accomplish, if they can rid themselves of the emotional perspective on sales, and at the same time maintain the charisma that makes them effective, this adjustment can create the very best salespeople around).

Sam-I-Am demonstrates correct use of emotional intelligence. He is aware of his emotional state and adapts his emotional profile to better communicate with the prospect, enabling increased ease in the discovery process, eventually resulting in a sale. Discovering the correct puzzle-piece – product-user fit while maintaining emotional and mental agility, sometimes in the face of complete rejection, is the product of proper E-IQ understanding.