Sales Training Workshops Grow Your EQ Using the APQ Sales Aptitude Test

We’ve all known the super intelligent person who, despite their high IQ, was socially inept. When a person like this tries a career in sales, they usually fail, even though they might memorize every possible close and objection-handler verbatim.

What is going on here?

These people are missing something called Emotional Intelligence (EQ or EI for short). What EQ amounts to is likeability and relatability. It is having the personality traits needed to be in agreement with others. As people tend to buy from those they like and trust, EQ is an important aspect for sales professionals to pay attention to, and it’s just as important to incorporate into sales training workshops.

Fortunately, we can discover if we, and those who work for us, possess these traits using the APQ sales aptitude test.

EQ is important to employers

A FastCompany post, which cites reports from the World Economic Forum and Career Builder, states that emotional intelligence will be one of the top 10 job skills in 2020. Also, 71 percent of hiring managers and HR professionals value EQ over IQ.

The reasons given in the article make sense:

• Ability to handle stress better

• Greater cooperation with peers and customers

• Listening skills

• Less defensive

• Show empathy

• Influence others

• Better decisions

Further supporting the impact of a high EQ is Dr. Travis Bradberry, co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0 and President of TalentSmart. In a post, he mentions that:

“Ninety percent of top performers have high EQs, people with high EQs make $29,000 more annually than people with low EQs, and a single-point increase in your EQ adds $1,300 to your salary.”

Now do you see the value of using the APQ sales aptitude test in sales training workshops to determine EQ?

A Low EQ is fixable

The good news is that those whose inherent personality traits fall outside the ideal range for sales roles — due to factors such as over-aggressiveness, lack of compassion, low ambition, timidity, can be coached into better performance.

The APQ sales aptitude test offers coaching points for every one of the personality traits which fall outside the ideal range, and sales training workshops can help improve your team’s EQ. Often, just being made aware of deficits can inspire some change immediately. But altering our behavior and attitudes dramatically is not easy, and that is where the coaching comes in: to boost a salesperson’s self-awareness and help them understand how their behavior affects their job role, relationships, and overall career.

EQ is one of the key ingredients to success in sales. Some of us have it naturally, others need to work for it. Regardless, we now have a way to improve it across the boards by using the APQ sales aptitude test.

Asher Strategies is one of the leading providers of testing for salespeople, sales managers, sales executives, and customer service staff. To get started with the APQ sales aptitude test, call us at (866) 833-9939 or fill out this very short form.