John Wooden is undeniably one of America’s most successful college basketball coaches winning 10 National Championship titles.
In his book, Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization, Coach Wooden shares his sound principles for success. I found the chapter on controlling emotions of particular interest since we incorporate emotional intelligence into our consultative sales process.
Coach Wooden was a firm believer that if you could not manage your emotions, they would manage you. Poor emotion management leads to poorly executed plays, too many highs and lows during a game and the inability to play consistently. If his team was behind, Coach Wooden did not display any kind of emotion. His advice to his team was always the same. “Play your game. You know what to do.”
Championship salespeople also practice the emotion management. They don’t over react to tough prospect’s or selling situations. Questions such as, “What makes you different or why should I buy from you” doesn’t throw them into product dump mode. The emotionally intelligent salesperson remains calm and answers the question with a solid value proposition that is carefully crafted for the decision maker and specific industry. They show up every day and play their game.
How well is your sales team managing their emotions? Is every day a roller coaster or is it a nice drive through the sales countryside? Sales managers and salespeople often forget this important piece of training.
Manage your emotions or they will manage you.
