This week’s trait is one that measures a salesperson’s ability to remain detached from an emotionally-charged situation. Sales requires a cool, level-headed approach even in instances where emotions are high. We highly value salespeople who can keep their personal self detached from their work self.
Internal Self Control
This is the ability to maintain a steady and controlled level of internal emotion in a stressful or emotionally charged situation. Although it directly affects self-composure in a difficult situation, this capacity is more an examination of a person€™s tendency to allow the external environment€™s level of stress to affect their internal levels. If Internal Self Control deals with an ability to keep outside emotions out, Emotional Control deals with keeping internal emotions in.
A salesperson with strength in this capacity will be better able to keep his or her internal level of emotion (stress, excitement, fear, etc.) unaffected by external influence. A good example would be an emergency room physician. They must continually prevent the strong emotions of those whom they treat from interfering with their thought process. They must be able to separate themselves from the outside emotions involved and logically deal with the situation at hand.
A salesperson with weakness in this area may have difficulty accomplishing this separation. Instead of isolating outside emotions as those of others, they over empathize and allow themselves to become emotionally charged in the same manner. They do not separate themselves well and may instead become caught up in the excitement, fear, sorrow, etc.