5The Four Levels of Sales Intelligence

We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgment of the intellect is only part of the truth.

—Carl Jung

There is no doubt that ultra-high performers (UHPs) are smart people. They are keen observers and have insatiable curiosity. They have the innate ability and talent to connect disparate ideas, data, and patterns and then leverage these mashups of information to offer insights and solve problems.

The good news is it is highly likely that you have an above-average IQ. I know this because people with above-average IQs are statistically more likely to read books and seek out knowledge.

The bad news is a high IQ is not enough. Ultra-high performance requires innate intellectual ability combined with acquired, technological, and sales-specific emotional intelligence. These are the four types of intelligence that open the door to ultra-high sales performance:

  1. Innate intelligence (IQ)
  2. Acquired intelligence (AQ)
  3. Technological intelligence (TQ)
  4. Emotional intelligence (EQ)

Innate Intelligence

Your intelligence quotient (IQ) is an indicator of how smart you are. Innate intelligence is baked into your DNA. It is a talent no different than athleticism. You are either born with a certain IQ or you are not.

IQ is immovable. In other words, you are as smart as you will ever be.

The speed and complexity of the modern marketplace is the domain of intellectual agility. In a low-IQ versus high-IQ battle, I'll put my money ...

Get Sales EQ now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.