Why Your Sales Team is Missing Targets - And How Emotional Intelligence Can Turn It Around

You’ve invested in sales training. You’ve rolled out new tools. And on paper, your team should be performing. But the numbers keep slipping, deals are going dark, and you’re left questioning what’s really going wrong. According to research from Salesforce, 57% of sales reps regularly miss quota, even in teams with solid strategies and tools in place. The truth is, even the most experienced sales professionals can fall short if they lack one critical skill: emotional intelligence.

In this article, we’ll explore how emotional intelligence (EQ) helps sales professionals understand and manage emotions — both their own and those of others. You’ll see why traditional sales enablement often overlooks this essential factor, how to recognize EQ gaps in your team, and what you can do to close them. By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of how emotional intelligence drives performance, improves deal outcomes, and strengthens your team’s resilience in the face of pressure.

The real reason sales teams miss targets

It’s not just the pipeline or product

When your team misses target, it’s tempting to zero in on the usual suspects:

• Are we generating enough leads?
• Is our CRM being used properly?
• Is the product fit aligned with the market?
• Are reps following the sales process?

These are valid questions — but they often mask a deeper issue. Many underperforming sales teams actually have solid foundations. They have good tools, a well-defined process, and a product that solves a genuine customer problem. Yet the deals still don’t close. It’s not that your team lacks motivation or product knowledge. It’s that many reps haven’t been equipped with the self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation needed to manage complex, relationship-driven sales cycles.

Why? Because tools and processes can't compensate for missing human connection. In today’s B2B landscape, buying decisions are driven just as much by trust, empathy, and communication as they are by logic and ROI. When reps can’t tune into their buyers' emotional signals, or they falter under pressure, even the best opportunities can collapse.

The overlooked role of soft skills in sales performance

Many sales leaders focus heavily on hard metrics such as conversion rates, time to close, and call volumes. These indicators are easy to measure and often seen as direct reflections of sales performance. But without the right soft skills in place, these numbers rarely tell the full story.

Soft skills — particularly emotional intelligence — are often the missing ingredient in sales performance.

Emotional intelligence enables reps to:

• Stay calm and confident in high-stakes conversations
• Sense when a prospect is disengaged or hesitant
• Adjust their tone and messaging based on cues
• Build genuine rapport, not just deliver a pitch
• Bounce back from rejection

These soft skills may not show up in a dashboard, but they influence outcomes in every sales conversation. The most effective reps are the ones who know how to listen actively, remain composed under pressure, and pick up on emotional cues that signal when to pause, probe, or pivot.

Emotional intelligence is the missing link between strategy and execution. When EQ is low, you may see deals fall through not because the solution was wrong, but because the human connection never clicked. For mid-sized and enterprise sales teams, this isn’t a “nice to have” — it’s a competitive advantage.

Emotional intelligence in action: How it translates to revenue

Empathy that builds trust and closes deals

Empathy isn’t just about being nice — it’s a tactical advantage in sales. Reps with high emotional intelligence are better at uncovering a prospect’s real concerns, even when those concerns aren’t stated outright. They listen for meaning beyond the words and ask the kinds of questions that create clarity, not confusion.

In high-value B2B deals, trust is often the deciding factor. Buyers are more likely to engage when they feel understood and respected, especially when navigating internal consensus or budget constraints. A salesperson who can demonstrate empathy builds credibility and shortens the path to agreement.

Consider two reps with similar product knowledge. One jumps straight into features and pricing. The other asks thoughtful questions, reflects the buyer’s pain points, and guides the conversation with curiosity. One might be technically right — but the other earns trust and the sale.

Self-awareness that drives better pipeline management

Self-awareness is more than emotional maturity — it’s a revenue lever. Sales reps with high self-awareness are better at objectively assessing where each deal really stands. They’re less likely to let optimism cloud judgment and more likely to flag stalled opportunities, ask for coaching, or disqualify early when needed.

This directly improves key sales KPIs, including:

• Forecast accuracy: Reps with stronger EQ provide more realistic deal projections by identifying buyer hesitancy or lack of urgency early on.
• Win rates: Self-aware reps tailor follow-up and messaging based on each buyer's emotional signals, leading to more relevant and persuasive interactions.
• Sales velocity: By focusing energy on viable, emotionally committed buyers, reps avoid wasting cycles on unqualified deals.
• Pipeline quality: A better understanding of emotional engagement ensures that what gets entered into the CRM reflects genuine opportunities, not just activity.

High EQ also strengthens the coaching relationship. Reps who can identify their own blind spots and emotional blockers are more open to feedback and development — helping them improve faster and drive results more consistently.

Why most sales orgs aren’t prioritizing EQ (yet)

Common hiring and training gaps

Most sales organizations don’t intentionally ignore emotional intelligence — it’s just not where they tend to focus first. Hiring decisions are often based on previous quota attainment, industry experience, or gut instinct around “culture fit.” While these factors matter, they rarely predict how someone will handle pressure, bounce back from rejection, or read a buyer’s mood in a high-stakes meeting.

When EQ isn’t measured or discussed, it gets left out of onboarding and training programs too. That means reps are often taught how to run a discovery call but not how to notice when a stakeholder is checked out. They learn objection-handling techniques but not how to manage their frustration when a deal stalls unexpectedly.

This creates a gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it effectively in the moment. And that’s where deals slip away.

Misaligned incentives and culture

Even when sales leaders recognize the importance of emotional intelligence, the structure of their team might work against it. If your comp plan rewards speed over depth, or if coaching is based purely on call numbers, it’s easy for soft skills to get deprioritized.

Many teams also operate in high-pressure, high-urgency environments. Reps are expected to deliver quick wins, move fast, and stay relentlessly upbeat. That culture can discourage vulnerability, self-reflection, and asking for help — all key ingredients for developing emotional intelligence.

In this kind of setting, EQ isn’t just overlooked. It can be unintentionally suppressed.

Turning it around: How to build EQ into your sales strategy

Assessing EQ at the individual and team level

You can’t improve what you can’t see. The first step to building a more emotionally intelligent sales team is gaining visibility — not just into performance metrics, but into the emotional traits that shape how reps sell, collaborate, and respond to pressure.

Psychometric tools like the Thomas Emotional Intelligence assessment provide objective, science-backed insight into the individual and collective strengths of your team. These assessments can help sales leaders:

• Trait-level visibility: Understand how each team member scores across key emotional intelligence traits such as empathy, self-control, sociability, and emotionality.
• Behavior under pressure: Identify how individuals are likely to react in high-stakes, emotionally charged sales environments.
• Communication style: Get clarity on whether someone is naturally assertive, passive, adaptive, or emotionally expressive — and how that aligns with their role or customer base.
• Relationship-building capacity: Assess how well a person is likely to connect with different buyer types or stakeholders across long sales cycles.
• Development priorities: Surface areas where a rep could benefit from coaching — for example, improving emotional regulation, active listening, or responding to client cues.
• Team-wide patterns: See whether EQ strengths or gaps are isolated to individuals or present across the sales team as a whole.
• Hiring indicators: Compare assessment results with high performers to make better-informed hiring decisions for sales roles that demand emotional resilience and adaptability.

When combined with behavioral and personality data, this insight gives you a full picture of what drives each rep — and where targeted development can have the biggest impact. It turns EQ from an abstract concept into something measurable, coachable, and strategic.

Coaching and developing high-EQ habits

Emotional intelligence isn't something a person either has or doesn’t — it's a skillset that can be developed with intention and practice. For sales leaders, the opportunity lies in building EQ into your coaching rhythms, not treating it as a one-off training session.

Here are practical ways to embed emotional intelligence into your team’s development:

• Make EQ part of regular 1:1s: Use assessment results to open up conversations about mindset, interpersonal challenges, and emotional triggers that might be impacting performance.
• Role-play with emotional context: Practice objection handling or discovery calls with an emphasis on tone, empathy, and emotional cues — not just the script.
• Encourage reflection: After calls or meetings, ask reps what emotional signals they picked up on and how they adjusted in the moment.
• Celebrate EQ wins: Praise reps not just for deals won, but for how they listened, stayed composed, or built trust during the process.
• Model it as a leader: When you show vulnerability, admit mistakes, or demonstrate self-regulation under pressure, it signals that EQ is valued — not optional.

When emotional intelligence is built into the culture of coaching and recognition, it helps shape long-term habits. Over time, reps become not just better communicators, but more self-aware, adaptable, and consistent — which drives better performance across the board.

Measure what matters: Introducing the Thomas EI Assessment

How it works

Emotional intelligence doesn’t need to be a guessing game. With the Thomas Emotional Intelligence assessment, you get clear, data-backed insights into the traits that influence how your salespeople communicate, build relationships, and respond under pressure.

The assessment is simple to complete and takes just 30 minutes. It measures 15 emotional traits grouped into four key areas: Wellbeing, Self-control, Emotionality, and Sociability. Once complete, you receive an easy-to-interpret report that highlights individual strengths, development areas, and practical recommendations for coaching and development.

It’s a practical tool that integrates seamlessly into hiring processes, onboarding, performance reviews, and team development.

Why it’s different – And how it helps you hit targets

What sets the Thomas EI assessment apart is its focus on practical application. It’s not just personality theory — it’s built to help sales leaders take action:

• Hire smarter: Spot high-EQ candidates who can thrive in relationship-driven, complex sales roles.
• Coach with confidence: Use tailored development tips to help reps grow in self-awareness, empathy, and resilience.
• Build balanced teams: Understand your team’s collective strengths and identify gaps that may be holding back performance.
• Drive consistent results: Strengthen the soft skills that directly impact KPIs like win rate, deal velocity, and customer retention.

If your team is underperforming despite having the right strategy and tools, it’s time to look deeper. Emotional intelligence could be the missing piece — and now you can measure it.

Ready to see it in action?

Conclusion

If your sales team is underperforming despite strong tools, clear strategy, and solid training, the problem may not be what they know — but how they connect. Emotional intelligence isn’t a soft factor. It’s a hard advantage in complex, high-stakes sales environments.

For B2B sales leaders looking to unlock consistent performance, build deeper client trust, and coach more effectively, EQ is a smart place to start. With the right tools and commitment, you can build a team that performs under pressure, connects with buyers, and consistently hits target.

Bonus: 8 practical takeaways for building a high-EQ sales team

1. Look beyond the numbers — performance metrics only tell part of the story. Soft skills often explain what’s missing.
2. Assess EQ early and often — use emotional intelligence assessments during hiring and development to gain a clear, objective view of your team’s emotional strengths and gaps.
3. Coach EQ consistently — build emotional intelligence into 1:1s and team coaching, not just annual reviews.
4. Encourage reflection — ask reps to review not just what they said, but how they came across emotionally.
5. Celebrate EQ behaviors — praise curiosity, composure, and empathy just like you would a closed deal.
6. Tailor your training — use psychometric results to personalize development plans for individual reps.
7. Model it at the top — sales leaders who show emotional intelligence set the tone for the entire team.
8. Create a culture of feedback — make space for open, constructive conversations about how people feel and how they show up in client interactions.

Frequently asked questions