Air Force Colonel John Boyd, the man who popularized the observe, orient, decide, and act (OODA) loop and perhaps America's Sun Tzu, admonished a U.S. Department of Defense enamored with technology to put certain priorities in the right order. He insisted on “People. Ideas. Technology. In that order.”

Boyd believed strongly that people come first. Technology, therefore, serves people and ideas. Technology isn't and cannot be a substitute for human beings and their resourcefulness, creativity, and ability to forge and leverage relationships.

In a day and age when technology is disrupting and disintermediating entire industries and radically changing life as we know it, there are still a few of us willing to remind you of what's most important—especially when it comes to sales and commercial relationships.

At a time when many technology companies and pundits (usually with an ulterior motive) suggest that “people” are no longer how the game of sales is won or lost, that technology is what matters most, Jeb Blount comes forward with Sales EQ. This extraordinary message about sales-specific emotional intelligence and human relationships will radically improve your sales results and change the way you look at sales.

In Sales EQ, you will gain a deeper understanding of human psychology and influence frameworks. You'll take a journey inside your mind to understand the cognitive biases and disruptive emotions that hold you back in interpersonal relationships and undo your efforts to win deals.

More important, Jeb doesn't leave you hanging with theory. He gives you a precise prescription for leveraging sales-specific emotional intelligence (Sales EQ) to reach ultra-high sales performance—the highest earning echelon of the sales profession.

Jeb believes, correctly so, that ultra-high sales performance begins with taking control of your emotions and mastering the psychology of influence within the scope of the sales and buying processes. Selling is about influencing change, and that starts with changing you and then helping your clients move past status quo.

As you delve deeply into Sales EQ, you are going to understand why psychology is far more important than technology. You'll gain insight into why your prospective clients take certain actions—or refuse to take those actions—and how to deftly influence their behaviors to increase the probability of closing the deal.

This is one of the most important books on sales in the past two decades, and there isn't a better person to have written it. Jeb is a practitioner. What he teaches here is not theory, even though he provides the latest research in neuroscience and human psychology.

What is contained between the covers of this book can only come from someone who has sold and succeeded as an ultra-high performer, and someone who helps salespeople and sales organizations accelerate sales results by making massive sales productivity improvements.

If you've wondered why ultra-high performers produce greater results than their peers, you are holding all the answers in your hand. It's not what they sell, it's how they sell. If you are seeking a true competitive advantage that will set you apart in the sales profession, follow Jeb's recipe carefully, and you'll soon take your place among the ultra-high performers.

—Anthony Iannarino, author of The Only Sales Guide You'll Ever Need and publisher of The Sales Blog