If you want a huge advantage over your sales competitors, read, or listen to . . . fiction. Yes, you heard me right, read fiction, my friend. Fiction, with all its magic and creativity, will grow your emotional intelligence and other soft skills. Just like an athlete who exercises and eats right, soft skills are the building blocks of being a great salesperson and human being.

This opposes the advice most people will give you. In fact, you might be thinking, “Fiction?! Fiction is a waste of time! I only read books that are going to help me make more sales or grow my business!”

On the surface, the “only read sales or business books advice” makes a lot of sense. 

After all,  if you want to learn about cooking or carpentry, you don’t read a fictional account of a man fighting prejudice and injustice in 1930s rural Alabama or read a story of a man condemned to a concentration camp who refused to give up his humanity, decency and search for love.

But everyone knows sales is so much more than a craft!  Successful salespeople are well-rounded, thoughtful, interesting people. Sure, they have sales skills and industry knowledge; but, they also possess sales soft skills, such as empathy, great listening skills, human understanding, presence, perseverance, emotional intelligence and, probably most importantly, self-awareness.

Self-awareness will help you discover “what you didn’t know what you didn’t know about yourself.” In other words, you’ll discover areas where you have more potential for improvement and growth.

How do I develop this self-awareness? Improv-based training is the solution to the question “how can I get my sales people to think on their feet, to work more effectively as a team and to be more confident in every situation?” 

Reading and listening to fiction is also illuminating. It's a sales soft skills seminar in your mind.

Fiction helps to develop your emotional intelligence. You’ll see how others live or are forced to live, what they experience, how they think, giving you insight into your own behavior and thought patterns. You’ll witness people overcoming great obstacles or folks persevering despite the odds.

Fiction and great storytelling is also a nice break from our lives, like a mini-vacation, a time to “re-create” yourself. By reading stories, your ability to tell stories will also improve. Reading good writing will improve your ability to communicate. You’ll become more interesting.

No one likes boring sales people who only talk about themselves. 

Reading fiction also helps you to learn how to connect, to develop better relationships because you’ll better understand how to develop relationships. 

Your ability to write, read and communicate, in general, will improve.  By entering the various worlds of fiction, your creativity will increase, as well as your vocabulary and ability to appreciate the perspectives of other people. These skills will set you up for instant connection with potential clients. You will become—and sound—more educated, more worldly.

Probably most importantly, you’ll also become a better storyteller. Your message will be remembered so much more if you tell a story, than just regurgitating facts and figures.  Fiction allows us to enter the world of another person and to understand and relate to the lives of others. 

Like a left-handed person, you will start looking at a situation or opportunity from a different perspective than everyone else in your field who are only reading business and sales books. You will have creative ideas, instead of the same boring ideas as your competitors. 

You’re going to be exposed to new ideas and different perspectives, the building blocks of developing emotional intelligence and social acuity. 

The question many folks have is, “Ok, I get it. I have wanted to read fiction but I don’t know where to start.” 

I recommend starting with the classics.  I challenge you to read the greatest American book ever written: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Read it or listen to an audio version. Yes, the book you probably read in high school. 

Except now, you’ll truly appreciate how brilliant, engaging and life-changing this work is. The book has lessons of courage, resiliency, and compassion.  You’ll be entertained and moved. 

Many of us haven’t read fiction in years, even decades. It’s ok. Just begin, my friend. If you’re the vice president of sales, encourage your team to read fiction and sales and business books. In fact, have a list of books for your people to devour. Talk about the books at your meetings. Of course, continue with business and sales book; but, I can’t encourage you enough to read or listen to fiction.

Imagine if you spent just 20 or 30 minutes listening to, or reading, fiction a day. Over time, you will become well-read. You will become well-versed in the psyche and motivations of others. You will see the human side of events. You will create a huge advantage over your so-called competitors and your life and sales career will improve dramatically.