The Relationship Between Salesmen’s Emotional Intelligence and Sales Skills in In-Person Sales (Case Study: Salesmen of Commercial Complexes in the Third Municipality District of Bandar Abbas City)

The research statistical population was unlimited and included all salesmen in the stores of four large and famous commercial complexes in the Bandar Abbas City at Hormozgan Province/Iran during four months leading up to July 2019. Based on the research theoretical framework, the salesmen’s emotional intelligence is an independent variable, their demographic characteristics are a mediating variable, and in-person sales skills are a dependent variable. The data collection tool was Schering’s standardized emotional intelligence questionnaire and Basir et al.’s standardized sales skills questionnaire which was distributed among the salesmen in the real environment of the commercial complexes. Data analysis was performed under two broad categories of descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson’s statistical test was used to determine the correlation between the variables and testing the research hypotheses. In addition, the partial correlation test was used to examine the moderating role of demographic variables on the relationship between salesmen’s emotional intelligence and their sales skills. All statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS v.22.0. The research results show that there is a direct and significant relationship between all components of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-management, self-motivation, social awareness and social skills) and in-person sales skills. Furthermore, it was found that the demographic variables were not modulated relationship between emotional intelligence and in-person sales skills of salesmen.