American Express Will Share Sales Techniques

American Express Financial Advisors of Minneapolis, Minn. will market its sales training techniques to outside companies, the company announced last week.

American Express trains all employees and financial advisors in what it calls emotional competence. The company's thinking is that "self-leadership and interpersonal effectiveness" are powerful tools in business and in life and are what differentiate satisfactory performers from outstanding performers, the company said in a statement.

After working with psychologists, American Express introduced its emotional competence program in 1993. It divides emotion into five areas: empathy, mood management, motivation, self-awareness and social skill. Since introducing the program, sales have increased 11 percent among groups of salespeople whose senior sales executives participated in the program. Individual advisors who participated in the program increased their sales by 18 percent on average, the company said.

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